Abdul Latif eyes gold hattrick at World Cup

KUALA LUMPUR, June 19 (Bernama) -- National para athletics athlete, Abdul Latif Romly is targeting to defend the gold medal in the T20 long jump (learning disability) at the 2019 World Para Athletics Championship in Dubai, United Arab Emirate (UAE) in November.

The winner of the gold medal at the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games who recorded a jump of 7.64 metre at the 2018 Asian Games, however, did not want to overly pressure himself to improve the jump as he had just recovered from a hamstring injury.

‘’My season’s best was 7.49 metres at the Thailand Open, recently. So, I must jump further than 7.6 metre if I want to defend the gold medal in my event and achieve a hattrick since 2017.

‘’I am confident of defending the world championship because my coach (Syahrul Amri Suhaimi) thinks I only need to improve my jumping technique,’’ he told Bernama recently.

In the meantime, the National Sportsman of the Year for 2016 conceded his chance to participate in the 2019 SEA Games in the Philippines in November might be difficult as he had to meet the qualifying limit of 7.75 metres but vowed to do so.

For the record, the Perlis-born athlete had participated at the 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games but failed to get a podium position.

‘’Maybe difficult but I will try seeing I had done a jump of 7.49 metres this season. If I am unsuccessful, I will focus on the 2019 ASEAN Para Sports,’’ he said.

-- BERNAMA