KUALA LUMPUR: Hurdler Fakhrul Afizul Nasir is a future star of Malaysian athletics.
The 19-year-old clocked 51.26s in the 400m hurdles to smash the 18-year-old record on Wednesday at the Asian Under-20 Athletics Championships in Yecheon, South Korea.
The previous record of 51.28 was held by Shahadan Jamaluddin.
However, he could only finish fourth in Yecheon.
Qatar's Ismail Doudai Abakar clocked 49.30 to clinch gold, followed by Japan's Ryoma Konno (49.91) and Taiwan's Lin Chung Wei (50.16).
Fakhrul said he was nervous about competing for the first time in an international meet.
"However, I kept calm and had a good race to set a new national record. I hope it will boost my confidence to do better internationally," said Fakhrul, who switched from the 800m and 1500m events to the hurdles last August.
"I hope to dip below 50 seconds soon."
National coach Amirul Naim Abdul Ghani was pleased with Fakhrul's performance.
"Fakhrul could have clocked below 51 seconds had he not hit the seventh hurdle in Yecheon.
"I hope he will be selected for the Asian Championships in Thailand from July 12-16," said Amirul.