Elena collapses after winning
DOUBLE Malaysia Games winner Elena Goh Ling Yin put so much effort into winning the Malaysian Schools Athletics Championships Under-18 5,000m walk gold that she collapsed as soon as she crossed the finish line in Kuantan yesterday.
But Kuala Lumpur's Elena was back on her feet within minutes of her record-making achievement when she erased her own mark of 25:51.82s set last year by winning in 25:46.13.The Bukit Jalil Sports School student was in a race with herself given that silver medallist Banended Limau of Sarawak was more than three minutes behind.
The only Malaysia Games gold medallist competing this week, Elena, 17, was happy to have won her fourth Malaysian Schools gold in as many years, completing the Under-18 double after winning the Under-15 2,000m walk event in 2010 and 2011.
But she felt she could have done better after setting a personal best of 25 minutes, two seconds at the Kuala Lumpur schools meet which qualified her for the World Youth Championships in Donetsk, Ukraine in July.
"This is the national meet and it's bigger than the KL Championships so I wanted to clock a faster time," said Elena, who won her two Malaysia Games gold medals last year also at the Darulmakmur Stadium.
"I'm not happy with that but glad that I still won. I started the race wanting to break the record and my teammate (Aina Fadhlin Syahmina Abas) paced me well and after two laps, I broke free from the rest."
Elena's meet record was the seventh broken this week and she will now prepare for the World Youth Championships training under former national walker Yuan Yufang.
"I will focus on the World Youth meet. I don't know yet if I have any other competitions before that," added Elena, who won KL's third gold medal this week.
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