KUALA LUMPUR - Will Muhammad Azeem Mohd Fahmi be able to finally run under 10 seconds (s) at the 2024 Paris Olympics, besides becoming Southeast Asia's sprint king?
This is one of the questions confronting sports fans in the country after the bronze medalist of the Hangzhou Asian Games from Teluk Intan, received a wild card ticket from the Malaysian Athletics Federation (MAF) earlier this month.
Muhammad Azeem, 20, appears not to be in the best form when he only recorded the best time of 10.36 seconds at the Percy Beard Track, Gainesville in the USA for this season.
On paper, Thai sprinter, Puripol Boonson is seen as a potential individual to grab the title of ASEAN sprint king, when he managed to clock the fastest time of 10.08 s in the United States in April.
Besides Puripol, Muhammad Azeem also faced a challenge from former world youth champion of Indonesia, Lalu Mohd Zohri who has the best time of 10.17s this season, apart from losing to the Indonesian at the recent Asean University Games (AUG).
However, anything can happen, including surprises when the athletes come down to compete in a game or competition.
Based on previous records, Azeem seems to have his own luck when performing at major games when four of his five best time records were achieved at the 2022 World Junior Championships and the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games.
Azeem admits that performing in a big tournament has its own aura that helps him to push for better results.
"Performing in the major competition is actually my goal to get the feelings and running in the main event. So I think the track and the environment do play a role.
"I am excited to run at the Olympics, so hopefully I can do something like what I did before," he told Bernama recently.
In the meantime, his former coach, Amir Izwan Tan Abdullah believes that the 20-year-old athlete is capable of creating a surprise when he makes his Olympic Games debut.
According to him, based on Azeem's current performance graph, he believes that his former runner is capable of delivering the best performance and improve his record.
"In a big tournament, it is difficult for us to predict the outcome because anything can happen. My hope is that Azeem can use the opportunity to perform on the Olympic stage to prove that he is the best and record a better time," he said. - BERNAMA