Malaysia’s SEA Games 4×400m 2007 gold medal team. Photo via Utusan

Muhamad Zaiful Zainal Abidin is 26 year old Malaysian athlete specializing in the 400m event

A recent 400m bronze medalist in the last SEA Games 2007 with a time of 46.75 seconds, Zaiful has just been given the green lights by the National Sports Council for a six weeks European (Bulgaria & Germany) stint to train and compete

He’s trying to qualify for the Olympics ‘B’ 400m category. He needs to beat the 45.95 seconds qualifying mark, which means he’ll need to break his own personal best of 46.41 seconds, which happens to be the Malaysian 400m national record also

3rd Asian Indoor Doha Qatar. Photo via official site

But that was some seven years ago, when Zaiful was 19 years old, making his mark on the Asian Junior Championships 2001 in Brunei, erasing Nordin Jadi’s 14 year old record of 46.56 seconds. Nordin was Asian 400m silver and bronze medalist back in the 80’s

Well Zaiful’s coach Vladimir Simeonov is confident the Kuala Lumpur born athlete will be able to qualify. If so, he will be the third Malaysian athlete to qualify for Beijing after women pole vaulter Roslinda and women walker Yuan Yufang

Based on his current performance, the 1.72m Zaiful is on good form after a credible showing at the recent 3rd Asian Indoors in Doha, Qatar. He finished fourth in the finals in a time of 48.43 seconds