Yatim
KOTA KINABALU: Yatim Zainal Abidin is on track in his preparation for the Challenge Family’s The Championship race if his performance at the State Duathlon Trial is any indication.
The veteran athlete registered a total time of two hours and 11 minutes in the state trial, which featured 10km run held last Thursday before resuming with the 38km bike and 5km run last Saturday.
Yatim’s overall time saw him beat the benchmark of two hours and 15 minutes that would qualify him to take part in the National Trial for Duathlon at the end of the month in Putrajaya.
The National Trial is a platform to select athletes to represent Malaysia in the Vietnam SEA Games 2021.
However, Yatim’s focus is set on The Championship where barring any further postponement due to the Covid-19 pandemic, is set to be held in Samorin, Slovakia on August 29.
“I think I was the oldest participant at the state trial and I was second fastest behind the much younger Aizan Sofizan Ahmad who clocked two hours and five minutes.
“I’ve beaten the benchmark of two hours 15 minutes and have qualified for the national trial … if given the chance, I would certainly go and compete.
“However, I will be alright too If I’m not included for the national trial because my main aim is to be ready for The Championship.
“That is the reason why I joined in the state trial in the first place. I need a proper race to gauge my progress having conducted my own training all this while … the state trial was the closest to a race there is for me at the moment,” he said when contacted on Tuesday.
Commenting further on his performance, the 45-year-old Yatim said he even surprised himself to be able to compete with much younger athletes.
“I’m really glad and happy on how I fared at the recent state trial … unexpected performance in the run-bike-run event.
“The high altitude training I did previously really helped. I’m happy with the progress made and will continue to train hard,” he said.
He went on to say that training will continue for him even during the currently enforced nationwide Movement Control Order (MCO) without flouting the standard operating procedure (SOP).
For the record, Yatim had qualified for The Championship back in 2019 but due to the global pandemic, the race has been postponed several times with the organiser settling for August 29 this year.
Yatim will be up against some of the world’s best triathletes in Samorin where he would compete in the Middle Distance (individual – age group) race featuring swimming (1.9km), cycling (90km) and running (21.1km).