KUCHING: National hammer thrower, Jackie Wong Siew Cheer is aiming to improve his performance at the coming Myanmar SEA Games in December.
The 21-year-old university undergraduate is aiming to hit the 60m mark after winning gold in 57.46m at the recent Malaysia Open Athletics Championship in Kuala Lumpur.
“I am training very hard to hit and stabilise my throws on 60m but I hope it will be even further,” he said when contacted in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
Jackie was the bronze medallist at the 2011 SEA Games where he achieved a distance of 58.30m.
At the recent 3rd Islamic Solidarity Games in Palembang, Indonesia, he shattered the 20-year-old record of 58.52m set by fellow Sarawakian Wong Tee Kui at the 1993 SEA Games in Singapore by registering a throw of 59.53m in the athletics competition.
Jackie won gold at the 2010 Sukma in Melaka with a throw of 55.14m and two years later in Pahang, he rewrote his own record with a distance of 55.25m.
“Actually, the result was under my expectation. I wish to do better in the coming SEA Games and do better than the last SEA Games,” he said of his achievement at the Malaysia Open from Oct 19-20.
Although Jackie did not meet the qualifying mark set by Olympic Council of Malaysia, he booked his ticket on the merit that he is ranked third in the discipline South-east Asia.
Joining Jackie on the flight to Myanmar is Michael Sia Sung Dak also from Sarikei who won the silver at the recent Malaysia Open and he qualified as one of the nine back-up athletes in preparation for the 2015 Singapore SEA Games.
Three other Sarawakians namely Casier Renee Kelly Lee (women’s hammer throw), Mohd Jironi Ridzuan (men’s 800m) and Mohd Arif Zulhilmi Alet (men’s 400m) also qualified for the Games.