ACS(I) break B Div 4x100m relay record while ACJC stage remarkable 4x400m victory

Choa Chu Kang Stadium, Wednesday, April 14, 2010 – Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) set a new record of 42.58 seconds in the B Division boys’ 4×100 metres relay final to erase the old mark of 43.14 set by their seniors 11 years ago in 1999.

“We are ecstatic that we broke the record. We never expected to break it by such big margin,” said the delighted quartet after the race.

“We are shocked and couldn’t believe it. We have been training for this for a long time. This record was set by our seniors in 1999, so we are really happy to have been the ones to break it.”

Second-placed Hwa Chong Institution also went faster than the previous record, finishing in 42.91s.

In the A Division boys’ 4x400m relay, a remarkable anchor leg run by R. Avinash of Anglo-Chinese Junior College saw him erase a huge lead held by ACS(I) to win the race.

ACJC trailed in fourth place after Caleb Lim and Joel Tang completed the first two legs as ACS(I) romped to a huge lead. They extended it to as much as 60-70 metres during the third leg, but ACJC’s Toh Jing Yong moved up a place to third at the final changeover.

Avinash, the 400m and 800m A Division champion, as well as Singapore’s potential representative in the shorter event at this year’s Youth Olympic Games (YOG), then took over the baton and trailed ACS(I)’s anchor runner Farhan Rashid by about 40 metres at the back straight in third position. However, Farhan was fast-tiring.

Avinash and Seow Yeong Yang of Raffles Institution got to within five metres of Farhan at the final bend, and 40 metres from the tape, Avinash unleashed his awesome finishing kick and pushed past Yeong Yang, then Farhan, to win the relay for ACJC in a time of 3 minutes 29.78 seconds.

Farhan hung on to second place for ACS(I), finishing in 3:30.73, while Yeong Yang and his RI teammates had to be content with bronze, a further 0.51 seconds behind.

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