Sarawanan the favourite

29/05/1998

THE Kuala Lumpur AAA will organise a 50km walk selection for the Kuala
Lumpur Commonwealth Games on Sunday at the Titiwangsa Lake Gardens.
About 20 athletes are expected to take part and G. Sarawanan is the
favourite to win the event. Sarawanan broke the Jakarta Sea Games record
when he clocked 4:14:00.shaved almost 40 seconds with 4:14:00.
The quarter-century-old mark of 4:53:16 was set by Kyaw Myint of Myanmar
in the 1973 Games, then called the Seap Games, in Singapore.
For comparison, Poland's Robert Korzeniowski took the World
Championships gold at Athens last year with a blazing 3:44.46.
"We will be organising the event for the Malaysia AAA to select two
athletes for the '98 Games. Since this is a very serious event and there
are very few athletes in the country who can go the distance. We are
expecting about 20 athletes to take part and only about 10 to finish the
race," said KLAAA secretary S. Vegiyathuman.
The 50km walk is a new Games event and there are no previous qualifying
marks to compare to, but Sarawanan's Jakarta time is good enough a
yardstick for Malaysia.
"His timing is very good, we expect him to win a medal at the Games.
Also, we would like to request the public, if possible, to avoid the roads
near the Titiwangsa Lake Gardens on Sunday morning so that the athletes
will not have to dodge traffic," said Vegiyathuman.
(END)