The national athletics squad received a major boost ahead of the 27th Kuala Lumpur SEA Games in August when Rayzam Shah Wan Sofian became the latest athlete to smash a national records.

He achieved the feat at the Kurpfalz Gala, a local athletics competition in Germany on Saturday.

The 29-year-old Sabahan clocked 13.67 seconds with a wind assistance of 1.7 seconds in the second last race in the 110m men''s hurdles to erase the 23-year-old record of 13.73 seconds set by former international Nur Herman Majid at the 1994 Asian Games in Hiroshima, Japan.

National athletics head coach, Zainal Abas confirmed the new record when contacted by Bernama, today.

On the record, Rayzam said he was delighted to smash the long standing record held by Nur Herman.

"Thanks to all who have given their support to me... It still has not sunk in that I have broken a record that has stood for so long. I am elated that I am able to do this," he told Bernama via Whatsapp.

Prior to this, national men''s discus thrower Muhammad Irfan Shamsudin had renewed his own national record of 59.29m three times within a week in three different competitions in Europe.

He threw 61.10m at the Hallesch Werfertage Athletics Meet in Halle, Germany n May 21 before renewing it to 61.56m on Wednesday in Turnov, Czech Republic and then set another record of 62.55m at the Austrian Top Meeting, two days later.

-- BERNAMA