KUALA LUMPUR: Asian junior champion sprinter Khairul Hafiz Jantan comfortably advanced to the 100-metre semifinals of the World Under-20 Athletics Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland on Tuesday.
Khairul, who has a personal best of 10.36 seconds which he clocked in winning gold at the Asian Junior Championships in June, qualified automatically after clocking 10.44 seconds to finish second in Heat 2 ahead of Jamaica's Jhevaughn Matherson (10.47).
Brazil's Paulo Andre De Oliveira won the heat virtually unchallenged in 10.31 seconds.
However, Khairul's teammate Badrul Hisyam Manap, 19, could only finish fifth in Heat 4 in a time of 10.66 seconds, which was some way off his season's best of 10.33, to miss out on the semis.
Khairul, who only turns 18 on Friday, met his coach Poad Kassim's target by reaching the semifinals, the first Malaysian to do so in the event since Azmi Ibrahim in 1994.
Both the 100m semi-finals and final will be held on Wednesday.
Two other national juniors - Rizzua Haizad Muhammad and R. Kirthana - will take their bow over the coming days.
Rizzua will take to the track on Wednesday for the boys' 110m hurdles heat while Kirthana will compete in the girls' long jump qualifying on Thursday.