Young sprinter from Sibu sets clinching gold medal as 2023 resolution

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Muhammad Hilmi (right) with his coach Theng Yuh Chieng.

SIBU (Jan 8): Muhammad Hilmi Hadif is determined to further improve his performance towards realising his New Year’s resolution of winning a gold medal.

The 12-year-old pupil of SK St Mary Sibu said although he was happy with his achievements in athletics throughout last year, he vowed to do better this year.

“The training that I’ve been doing has helped me a lot in performing well, but I strive to address the weaknesses.

“I have full faith in the club, and also in the coaching team, in helping me achieve my goal.

“I am excitedly looking forward to the challenges in 2023,” he told The Borneo Post here.

Groomed under Sibu Flying Dayak Sports Club, the young sprinter staged commendable performance at three track-and-field tournaments that took place in Johor Bahru throughput December.

From these meets, he brought home a silver medal from 100m relay and bronze from the 100m and 200m.

Sharing his experience in Johor Bahru, Muhammad Hilmi said it was a challenging outing as he was competing with older junior athletes who were bigger and stronger.

“There was supposed to be a 12-year-old category, but at the last minute the organisers informed us that all events were only for age 15 and above.

“Following that announcement, many athletes my age from other states withdrew because they were not confident in competing the older boys.

“Then, my coach asked me: ‘Do I want to continue’; I replied: ‘We’re already here, might as well just ‘gohet’ (local slang for ‘go ahead’),” said the youngster.

Muhammad Hilmi said he was still shocked by his performance in all three tournaments in Johor Bahru.

“Even more surprisingly, I was able to beat athletes older than me.

“This has boosted my confidence to go further in this sport,” he added.