Nick Ezzanny Sarawa
Miri-born sprinter and triple jumper Nurhaziqa Izzati Zana during training.
Mandy Goh Li
KUCHING: Two female athletes studying at the Sabah Sports School in Kota Kinabalu are Sarawak’s brightest prospects to hit gold in the jumping events at the 58th MSSM national schools championships which starts in Terengganu on Wed.
Limbang-born high jumper Nick Ezzanny Sarawa and Miri-born triple jumper Nurhaziqah Izzati will compete in the U-15 category. Both also share a similar past experience. They had a disastrous outing at last year’s MSSM Meet in Melaka.
But brilliant performances so far this year suggest that they can soar past their disappointment in 2015.
In 2013 Nick emerged from SK St Edmund in Limbang to clear 1.43m to win the MSSM U-12 high jump title. But she has been struggling to meet those lofty expectations since.
Last year, she competed in the U-15 event and only managed a height of 1.39m to finish 13th in Melaka. The MSSM winner jumped 1.57m.
But Nick is back with a vengeance.
At this year’s state schools meet she sailed over the bar at 1.58m to achieve a personal best and break the meet record.
Nurhaziqah clocked 12.7sec in the 100m at last year’s state schools championships to qualify to represent Sarawak as a member of the U-15 4x100m relay team.
The quartet returned the fifth fastest time of 51.88sec in the semi-finals despite leaving out their second best runner Dana River Yu who incurred an injury.
Then a dropped baton in the final robbed them of a potential medal.
They finished 7th in a miserable time of 53.98sec.
But Nurhaziqah looks set to make amends this year.
She caused a sensation with a 12.2sec run to win the 100m on Day 1 of the recent state schools meet.
In the past year she has also been trying out a new event.
On Day 4 of the same meet she caused a second sensation by winning the triple jump in a new record of 11.73m.
That distance is better than last year’s MSSM winning distance of 11.44m.
Sarawak’s other medal prospects in the jumps are Mandy Goh Li, McClair Jenggut and Matsyawalludin Mohd Muis.
Last year, Mandy won a bronze with a distance of 5.12m in the girl’s U-15 long jump.
The 16-year-old from Kuching’s SMK Sg Maong has improved to 5.33m but now competes in the U-18 category.
In Terengganu, she will likely have to face off against the two girls who had beaten her – Johor’s Mahira Hanis and Pahang’s Ng Yu Jie – who already cleared 5.46 and 5.35m respectively last year.
SMK Kanowit’s McClair, who won the boy’s U-15 triple jump with a leap of 13.96m last year, is competing against U-18 jumpers this year.
At the recent state schools meet, Matsyawalludin who hails from SMK Bintulu pipped him by 1cm to win with a jump of 14.05m.
Based on past MSSM U-18 medal-winning distances, both will need to jump beyond their personal best to be in contention in Terengganu.