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Karthic Harish Ragupathy in action during the 2011 National Inter-School Track and Field Championships. (Photo © Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports)

Bishan Stadium, Saturday, March 3, 2012 – Karthic Harish Ragupathy, 16, became the first local youth athlete in 25 years to run the 3000 metres Steeplechase in less than 10 minutes, when he clocked a time of nine minutes 57.95 seconds at the Singapore Athletic Association (SAA) Track and Field Series 3 meet.

It was Karthic’s maiden appearance in the longer steeplechase event and the 2011 National Schools 2000m Steeplechase silver medalist finished second here behind Negeri Sembilan’s Luth Hamizan Ahmad, who won the race in a time of 9:42.55.

Karthic, a first year junior college student at Hwa Chong Institution, became the second local in five weeks to go below the 10 minute barrier. Muhammad Shah Feroz ran 9:59.68 at last month’s Institute-Varsity-Polytechnic championships to win the gold medal. T. Haarishankar, 17, almost joined the pair in the sub-10 minute club when he ran a 10:00.38 to finish behind Karthic.

Karthic will turn 17 in June, and the last local under-18 runner to break 10 minutes was current national record holder M. Maran, who ran 9:51.38 at the Seventh Asian Track and Field Championships on 22nd July 1987. Maran’s national record stands at 9:11.24 which he registered at the Ninth Asian Championships in October 1991. S. Vasu also broke the 10-minute mark as a 17-year-old with his 9:41.66 performance at the Third Asian Inter-City Youth Championships on 25th August 1985.

With his 9:57.95 run, Karthic has joined both Maran and Vasu in the history books, and the 16-year-old could well emulate the pair again in two weeks’ time, at the National Inter-School Cross-Country meet. Maran and Vasu are the only two male runners at these championships to have won the A, B and C Division individual titles, and Karthic, with the C and B Division titles won in 2009 and 2011 under his belt, will join the two esteemed runners with the unique treble of individual victories if he finishes first in the A Division race on March 21st, at Bedok Reservoir Park.

Karthic goes into that race arguably as the one to beat, after a couple of good performances in local cross country races. He finished second in the Men’s Open category at the SAA Cross Country Championships in January, clocking a time of 16 minutes 48 seconds which was 48 seconds faster than that of the winner of the Under 20 category, which Karthic’s inter-school rivals competed in.

In last month’s Wings Athletic Club Cross Country Championships, Karthic finished third in the Men’s Open category but was once again the fastest A Division runner, this time by more than 37 seconds.