Paris 'heat' Not Affecting Azeem's Focus On Biggest Race Of His Career

PARIS, Aug 1 (Bernama) -- National sprinter Muhammad Azeem Mohd Fahmi, making his debut in the 2024 Paris Olympics, aims to deliver a powerful performance when the men’s blue-ribbon event gets underway at the iconic Stade de France in Paris on Saturday.

After undergoing a number of training sessions at the Centre Sportif de l'Ile de Vannes since arriving in Paris, last Monday, the 20-year-old lad from Perak declared that everything was smooth sailing and that he has already adopted to the weather conditions.

“Overall condition here 100 per cent good, after a few sessions here, it’s not a really big deal adjusting to the weather and other matters, we just wanna keep it low key until competition day because I do not want to do anything that is deemed over the limit.

“We just wanna stay with the momentum until race day and hopefully all is gonna go well...weather condition here is okay, not much different from Malaysia, a little windy, yesterday was very hot but we are aware of the condition,” said the national men’s 100 metres record holder who has a time of 10.09 seconds, through a video clip shared by the Olympic Council of Malaysia today.

The 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games bronze medallist in the men’s 100m arrived in Paris after the Malaysian Athletics Federation selected him for a wildcard entry awarded by the International Olympic Committee.

“From what the coach told me, this time around we just want to focus on executing, do our best and not trying to do anything different, just focus on what we’ve been doing for this year, doing the same thing, execute and keep the focus because the goal is to survive and advance.

“Hopefully if I just stay relaxed then the result is gonna be a good outcome,” said the sprinter who set his best time of the season in the United States, clocking 10.24s in April.

Muhammad Azeem’s participation in the 2024 Pris Olympics ends a 24-year-wait to see a Malaysian sprinter on the 100m tracks of the Olympics, after former Malaysian sprinting ace Watson Nyambek’s appearence at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Watson has the distinction of running in two Olympics, since he had also participated in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics while the other sprinter who saw action in the Olympics was SEA Games gold medalist Nazmizan Muhammad who competed in the 200m during the 2004 Athens Olympics.

-- BERNAMA