Muhd Irfan en route to winning the men’s discus final at last week’s National Athletics Championships in Kuala Lumpur. — Bernama photo
KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 27): National discus champion Muhammad Irfan Shamsuddin is now craving to win his maiden medal at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, scheduled for September next year.
Muhammad Irfan said it is time to make a name for himself on the Asian stage after often “rocking” the SEA Games by winning the gold four times in a row in 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019.
Even though winning a medal at the Asian Games is his main mission next year, the six foot three giant from Negeri Sembilan revealed that he is still determined to defend the SEA Games gold in Hanoi, Vietnam next May.
“Of course I want to defend the gold medal and do my best at the SEA Games because it is part of the journey to become an Asian Games medallist,” he told Bernama when met recently.
Irfan remains the only man in Southeast Asia to have hurled the disc over 60m (197ft). The national record holder with a throw of 62.55m (205ft 3in) set in 2017 has urged the Malaysian Athletics Federation (MAF) to seek funds from large companies to sponsor national athletes.
He said MAF should play an important role in finding its own funds following National Sports Council’s (MSN) recent announcement that it is facing budget cuts next year.
“I mean MSN has to take care of a lot of athletes, if they don’t have the budget then MAF needs to do a little bit of work to find sponsors,” he added.
Muhammad Irfan also hoped that MAF and MSN can reach an agreement to help him return to his previous coach, Frantisek Petrovic, after the latter’s contract was terminated in 2019. It is understood that Petrovic is currently coaching Sarawak athletes.
The 26-year-old thrower finished 12th in his debut at the 2014 Asian Games. He improved to fifth spot at the 2018 Games. In between he did win a silver at the 2017 Asian Athletics Championships. — Bernama