Mandy’s a bigger hit after changing her tune

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Mandy cruises to the gold medal at the 2019 KL Open.

SIBU: Mandy Goh was already the state schools champion in the 100m and Long Jump.

A serious tailbone injury, however, forced her to take up a new event.

And it has paid better dividends. The former student of SMK Sg Maong has a personal best (PB) of 12.54sec in the 100m.

She was already clocking below 13secs when she finished fifth in the Under-15 race at the 2015 MSSM National Schools Championships.

She entered the Under-18 final in 2016 and 2017 but could not finish on the podium on both occasions.

The Kuching lass did win the bronze in the Long Jump with a distance of 5.12m in 2015.

She improved to 5.28m to pick up another bronze in the Under-18 category in 2017.

Then she suffered a serious injury while training for the long jump.

“I accidentally fell and injured my coccyx and it took about four months for my wound to heal and that unfortunate incident convinced me to give up the long jump event for good,” she recalled.

It was very discouraging but Mandy was still hungry for more success in the sport.

Her coach Abang Sapani suggested a switch to the 400m hurdles after noticing her potential in the longer distance.

Mandy had regularly taken part in relays to boost the strength of her school, division or state team. A good instance was when she anchored the Sarawak 4x400m relay team to a silver medal at 2015 MSSM Meet.

A year into her new and more punishing event the determined schoolgirl competed at the 2018 Perak Sukma.

She surprised everyone including herself by finishing second with a time of 63.68sec.

The gold went to Kuala Lumpur’s Zaimah Atifah (62.38) while Kedah’s Nur Nasyatul Nadia was third in 64.71sec.

“The result was amazing and though I failed to return with the gold medal, I did not feel disappointed as I was actually targeting for only the top three finish then.

“To be able to win the silver medal was already a big bonus to me,” she told The Borneo Post.

She is now going all out to excel in the event in preparation for the upcoming Sukma next March.

She will still be facing Zaimah and Nur Nasyatul in Johor.

But Mandy has continued to make good progress since moving to Bukit Jalil Sports School for pre-University studies in 2018.

Last year, she finished first in the KL Open, Malaysia Championships and Malaysia Open.

She made her international debut at the Vietnam Open and collected a silver. She would have taken part in more local and international competitions this year had the Movement Control Order (MCO) not halted events in mid March.

Nevertheless, she managed to compete in two local championships earlier this year with encouraging results. She finished second in the 400m flat at the 2020 Perak All Comers Meet with a time of 58.11sec.

At the 2020 KL Open she won the 400m hurdles in a new personal best of 62.81sec.

It is less than a second outside the Sarawak State record of 61.91sec set by Tan Kim Chen in 1995.

The 20-year-old has even set her sights on becoming the second woman in Malaysia to go under 60sec in the event.

Noraseela Mohd Khalid, who is incidentally the current state athletics coach, holds the national record of 56.02sec set in 2006.