Muhd Hakimi Ismail has qualified for the triple jump final at the Asian Athletics Championships.

The 28-year-old from Perak did 16.08m to finish third in the Group B qualifying at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha, Qatar yesterday.

However, his efforts was way off his national record of 16.77m which he did to win the gold medal at the 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games.

China’s Xu Xiaolong finished first in the qualifying with a jump of 16.35m while Uzbekistan’s Ruslan Kurbanov, who won a silver medal at the Asian Games in Jakarta last August, finished second with 16.29m.

Hakimi said that he was under pressure to qualify after his first jump was not counted.

“It was do-or-die for me in my third jump as my second effort was not good enough,” said Hakimi.

“I really have to buck up and do better tomorrow (today) if I want to win a medal,” added Hakimi, who is featuring in his third Asian Championships.

Meanwhile, Malaysian Athletics Federation president Datuk Karim Ibrahim was re-elected as the Asian Athletics Association council member for another term (2019-2023) in Doha.

Source: The Star Online