adidas finds Singapore’s fastest footballers at F50 adizero Light Speed Challenge

Story by Koh Yizhe/Red Sports. Photos by Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports

Ngee Ann City Civic Plaza, Sunday, June 27, 2010 — adidas’ search for Singapore’s fastest footballers at the F50 adizero Light Speed Challenge ended with Hfaisirr Khann, Gary Tran, and Muhd Nawas coming out top.

The three of them won their respective Under-14, Under-16 and Under-18 categories to win a pair of F50 adizero boots, the official 2010 FIFA World Cup Jabulani ball, and adidas football apparel for their school football team.

Participants had to dribble around cut-out figures of world class football players like “The Spark – Lionel Messi”, “The Bomber – Diego Forlan”, “The Blaze – David Villa”, “The Link – Steven Pienaar” before taking a shot at goal. They had to do all this while wearing a pair of adidas F50 adizero. Timings were clocked and the fastest person of that round advanced to the next stage.

“It was quite competitive and it was a tough fight during the final,” said Hfaisirr Khann, winner of the Under-14 category. The 13-year-old Victoria School student won his final in 8.44 seconds, edging out Aniq Iskandar, who finished in 8.81 seconds.

“I knew I had nothing to lose so I just went for it!” explained Hfaisirr. “The boots are really nice, it feels like I am not wearing any shoes! I think the prizes are really great. Participants come here with nothing but they stand a chance to win a lot of expensive stuff.”

Gary Tran, winner of the Under-16 category, eventually finished as the fastest participant, clocking a time of 8.12 seconds in the final. In a previous round, he went sub-eight seconds, managing a time of 7.31 seconds. His final competitor, Xavier Smith, was nowhere near his time as Xavier only finished in 9.07 seconds.

“It was challenging as the artificial pitch is rather slippery after the rain,” said Gary, who is from Jing Shan Primary School. “To prepare for this tournament, I just trained my speed by running up the stairs. Overall, this event is very fun!”

In the Under-18 category, Serangoon Junior College’s Muhd Nawas came out as the winner with a time of 8.32 seconds. Second-placed Aktar Yacob could only managed 9.81 seconds in the final after he lost control of the ball halfway through the course.

“I feel really lucky to win this as I was only 0.03 seconds faster than my semi-final opponent,” said Nawas. “Then in the final, I was very fortunate again when my opponent made a mistake. I didn’t really expect to win.”

When asked what he felt about the F50 adizero, he said, “It is very light and it makes dribbling very easy.”

Besides the Light Speed Challenge, there were other attractions at the event such as the gaming zone where attendees could try out FIFA Online 2 and see a display of old adidas World Cup match balls. A couple of players from S.League side Albirex Niigata also made an appearance.

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