It appears the speed star has the edge over Malaysia’s fastest man Azeem Fahmi for the country’s sole universality (wildcard) spot in athletics at the Games.

In terms of universality places, any nation that has no male or female qualified athlete will be allowed to enter their best ranked male or best ranked female athlete in either the 100m, 800m or marathon.

Some top Malaysia Athletics Federation (MAF) officials are of the view that Shereen, the national record holder in women’s 200m, 400m outdoor and 400m indoor, should be given the nod ahead of Azeem whose performance has been on the decline.

They said Shereen is favoured for her blistering burst in the 200m, 400m and 4x100m relay, and her potential to break the 31-year-old national women’s 100m record of 11.5s.

An MAF official noted that Shereen, running the anchor leg in the 4x100m at the Hangzhou Asian Games last year, received the baton with Malaysia in seventh position, and surged brilliantly to grab the bronze medal.

On the other hand, Azeem has not come close to his Malaysian 100m record of 10.09, set two years ago, in recent months.

Malaysia received the wildcard after both the US-based athletes failed to make the cut for the Olympics in their respective events at the end of qualification and ranking period.

The closing date to recommend one of them for the universality place is on July 8 and the MAF will meet this week to make a decision.

How will Shereen fare in 100m?

Shereen’s coach, Derrick White said he was confident she would break G Shanti’s 100m national record because her speed had improved tremendously from the 11.61 in Florida.

“She recently ran 60m in a hand-timed 6.87. That’s 7.2 seconds in electronic timing. With her speed endurance, I believe she can now run 11.25-11.38 or better,” he told FMT.

White said in her last two 400m races, Shereen passed the whole field in the first 100m without breaking down later.

“You have to be fast to do that,” said White, adding that Shereen is also eager to run the 100m at the Olympics.

He said Shereen will likely run slower than the 11.07 Olympics qualifying time, but “that’s immaterial as the aim is to use the opportunity to set a new national record.”

“Her vast improvements during her time in the US is due to her confidence in herself and the trust in the training, which saw her drop her 400m timing from 52.68 to 51.80 to 51.79.

“It’s no easy feat to shatter her own outdoor 400m record twice in 2023 and this year, and to break both the 400m indoor and 200m outdoor in 2023.

“It’s very elite to run your own race without equal competition and stay consistent and she has done that with maturity and confidence.

“Her next race is the Asean University Games ( June 25 to July 6) in Indonesia where she will push herself to improve on her national record while awaiting the wildcard selection,” said White.

Ipoh-born Shereen has been training in Florida under White since June last year, and grabbed the bronze medal in the 400m five months later at the Hangzhou Asian Games.

Falling short in the final attempt

In her final effort to make Paris, Shereen’s ‘catch me if you can’ 400m dash at the Kazakhstan Open in Almaty last Saturday fell short.

The 25-year-old clocked 52.6 to win the gold medal by a large margin, but needed to rewrite her national record of 51.79 or meet the qualifying time of 50.95 to move into the top 48 of the world rankings to participate in Paris.

She’s currently ranked No 54 in the world with 1181 points, 13 points behind the 48th placed runner.

Some believe she could have been among the top 48 racers today had she competed in the Asian Athletics Championships in Dubai last April.

Azeem needed to do at least 10.20 in Almaty to break into the top 56 in the Road to Paris rankings and secure his Olympic spot.

He had to settle for third place with a time of 10.37 in the 100m final behind the eventual champion Puripol Boonson of Thailand (10.23) and Turkey’s Kayhan Ozer (10.25).

After the race, Ipoh-born Shereen said: “I gave it all mentally and physically and it felt like a well-executed race but unfortunately I had to race against myself.”

She arrives home today from Almaty and leaves for the Asean University Games tomorrow “ dreaming of being in Paris”.