MAF technical director John Ballard
MAF technical director John Ballard

KUALA LUMPUR: Two more Malaysians have qualified for the World Under-20 Junior Athletics Championships (WJC) in Lima, Peru, from Aug 27-31.

Khalil Helmi silver-winning time of 47.60 seconds in the men's 400m at last week's Malaysian Open in Kuantan equalled the qualifying mark.

Aiman Najmi also booked a ticket to Lima after capturing the 400m hurdles silver in 53.15 to surpass the 53.20 qualifying mark.

Malaysian Athletics Federation technical director John Ballard said to date seven Malaysian athletes have qualified for the WJC. The other five who booked their spots earlier are Pengiran Aidil Auf Hajam (100m, 200m), Henssen Yap (100m), Sayyid Amin Roslan (200m), Fiross Faizal (110m hurdles) and Ng Tak Sing (triple jump).

"This is the highest number of (Malaysian) athletes ever to have qualified for the WJC.

"It shows that our development programme is producing results and the future of athletics looks bright."