Umar Osman, Abdul Wafiy Roslan, Muhammad Firdaus Mohamad Zemi and S Tarshan clocked 3m 08.82s to finish third, equalling the feat Malaysia last achieved at the 2013 games in Myanmar.

The Philippine quartet romped to the gold medal in 3:07.22 while Thailand settled for silver in 3:07.23.

Umar, who clinched the 400m gold on Tuesday, told Malaysian reporters that he was happy to have done his part in ensuring his compatriots managed to get their hands on a medal.

He had clocked 46.34s in the 400m event to break the almost 22-year-old previous national mark of 46.41s set by Zaiful Zainal Abidin at the Asian Junior Championships in Brunei in July 2001.

“Today’s run wasn’t so good. I could see two runners ahead of me who were faster and the gap kept growing. Although I was tired, I never gave up (until the finish line) despite another runner trying to overtake me,” he said.

He is confident that the new quartet, formed only last month, can spring a surprise in the 2025 SEA Games in Bangkok, if given sufficient exposure and space to forge a more solid understanding and compatibility.

Abdul Wafiy, who finished seventh in the men’s 400m, was elated to get on the podium for the bronze medal while Tarshan was proud to have won a medal in his maiden appearance at the biennial games.

In the women’s 4x400m final, the national quartet of Chelsea Cassiopea Evali Bopulas, Mandy Goh, Nurul Aliah Maisarah and 400m gold medallist Shereen Samson Vallabouy missed out on a podium finish after coming out fourth and last in 3:39.89.

Vietnam (3:33.05) won gold, followed by the Philippines (3:37.75) and Thailand (3:39.29).

In the field event, Mohamad Eizlan Dahalan leapt to a bronze medal in the men’s high jump after clearing 2.15m.

Thailand’s Tawan Kaeodam stole the show when he set a new Games record of 2.27m to erase the previous mark of 2.24m that was jointly held by three Malaysians – Loo Kum Zee (1995), Nauraj Singh Randhawa and Lee Hup Wei (2017). Vietnam’s Duc Anh Vu took the silver with a 2.17m effort.