KUALA LUMPUR – National triple jumper Andre Anura Anuar needs to put up his best jumps in five coming championships to keep alive his chances of appearing in the Paris Olympics.
His coach, Ahmad Firdaus Salim, has said Andre Anura needs to keep top-level consistency with jumps of at least 16.40 to 16.70m to rank among the world’s 32 best jumpers in order to qualify for Road to Paris 24 before June 30.
“Actually we have time until the end of June (for Andre Anura to qualify for Paris). Among the meets Andre Anura is down to participate are the Singapore Open in April and a Taiwanese invitational championship in May.
“The three other tournaments in June are the Malaysia Open, Taiwan Open and the Asean University Games in Indonesia,” he said when met after the Phase 1 Podium Programme Assembly here yesterday.
Based on Road to Paris 24, the 24-year-old athlete is now ranked 48th with 1,081 points under World Athletics.
In this regard, Firdaus is not worried with the SEA Games defending champion’s shock defeat to Sarawak jumper Brendon Ting in the Kuala Lumpur All Comers athletics meet in Bukit Jalil on Sunday.
Brendon, representing Kawan Athletics, cleared 15.56m to beat Andre Anura’s 15.39m into silver, and bronze went to Andrew George Medina of the Singapore Sports School (15.29m).
Based on his performance at the Kuala Lumpur All Comers meet, Firdaus admitted that Andre Anura needed to make some changes to balance his muscle strength so he could return to top form before the qualification period for the Olympics ends. – March 5, 2024