AYG Athletics: Inez Leong crosses hurdle to take podium spot
Story by Colin Tung/Red Sports. Pictures by Vanessa Lim/Red Sports.
Inez Leong was so focused during her race that she did not realise that she had finished third in the 100m hurdles. Her time of 15.22s was only 0.08s off her personal best. (Photo 1 © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
Bishan Stadium, Thursday, July 2, 2009 – With fierce competition from the top 2 qualifiers, and realistically only the last podium spot to fight for in the 100m hurdles girls’ final, Inez Leong nailed it to take the bronze medal for Singapore in 15.22 seconds.
Inez edged out 4th-placed Anne Marie Keshani Perera of Sri Lanka by 0.26s. Ueda Mayu of Japan won the gold and Park Seulgi of Korea finished runner-up in times of 14.18s and 14.67s respectively.
Singapore won two bronze medals from the field events on the opening day of the athletics competition, and this makes Inez the first Singapore athlete in a track event to mount the podium.
After being the only two athletes running under 15s in the heats yesterday, the Japanese and the Korean, running side by side in lanes 6 and 5 respectively, were the obvious favourites as they settled into the blocks.
As the gun blasted into the air, Japan’s Mayu raced away from the field and never looked back in an improvement on her time of 14.83s in the heats. Korea’s Seulgi also bettered her time of 14.90s in the heats, but it was not significant enough to pose a challenge to Mayu’s superior hurdling.
As the girls from the two Asian giants crossed the line, all eyes searched for the one who would get the last medal. Crossing over the hurdles out on lane 8, there she was from our little red island, as Inez focused on reaching the finish line.
We caught up with her as she walked into the mixed zone, still catching her breath, for her thoughts about finishing third and getting the bronze medal.
“Huh? I got the bronze medal? You mean I got third? It was so close… are you sure?”, she rattled off in wide-eyed excitement.
“It was very difficult to control my emotions. I was very scared and very nervous,” Inez elaborated on what went through her mind in the starting blocks.
As we continued chatting with her, a timely confirmation of her third-placing came over the public announcement system.
She shared about her feelings on the achievement: “I feel very proud to get a medal for Singapore. I am thankful for the opportunity to show Singapore what I can do.”
When asked about how she was going to celebrate it, she said she had to get the 400m hurdles final, which she was due to run in under an hour’s time, out of the way first. And that was not before she had to attend the medal-presentation ceremony as well. After the formalities of the ceremony were done away with, she took her place in the 400m hurdles final, on the inside this time, in lane 1.
Drained by her effort earlier on, she still finished a credible sixth in a time of 1 minute 9.62 seconds.
As we met the sprightly girl once again after the 400m hurdles final, the toll of having cleared twenty hurdles over two races while running at an optimal speed showed up on her.
She mustered in between breaths: “I am too tired to think… everything happened so fast – the 100m hurdles, the victory ceremony then the 400m hurdles and now the doping test.”
Nevertheless, she was relieved to have finished her races and to have lent a contribution to Singapore’s medal tally as she left for her doping test.
The 400m hurdles was won by China’s Cheng Yafan in a time of 1:02.15. Le Binh Dinh of Vietnam and Sushma Mekala of India picked up the silver and bronze medals with performances of 1:02.79 and 1:03.44 respectively.
On the third day of athletics competition, there were nine finals as Inez’s teammates Syafiq Poh Shahabiddin (long jump), Jared Lim (400m) and Edwin Tay (400m hurdles) also saw action.
Syafiq Poh could only leap 6.24m to finish ninth in the field of fifteen competitors. He had fouled on his first couple of jumps and disappointingly, his 6.24m effort, that was some way short of his personal best of 6.71m, on the third jump could not earn him the right for another three jumps that were accorded to the top-eight jumpers.
Huang Haibing of China was the only boy over 7m as he took the gold with his leap of 7.28m. Pang Ying Kit of Hongkong and Alhasan Mohammad Yaseen of Saudi Arabia were second and third with distances of 6.81m and 6.68m respectively.
In the 400m final, Jared Lim clocked 50.88s to finish sixth. The winner was Oishi Masanori of Japan with a time of 48.92s. Thongpoon Nitipol of Thailand pipped Abkar Abdullah Ahmed B of Saudi Arabia by a hair’s breadth for the silver medal in times of 49.27s and 49.29s respectively.
Jared’s 50.88s was slower than his 50.39s clocked in the heats.
He explained what went on: “I went all out in the heats trying to qualify for the final and the effort (a personal best) definitely strained my body. I didn’t feel the best today.”
Jared tried hard to keep pace with the leaders in the initial 200m and he paid for it with a last 100m of 14s – according to his coach Remy Gan. It was an indication of the superiority of the other athletes but Jared believes such competition will only make him faster. He had not gone sub-51s before the Asian Youth Games (AYG).
He said: “I came into this competition telling myself to do a PB and I did this so I am happy.”
Edwin Tay was another testimony that strong competition brings the best out of oneself when he, too, achieved his personal best at the AYG today in the 400m hurdles. He clocked 58.00s to place fourth. The St Joseph’s Institution student’s previous personal best was 59.14s set in April at the National Inter-School Track and Field Championships.
The 400m hurdles was won by Chen Dong of China in a time of 53.19s. Selwyn Jebaraj Mervin of India and Karam Yousef of Kuwait earned the silver and bronze medals in times of 54.41s and 54.80s respectively.
