IVP Track and Field: NUS hold off NTU to retain overall title but surrender women’s crown

Story by Erwin Wong/Red Sports. Photos contributed by Farhanah Ghaffar

Writer’s note: On 19 February, the Singapore Athletic Association (SAA) announced that the Panel of Appeal has overturned the disqualification of Temasek Polytechnic in the women’s 4×100 metres relay final. The story and overall scores have been updated to reflect this.

ITE Simei, Saturday, February 4, 2012 – The National University of Singapore (NUS) won their 12th consecutive Institute-Varsity-Polytechnic (IVP) track and field overall title but, unlike previous years, had to endure a nail-biting finish that went right down to the wire before they were crowned champions once again.

NUS retained their overall and men’s titles, the latter being their eighth straight win, after out-scoring Nanyang Technological University (NTU) 336-330 and 185-160 respectively. They had to, however, surrender the women’s title to NTU, who were the last team to win it in the academic year of 1999/2000 before NUS clinched it for the next 11 seasons.

NUS had romped home with the overall titles with many points to spare in recent years — their average winning margin for the last three years had been 181 points — but it was never going to be the case this time.

NUS began the second of two days of competition leading NTU by just a wafer-thin margin of five points — four in the men’s competition and one in the women’s. The day’s 18 events were keenly observed and sent calculations into overdrive with the conclusion of each one.

Points are awarded to the top eight finishers. Winners of an individual event get nine points, and subsequently 7-6-5-4-3-2-1 in descending order of placings. Relay winners get 16 points and subsequently 12-10-8-6-4-2-1.

Field events

The field events failed to put significant daylight between NUS and NTU. The latter out-scored NUS 25-23 in the men’s High Jump, Long Jump, and Shot Put, but were pegged back 24-33 in the women’s Long Jump, Discus, and Javelin.

NUS’ Teo Hui Juen, who represented Singapore in the javelin throw at the 2009 South-east Asian (SEA) Games, won in her pet event and finished second in the discus throw. Hannah Lee of Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) was the clear winner in the discus throw, throwing beyond 40 metres for the first time with her new personal best (PB) of 42.79 metres.

The field events concluded with NUS leading 116-114 in the men’s, 98-88 in the women’s and 214-202 in the overall competition.

400m hurdles

NTU’s Dipna Lim Prasad won her third individual gold of the championships and set a new championship record and personal best of 64.78 seconds, bettering the previous mark of 66.60s set by Ho New Fei in 2006. In the men’s race, national junior record holder Muhd Zaki Sapari of Republic Polytechnic (RP) was easily the fastest in the two timed finals, clocking a time of 57.21s. Sharman Dustageer and Clarence Yeoh of NUS finished third and fourth.

200m

NTU had the best possible result in the women’s 200m when Nikita Sharda and Valerie Pereira finished 1-2, while NUS’ Fiona Ng could only manage eighth and last. NTU also won the men’s race when Lee Cheng Wei edged out his 2011 SEA Games silver medal-winning relay team mate Gary Yeo (SMU) by 0.01 seconds. Cheng Wei clocked a time of 21.77s with a strong tailwind (+3.0 metres per second).

1500m

NTU’s Yvonne Lin pulled away from NUS’ Look Xinqi in the final lap to clinch yet another win for her team. The latter’s team mate, Ang Siew Min, finished third, while NTU’s Zhang Xiao dropped a place in the home stretch to finish fifth.

In the men’s 1500m, NTU’s Muhd Shah Feroz led with 100 metres to go, but fell prey to yet another of Madankumar Balakrishnan (NUS)’s famed kicks. Madankumar, the two-time defending IVP champion in this event, won in a time of four minutes 12.56 seconds. Adriel Tay (NUS) and Bryan Tan (NTU) finished third and fourth respectively.

At this point, NUS led NTU 269-265 in the overall competition and 149-137 in the men’s, and trailed NTU 120-128 in the women’s.

