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Shereen on song in Music City race with new record

KUALA LUMPUR: Despite the bad weather, despite the rain, Shereen Samson Vallabouy's mood was not dampened.

In fact, Malaysia's athletics queen was on fire, blazing her way to a national record in the women's 400m at the Music City Track Carnival at Nashville Track Club in Tennessee, United States, on Saturday.

Shereen clockcd 51.79 seconds to better her national mark of 51.80 set at the St Mac Relays Invitational Elite competition in California April last year.

After the flooded track was cleaned of rain water, Asian Games bronze medallist

Shereen proved to be in full flow in lane three as she finished second in heat one. Jamaica's Leah Anderson was first (51.67) and American Na'asha Roinson was third (51.82).

This was only the second time Shereen dipped below 52 seconds in her career. However, her 51.79 run is still outside the Olympic qualifying time of 50.95.

The 25-year-old from Perak said: "All my hard work in training under coach Derrick White has paid off. I'm happy with my achievement despite the bad weather. I ran a well-executed race on the wet track after the rain stopped."

White, who has been coaching Shereen for the past one year in Florida, said: "I'm very excited and proud of Shereen's achievement.'

"Shereen and I have been working on the race plan. And she executed it well in poor condition."

Shereen said she felt that she is shaping up well in her bid to qualify for the Paris Olympics.

To earn a berth in the Olympics, Shereen, who is currently ranked world No 91 in the women's 400m, needs to be in the top 48 by the end of this month. To do so, she has to run at least 50.95.

Shereen has two more competitions to earn her Olympic ticket - the Malaysian Open in Kuantan (June 14-16) and the Kazakhstan Open in Almaty (from June 23-24)

Malaysian Athletics Federation technical director John Ballard said: "Before the race, she was 78th on the road to the Olympic rankings, and after breaking the national record, she is 66th.

"Only the top 48 athletes will qualify for the Olympics. Shereen needs to break her national record two more times in competitions to qualify for the Olympics."

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