HANOI: After blazing her way to bronze at the 31st SEA Games by setting a new national record, Malaysian heptathlete Norliyana Kamaruddin intends to continue improving on her personal best.
The 31-year-old athlete said that although the medal colour changed from silver to bronze this time around, she was happier because her overall performance in the heptathlon of seven track and field events, was better than her outing in the Philippines three years ago.
“I feel very satisfied with this edition, because my performance in 2020 to 2022 was not good. I did come to Vietnam with the desire to do my best, but the intense competition fired me up to improve my showing in all events.
“I feel happier and grateful with my achievement at the SEA Games this time compared to the Philippines because of the poor finishing (4,906 points) there. I have an advantage in the high jump but lagging in the javelin, apart from having to improve in the sprint,” she told Bernama.
At the 31st SEA Games heptathlon here which took place at the My Dinh National Stadium from Monday to Tuesday, Norliyana won bronze with a total of 5,262 points, settling behind Vietnam’s Nguyen Linh Na (5,415) with gold and Sarah Dequinan (5,381) of the Philippines for silver.
The achievement saw Norliyana renewing the national record of 5,247 points set in a fourth place finishing at the 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games, which bettered Zaiton Othman’s 36-year-old record (5,175) set at the 1981 Manila SEA Games.
Heptathlon is a gruelling all-encompassing event for women’s track and field athletes, where participants compete in the 100m hurdles, high jump, shot put and 200m on the first day, followed by long jump, javelin and 800m on the next day, with the the winner pooling the highest points after seven events.
Commenting further, Norliyana said she managed to improve her performance with the support and blessings of her family and friends, especially her coach Malik Tobias.
“Although he just coached me full-time this year, he shaped me up a lot until my success in the SEA Games. Apart from that, the athletics secretary of the MAF (Malaysian Armed Forces) and RMN (Royal Malaysian Navy) Mahathevan also supported me with words of encouragement and motivation,“ she said.-Bernama
