ASEAN Schools Track and Field: Singapore pick up two silvers and a bronze from the track on day 2

Story by Erwin Wong and Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports. Photos by Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports

Choa Chu Kang Stadium, Sunday, July 3, 2011 — Team Singapore picked up three more medals from track events on the second day of the third ASEAN Schools Games track and field competition.

Ng Chin Hui, the national junior record holder in the 400 metres, won a silver medal in the 200m. The 17-year-old Raffles Institution student ran a personal best of 22.05 seconds to finish second behind Malaysian Sebastian Lee Azcona, who clocked 21.93 seconds. The latter completed a sprint double-gold after placing first in the century sprint final yesterday.

Chin Hui’s silver medal-winning time is the fastest in Singapore this year. He will now head to Lille, France, for the World Youth Championships, which begins in two days. Chin Hui is slated to run in the 200m and 400m.

The boys’ and girls’ 4x100m relay teams also recorded podium finishes. The girls’ quartet of Veronica Shanti Pereira, Jannah Wong, Eugenia Tan and Ruelia Nesaranjini finished over a second behind Thailand in second place, but their time of 47.70 seconds compares extremely favourably with the national junior record of 47.58 seconds.

The team of Lee Yan Lin, Ann Siao Mei, Amanda Choo and Wong Zeteng had an average age of about 19 when they recorded that time in 2006. The ASEAN Schools team has time on their side. Ruelia is 16 this year while the other three girls are a year younger.

The boys’ team consisted of the four runners from Hwa Chong Institution’s victorious record-setting relay team which ran a 41.85 seconds at April’s National Schools meet and 41.6s at the South-east Asian Juniors meet two weeks ago. This time, the quartet of Lee Hong Yi, Tan Zong Yang, Timothee Yap and Donovan Chan managed a 42.01 seconds to finish third behind Malaysia and Indonesia.

There were other non medal-winning highlights as well. Shanti raced in the 200m and after clocking a wind-aided 25.34s in the heats, she went on to run a personal best of 25.20s in the final to finish fourth. This performance, pending ratification from the Singapore Athletic Association, is a new national under-15 mark. The offical record in the books is Shanti’s 26.03s performance at the Thailand Sports School Games in 2009. She has already clocked 25.89 and 25.68 this year, and with her latest performance at the ASEAN Schools Games, is now just 0.06 seconds away from breaking the national under-17 mark held by her sister, Valerie.

In the 400 metres hurdles, Timothee clocked a massive personal best of 54.08 seconds to finish fourth. His previous PB was 54.80s recorded at the National Schools meet and has now met the SEA Games qualifying mark of 54.15 with his latest run.

In the long distance events, Vietnam’s barefooted runners dominated the field as they won both the Boys’ 5000m and Girls’ 3000m event.

In the Boys’ 5000m race, Vietnam’s Le Trong Giang smashed the previous record of 15 minutes 54.19 seconds set by William Lakolo of Indonesia in 2010 by almost 20 seconds when he came in with a time of 15 minute 35.32 seconds. Singapore’s representative Jeevaneesh s/o Soundararajah finished in last place with a time of 16 minutes 32.90 seconds.

Jeevaneesh had started the race fairly well as he managed to keep pace with his competitors. As the race wore on, Jeevaneesh gradually fell behind the front pack, along with Malaysia’s Tan Wei Heng. Soon, it was evident that Jeevaneesh and Wei Heng were going to be the ones fighting not to finish in last place. Jeevaneesh managed to command a lead over his Malaysian counterpart for the most part of the race right till the final 100m. Wei Heng closed the gap between Jeevaneesh and him to overtake an exhausted Jeevaneesh with 50m to go, leaving the Hwa Chong Institution student in last place.

In the Girls’ 3000m race, Singapore’s representative Belle Tan Xinyi saw herself trailing by almost 200m just three laps into the race. With two rounds left, Belle was lapped by her competitors, leaving her to finish in last place with a time of 12 minutes 44.99 seconds.

In the final day of competition tomorrow, Singapore will see representatives in the 800m (Ranjitha d/o Raja), 100m hurdles (Jannah Wong), 110m hurdles (Ang Chen Xiang), as well as the 4x400m relay teams.

Results (Track events)

Boys’ 200m heats:
3rd Ng Chin Hui (Singapore) 22.70 sec (-0.9 m/s)
8th R Avinash (Singapore) 23.49 (+0.4 m/s)

Boys’ 200m final:
1st Sebastian Lee Azcona (Malaysia) 21.93 sec (0.0 m/s)
2nd Ng Chin Hui (Singapore) 22.05
3rd Bandit Chuangchai (Thailand) 22.25
8th R Avinash (Singapore) 23.06

Boys’ 5000m final:
1st Le Trong Giang (Vietnam) 15 mins 35.32 sec (Championship record)
2nd Shoim Khamid (Indonesia) 15:46.12
3rd Nattawut Innum (Thailand) 16:00.61
5th Jeevaneesh s/o Soundararajah (Singapore) 16:32.90

Boys’ 400m hurdles final:
1st Mohd Baihaqi Bin Razlan (Malaysia) 52.64 sec (Championship record)
2nd Rio Maholtra (Indonesia) 53.88
3rd Hamdan Maasi (Indonesia) 53.98
4th Timothee Yap (Singapore) 54.08

Boys’ 4x100m relay final:
1st Malaysia 41.80 sec
2nd Indonesia 41.83
3rd Singapore 42.01

Girls’ 200m heats:
4th Veronica Shanti Pereira (Singapore) 25.34 sec (+3.8 m/s)
6th Ruelia Nesaranjini (Singapore) 25.99 (+3.1 m/s)

Girls’ 200m final:
1st Nittaya Chasuree (Thailand) 24.82 sec (Championship record) (+0.4 m/s)
2nd Zaidatul Husna Bte Zulkifli (Malaysia) 25.07
3rd Zaidatul Husniah Bte Zulkifli (Malaysia) 25.10
4th Veronica Shanti Pereira (Singapore) 25.20
7th Ruelia Nesaranjini (Singapore) 26.74

Girls’ 3000m final:
1st Nguyen Thi Bich Tram (Vietnam) 10 mins 31.87 sec
2nd Nguyen Thi Lien (Vietnam) 10:36.50
3rd Kitsana Toentuan (Thailand) 10:51.53
5th Belle Tan (Singapore) 12:44.99

Girls’ 400m hurdles final:
1st Nguyen Thi Huyen (Vietnam) 61.60 sec (Championship record)
2nd Le Binh Dinh (Vietnam) 63.72
3rd Alfina Tuhupeory (Indonesia) 63.77
6th Magdalene Ho (Singapore) 70.85

Girls’ 4x100m relay final:
1st Thailand 46.56 sec
2nd Singapore 47.70
3rd Malaysia 47.88

For more photos, go to the next page.