(From left to right) Silver medallist Park Seulgi (14.67s) of Korea, winner Ueda Mayu (14.18s) of Japan and bronze medallist Singapore’s Inez Leong (15.22s). (Photo 2 © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
Jared Lim placed sixth in the 400m boys’ finals with a time of 50.88s. (Photo 3 © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
Edwin Tay in lane 7 of the 400m hurdles final. He placed 4th with a time of 58.00s. (Photo 4 © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
Watching her hurdle in the 400m hurdles final is Inez Leong. (Photo 5 © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
Syafiq Poh Shahabiddin could only record one good jump – on his third attempt, a 6.24m that saw him place ninth and bow out of the competition. (Photo 6 © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
Comments
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Han
I agree Junwei… To me, the spirit of sports is not just about winning… And it’s not easy to list down 10 moments.
All the young athletes have done well and I hope Singaporeans will support them.
My kids and I watched the match played by Isabelle and it was a great game! Her fighting spirit is something which I admire!
WW
Les,
Thanks for the explanation. No doubt that Red Sports had better coverage than The Straits Times and New Paper. Keep up the good work.
Les
@WW: Thanks, WW. : )
Les
@WW.
Thanks for your comment.
There are two issues which you have raised – coverage of athletics and great moments.
For coverage of athletics, please see this post: http://redsports.sg/2009/07/12/ayg-stories-crew/
It will show that the Red Sports gave quite a bit of coverage for athletics.
As for great moments, the list above is a personal opinion of the writers.
Readers will obviously have their own highlight moments and we welcome them to list their own.
I doubt there will be a list of top 10 that everyone will agree with.
WW
What happen to the coverage of Athletics? No great moment? If you were at the stadium watching medal winning events i.e. Boy 100m, Girl 100 hurdles etc, your heart would be poping. 3 highlights for Swimming and 0 for Athletics.
njngk
yea where’s shahrir?
Les
@ice – we agree about your point with regards to the coverage for football. Hence this article:
http://redsports.sg/2009/07/10/basketball-football-ayg/
But not sure why this list is “funny”. It highlights a moment of individual football brilliance. The other 9 highlights have nothing to do with football.
Also, the REDcrew have written a total of 64 stories on the AYG covering the different sports that Singapore athletes have been involved in.
You can take a quick browse of the AYG stories we wrote to confirm it. It’s not just about football.
http://redsports.sg/category/asian-youth-games/
jan
Thanks Kar Teck, Jun Wei. : )
I guess from a post like this, it reveals to us whether sports readers in Singapore have matured in their perception of “sports”.
We asked, “Were they a moment for you too?” – clearly this post is not about imposing/asserting our views but just a sharing. : )
Sporting moments are fundamentally an exemplification of the ‘soul’ of a sport, a team, an individual – what stays on after the hype wears off.
Lynette may have broken her own 400m record and got a gold and swam a beautiful victory – but for her, a freestyle specialist, to brave the outrageous butterfly leg in the 4×100 medley relay and win the bronze, that is a moment I know I will remember Lynette for.
Hanafi was singled out precisely because despite the disappointment of the football team, but when Hanafi found the net – I will not deny that for a moment I thought Singapore might win. And if that thought hit you, too, then that was already a moment for you.
Victories are temporal, moments are eternal – thank you. : )
Kar-teck Yeo
@marissab @Emmanuel @ice
I truly believe this list is entirely the opinion of the writer.
Agree with @junwei – instead of keep on asking who is not on this list, why don’t everyone who has a better opinion list their own top 10 moments? Trust me it’s not easy.
junwei
This post is about the Singapore moments for us. It need not necessarily have to be a moment where a medal was won. If that is the case then basketball should not be up there. But do the fans think that they have not fought hard and deserved credit?
Yes the Singapore football team might not have delivered but certainly seeing them score against a mightier Iran was definitely a moment for us. Watching Isabelle lose out to her North Korean opponent in that close 7-set match was definitely a memorable moment, and seeing her on the brink of tears was definitely a Singapore moment for me though she might not have won a medal. The fighting spirit and emotion put in was definitely one she can be proud of.
So @marrissab, why not you put up your 10 Singapore moments. If all you care about are the gold medal winners then you are not showing respect to the other athletes who have put in their all and unfortunately lost out on a medal.
ice
What a funny list. I do not understand why football is always praised to the skies. Crash out in the group stages? Get full coverage in the papers. Win only a SEA Games bronze? Full coverage in the papers. People have to realise our footballers do not deliver, on any stages, regional or international. When you give football so much attention, have you ever thought of our athletes in other sports who work equally hard and actually have results to show for it? Yet they always get one-liner mention in the papers while football hog the limelight.
You can argue that the footballers train hard. But ALL our athletes train hard, yet somehow they dont get the attention they deserve
Emmanuel
Where is Shahrir?
hyn
Isabelle showed great sportsmanship and perseverance in her game with the Korean and she deserves to be recognized for she has brought out the spirit of sports. the paddlers have been training extremely hard for the AYG and YOG. So they deserve due recognition for their efforts and perseverance. Please show respect for their efforts:D
marissab
You have all the gold medallists’ moments up there, except Lynette Lim’s 400 free win? Come on, show some respect. Football and table tennis for their complete lack of results somehow get on this list, but a gold medallist isnt.
123
isabelle rocks la!