KUALA LUMPUR — Sprint queen Zaidatul Husniah Zulkifli faces further delays in the ratification of her national 100m record by World Athletics (WA), despite earlier assurances of a resolution.
Malaysian Athletics Federation (MAF) technical director Robert Ballard, who initially assured Zaidatul Husniah the matter would be resolved by Sunday, now anticipates WA will address the updated documentation soon after returning from a 10-day festive break.
“World Athletics resumed work today, and I expect they are handling a flood of requests from around the world. However, I’m confident they’ll review the updated information provided as soon as possible,” Ballard told Bernama.
Zaidatul, affectionately known as “Adeq,” clocked 11.49 seconds at the Perlis Open Athletics Championship last October, breaking G. Shanti’s 11.50-second national women’s 100m record set in 1993.
However, the new mark remains unrecognised by WA due to documentation issues regarding wind readings.
This is not the first time Zaidatul’s achievements have faced hurdles. Her impressive 11.36 seconds at the AGN League 7 Athletics Championship in South Africa in 2017 was also disqualified due to wind assistance.
Meanwhile, Ballard confirmed that MAF has ratified Muhammad Fakrul Afizul Nasir’s 51.11-second performance at the 2024 Malaysian Games (Sukma) as the national men’s 400m hurdles record.
However, the result does not appear on the WA website because Sukma was not a WA-permitted meet.
“The only results nations report to WA are from WA-permitted meets. Sukma was conducted under MAF sanctioning, so while it’s a national record, it doesn’t qualify for world rankings or international events,” Ballard explained.
He highlighted Malaysia’s progress in hosting WA-permitted events, with seven held last year, including the Malaysia Open and Super Series tournaments across Johor, Perak, Pahang, Terengganu, Perlis and Sarawak.
However, MAF is still awaiting wind readings for the Sarawak Super Series finals held in November. — January 6, 2025