Women’s 3000m

SEA Games representative Renuka Satianathan (NTU) blew away the competition when she won handily in a time of 11 minutes 05.55 seconds, more than 35 seconds ahead of runner-up Lim Sing Yi (Temasek Polytechnic). NUS’ Ang Siew Min, having run the 1500m just over an hour earlier, plodded on gamely and finished third, comfortably ahead of NTU’s Louisa Chiew in fourth.

4x100m relays

The TP team of Lau Mei Xian, Amanda Lee, Hillary Teng and Divyashree finished first in the women’s race, beating the NTU quartet of Nikita, Dipna, Valerie and Shalom Danielle See, who clocked a time of 50.96s. NUS anchor runner Goh Chui Ling did just enough to hold off NYP’s Gina Lau for third place.

With the NTU men’s team eliminated in the heats, the chance for NUS to extend their lead over their close rivals in the overall competition was there for taking. A relay win counted for 16 points, instead of nine in individual events, and NUS duly grabbed it with a masterful performance.

Men’s 5000m

NTU’s Bryan Tan, after running a personal best in the 1500m earlier in the afternoon, set the early pace, with his team mate Colin Tung and TP’s Tan Lui Hua following closely. Bryan relinquished the lead halfway into the race and eventually dropped out, leaving Colin and Lui Hua to battle for honours.

They entered the bell lap with Colin just behind Lui Hua, but the latter extended his lead in the back straight of the final lap, then stretched it further when he kicked 200m from the end. Lui Hua won in a time of 16:48.87, while Colin finished in 16:55.10.

4x400m relays

NUS led NTU 312-298 in the overall competition, going into these final two events. Placing third in both would guarantee them the title, and they made absolutely sure by comfortably finishing second in both relays. NTU clinched gold for both races.

The NUS men’s team captain, Clarence Yeoh, hailed his team’s effort to stave off the spirited challenge put up by NTU. “The team has fought very, very hard. Li Kenji fractured his ankle while doing the high jump. With that fracture, he still made two more jumps and ended up in seventh place. (We showed) excellent fighting spirit, really excellent.”

NTU’s first women’s title in 12 academic years had their women’s team captain, Shalom Danielle See, beaming from ear to ear. “I cannot explain the feeling. I’m very, very happy. I want to thank all the athletes for coming down and doing their job. They did their best and I really applaud them. Every person mattered, whether or not they contributed points.”

Complete Results
2011/12 Institute-Varsity-Polytechnic Track and Field Championships

Related Stories
2011/2012 IVP Track and Field Day 1
2010/2011 IVP Track and Field Day 1
2010/2011 IVP Track and Field Day 2
2009/2010 IVP Track and Field Day 1
2009/2010 IVP Track and Field Day 2

Final Championship Standings
Writer’s note: the scores below are tabulated by the writer, and differ from the ones announced during the prize presentation ceremony, which were: NUS (Men) 181, NTU (Men) 160, NUS (Women) 155, NTU (Women) 174

Men
1. National University of Singapore – 185 points
2. Nanyang Technological University – 160
3. Singapore Management University – 84
4. Temasek Polytechnic – 62
5. Nanyang Polytechnic – 60
6. Singapore Institute of Management – 53
7. Singapore Polytechnic – 43
8. Institute of Technical Education – 35
9. Republic Polytechnic – 34
10. Ngee Ann Polytechnic – 29

Women
1. Nanyang Technological University – 170 points
2. National University of Singapore – 151
3. Nanyang Polytechnic – 92
4. Singapore Institute of Management – 57
5. Temasek Polytechnic – 52
6. Ngee Ann Polytechnic – 44
7. Republic Polytechnic – 23
8. Singapore Polytechnic – 20
9. Singapore Institute of Management – 12
10. Institute of Technical Education – 14

Overall
1. National University of Singapore – 336 points
2. Nanyang Technological University – 330
3. Nanyang Polytechnic – 152
4. Singapore Management University – 141
5. Temasek Polytechnic – 114
6. Ngee Ann Polytechnic – 73
7. Singapore Institute of Management – 65
8. Singapore Polytechnic – 63
9. Republic Polytechnic – 57
10. Institute of Technical Education – 49

Go to the next page for more photos