18-year old Badrul Hisyam Manap darted into the record books yesterday, as he set a new national 100m sprint record of 10.29 seconds, breaking the 17-year hold on the record set by famed Sarawakian runner Watson Nyambek.
In setting the new record, Badrul Hisyam also snagged the gold medal at the ASEAN Schools Games in Bandar Sri Begawan, Brunei.
Just before the 1998 Commonwealth Games, Nyambek set the bar for all national runners when he clocked in a 10.30-second 100m dash – a record now held by Badrul Hisyam.
He’s no stranger to setting records, either: just before the Brunei Games, Badrul Hisyam became the fastest Malaysian to ever run the 200m dash, with a record 20.88 second run that obliterated Dr M Jegathesan’s 1968 record of 20.92s.
However, that particular run was set with Badrul Hisyam running ahead of a talwind exceeding 2.0m/s, and thus could not be officially recorded.
Here’s the New Straits Times Online‘s video of Badrul Hisyam’s record-breaking sprint – it’s like he wasn’t even in the same race as his competitors:
