Story by Iman Hashim/Red Sports. Photos by Les Tan/Red Sports.
Daphne Kwok of VJC won gold with a 4.97m leap. (Photo 1 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
Bishan Stadium, Tuesday, April 12, 2016 — Daphne Kwok of Victoria Junior College (VJC) leapt 4.97 metres to claim the A Division girls’ long jump gold at the 57th National Schools Track and Field Championships.
She pipped Natasha Audrey Weers of Hwa Chong Institution (HCI) to victory by a mere centimetre, while Vivian Ho of Singapore Sports School completed the podium at 4.90m.
Daphne, who was sixth in the event’s B Division last year, set the benchmark first when she jumped 4.95m. Natasha Weers of HCI subsequently answered with a 4.96m jump to take the lead.
As the competition heated up, the first-year student from VJC eventually had the final say, recording 4.97m with her last jump to snatch the gold.
Daphne acknowledged the fear she had when Natasha initially took the lead from her.
She said: “Natasha was the fifth or seventh to jump, and she did better than me by only 1cm, so I was actually scared at first that I would screw this up – but then I tried to calm myself down. I just told myself that I could do it, that I could do much better than her.”
“What I realised is that you have to always tell yourself that you can beat your competitor; you cannot be too intimidated by the distance or the fact that your competitor did better than you. So before my last and final jump, I just braced myself and managed to conquer all the fears that I had,” she added.
Daphne attributed her big comeback in the long jump this year to a switch of training focus.
“Last year, I was putting in more effort into triple jump because that’s actually my niche event,” she said. “But this year I realised that I cannot neglect long jump, so I put in much more effort into it.”
Daphne’s long jump personal best stands at 5.02m, set in 2014 when she represented Cedar Girls’ Secondary.
For now, Daphne has her eyes set on claiming her second gold medal of the championships in the triple jump.
The A Division girls’ triple jump will be held on Monday, April 25.
A Division Girls’ Long Jump – Top 8
1st Daphne Kwok Jean Ee (#140, Victoria JC) — 4.97 metres
2nd Natasha Audrey Weers (#214, Hwa Chong Institution) — 4.96
3rd Vivian Ho Mei En (#11, Singapore Sports School) — 4.90
4th Tan Wan Yun (#211, Hwa Chong Institution) — 4.80
5th Joy Wong Lynn (#51, National JC) — 4.77
6th Fay Yeo Hui Yi (#136, Victoria JC) — 4.77
7th Naomi Ng Geng Sim (#145, Victoria JC) — 4.70
8th Vanessa Low Si Ying (#213, Hwa Chong Institution) — 4.62
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