Indonesian sprinter Lalu Muhammad Zohri said he had performed optimally after his progress was stopped in the first round of the 2024 Paris Olympics. He finished second with a time of 10.35 seconds behind Saint Kitts and Nevis runner Harris Naquille with 10.33 seconds.
The result qualified him for the first round of the men’s 100-meter dash at the 2024 Paris Olympics. In the first round, Zohri managed to improve his time to 10.26 seconds. However, that was not enough to take him to the semifinals.
“Actually, I was already quite hot, different from the beginning. It’s just that the problem was that the time from qualification to the first round was too close,” said Zohri as reported on the Indonesian Olympic Committee (NOC) website, Saturday (3/8).
He admitted that he only had no more than 30 minutes from the qualification to proceed to the first round. “Earlier I was waited for, the others had already walked inside, I ran from the warm-up area, brought my ID card, I chased them. Entered the room, changed clothes, wore the match clothes again, wore the spikes straight away. I was also surprised,” he continued.
For the runner from Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, this is his second appearance at the Olympics. Previously, he was also a representative of the Indonesian Team from the athletics branch at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, recording a time of 10.26 seconds or the same as what he did in Paris this time.
“Honestly, their level is above mine. So if I compete with them, there is a race, that’s what I take advantage of,” explained Zohri.
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He said a longer time gap could provide more maximum results. “Maybe my time record could be 10.0 seconds or 10.1 seconds. My personal confidence is on fire. I don’t regret anything, the point is this is motivation for me, hopefully in the next championship I can be better,” added the 24-year-old athlete.
The din of the audience that filled the Stade de France, Paris, France, Saturday (3/8), was said to have no effect on his performance. On the contrary, he felt he had his own motivation because he was competing with athletes who were above him in terms of the level of the competition.
“First I want to apologize to all Indonesian people for not being able to give my best, but honestly I have performed as best as possible so this is the result,” Zohri concluded. (I-2)
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