KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's two United States-based runners Azeem Fahmi and Shereen Samson Vallabouy faltered at the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational Athletics Championships in Florida yesterday.
Azeem, who holds the national 100m record of 10.09s, clocked 10.44 in the second heat to finish seventh. Lance Long of Arkansas won the heat in 10.21, followed by Tarsis Orogot of Alabama (10.23) and Kalen Walker of Iowa (10.28).
Shereen clocked 53.39 to finish fifth in heat four of the 400m - way off her national record of 51.80.
Azeem was nowhere close to the Olympic qualifying mark of 10 seconds. Overall he finished 22nd out of 73 runners in the blue riband event.
Nonetheless, Azeem, representing Auburn University, won the men's 4x100m relay gold with Favour Ashe, Dario Matau and Kanyisola Ajayi in a time of 38.64
Malaysian Athletics Federation technical director John Ballard said Azeem ran an exceptional race in the men's sprint relay but he just could not do the same in the 100m race.
"Coach Ken Harnden is working on improving his first 30-metre run and wehope he will execute the next race well, at the Tiger Track Classic at Alabama on April 20."
Earlier, Shereen's coach Derrick White was expecting her to dip below 51.80. And her time was far off the Olympic qualifying mark of 50.95.
Shereen, who won bronze at the Hangzhou Asian Games with a time of 52.53, finished 25th out of 33 athletes overall in Florida.
White was not satisfied with Shereen's performance and said she had "poor execution" of her run.
