The Malaysian Athletics Federation (MAF) still considers Watson Nyambek’s 100m record as the top record as no official decision has been made regarding Badrul Hisyam Abdul Manap’s record.
Nyambek’s recorded a total of 10.30s in the event whereas Badrul managed to break it within 10.29s during the ASEAN School Games in Brunei last year. However, controversies of his record being invalid had made it to the top news of the national sports scene.
President of MAF, Datuk Karim Ibrahim claimed that no decisions were made as more time is needed to investigate as they have yet to receive an official report from the Brunei Athletics Association (BAA) since last month.
“We have sent a letter to Brunei, requesting for the complete report, even though they had sent a letter admitting that they made a mistake,” said Karim as quoted form Utusan.
“But that is not enough because we need to thoroughly assess the case to ensure its validity.”
“For now, Watson’s record is still the national best in the 100m event.”
“We also can’t simply erase Watson’s name in the record list without any evident proof regarding Badrul’s case.”
“Nevertheless, we still consider Badrul as the fastest athlete in the 100m event even though the validity of his record is still unsure.”
Meanwhile, Karim urged all parties to be patient in waiting for the official decision.
“Every new national record needs a verification from our committee first because we need to be fair to the currently record-holder.”
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