By Lim Yong Teck/Red Sports
RI’s Shohib (#151) bagged the boys’ A Division 5000m gold medal with a timing of 16 minutes and 57.60 seconds. (Photo 1 © Lim Yong Teck/Red Sports)
Choa Chu Kang Stadium, Wednesday, April 9, 2014 — Raffles Institution (RI)’s Shohib bin Abdul Wahab Marican clocked a timing of 16 minutes 57.60 seconds to bag the boys’ A Division 5000 metres gold medal at the 55th National Inter-School Track & Field Championships.
Shohib overtook Anglo-Chinese Junior College’s Leroi Lee 1200 metres into the race, but the latter reclaimed his lead in the next 400 metres. Shohib later overtook Leroi again in the final 1000 metres, and gradually extended his lead over the rest of the field. Shohib was the only runner in the 16-strong field to finish under 17 minutes. The RI student is also the current A Division individual champion at the recent 55th National Schools Cross Country Championships.
“I kept telling myself to relax and try to run as fast as possible. It feels very nice to achieve a good result. I want to thank my teachers, parents and teammates. We trained very hard this season,” commented Shohib on his victory.
Marcus Ng of Victoria Junior College took advantage of Leroi’s reduced pace in the final 400 metres and sprinted to his first A Division silver medal with a timing of 17:12.98. The result is an improvement from previous year’s edition, where Marcus bagged the bronze medal with a timing of 17:31.25.
“Honestly, I think the pace of the race was quite alright. I am quite disappointed because I did not stick closely to the pack in the first few rounds when they pulled away. It was quite hard for me to fight back. Luckily, Leroi was not able to follow Shohib’s pace and I managed to catch up. It is a good race overall,” commented the final-year VJC student.
Race leader Leroi could not catch up with Shohib and Marcus, and was consigned to the bronze medal with a timing of 17:20.57.
The A Division 5000m record is 15 minutes and 40.58 seconds and was set in 2006 by Innova Junior College alumnus Darshananth s/o Jayaraman.
The last 12 boys’ A Division individual winners at the Schools’ cross country championships have gone on to attempt the 5000m at the Schools’ track and field meet. Shohib became the fourth consecutive runner to do the cross country-5000m double.
A Div 5000m (Boys) Results (Top 10)
1st Shohib B Abdul Wahab Marican (#151, Raffles Institution) – 16:57.60
2nd Marcus Ng Yu Pei (#208, Victoria Junior College) – 17:12.98
3rd Leroi Lee Rong Zu (#236, Anglo-Chinese Junior College) – 17:20.57
4th Lim Jia De (#140, Raffles Institution) – 17:28.47
5th Law Ann Liat Larry (#137, Raffles Institution) – 18:01.92
6th Paxton Hong Kar Jun (#214, Victoria Junior College) – 18:06.15
7th Matthew Zach Neo Jia Jun (#209, Victoria Junior College) – 18:09.14
8th Khaw Yew Onn (#4, Anderson Junior College) – 18:10.13
9th Eu Tze Wei Justin [#56, Anglo-Chinese School (Independent)] – 18:13.22
10th Daniel Seah Yong Yao (#88, Catholic Junior College) – 18:29.03
Video © SAA. Used with permission.
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