Saturday June 22, 2013
KUALA LUMPUR: Teenager Mohd Irfan Shamsuddin took up discus two years ago.
And yesterday, the burly 19-year-old Seremban-born Irfan served notice of his arrival on the big stage when he hurled the discus to a distance of 49.81m – breaking the national record of 49.33m set by Ngu Kit Min of Sarawak in the Malaysian Open in Penang in 2006.
Just two weeks ago, at the Federal Territory Open, he hurled the discus to a distance of 48.12m to better his old mark of 47.20m.
Despite improving on his personal best by more than a metre yesterday, Irfan is still not satisfied.
"My target was to surpass the 50m mark and qualify for the Myanmar SEA Games in December. But I failed," said Irfan, who won the Sukma (Malaysia Games) gold in Kuantan last year.
"It's harder than I thought (surpassing the 50m). But I'll keep on trying."
The qualifying mark for the SEA Games is 50.56m, which is the silver medal effort of the 2011 Games.
Irfan will be competing in two more events this month – the Asean Schools Games (from Monday) and the Hong Kong Open (next weekend).
"It's hectic but I'm confident of doing well in both meets," said Irfan, who is coached by Fero Petrovic of Slovakia.
"Last year, I won a silver medal in the Asean Schools Games in Surabaya. This year, I'll go all out to win the gold and improve on my personal best.
"I also want to win the gold in Hong Kong," added Irfan, who will begin his Business Adminis-tration studies in Universiti Malaya next month.
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