Story by Iman Hashim/Red Sports. Photos by Les Tan/Red Sports
Clenyce Tan (RI #73, right) won gold with a personal best time of 16.69s. (Photo 1 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
Bishan Stadium, Tuesday, April 19, 2016 — Clenyce Tan of Raffles Institution (RI) took home the A Division Girls’ 100 metres hurdles gold at the 57th National Schools Track and Field Championships, clocking a huge personal best of 16.69 seconds in the final.
Joy Wong of National Junior College and Isabelle Leow of Victoria Junior College finished in second and third, with timings of 16.88s and 16.94s respectively.
Clenyce’s feat is impressive considering she had only started hurdling about five months ago. In fact, her heat (17.01s) and final in these championships were her first two official 100m hurdles races with a 0.840m hurdles height.
Her previous 100m hurdles races were run at the 42nd Singapore Athletics U18/U20 Championships last month, where she competed in the Under-18 Girls’ 100m hurdles (0.762m) – clocking 16.99s and 17.01s in the heats and final respectively.
On her first ever National Schools victory, the RI Year 5 student commented, “I’m just happy, I didn’t expect this to happen. Up till the point when I finished my race, I didn’t even know I was first. It was only when I came up, then all my friends were there and telling me that I won – I didn’t believe it until I watched the video (of my race).”
“I just had tunnel vision – I was only looking ahead in my lane and the hurdles in front of me so I was very focused. It happened in the heats too, like I didn’t really care about who was next to me. I didn’t expect to get a (good) position so I was just waiting for the results,” she continued.
Clenyce attributed her quick improvement in the hurdles to her versatility in running other events in previous years. While representing Raffles Girls’ School, she had taken part in the 200m and 400m in the C Division in 2013, while she ran the 100m and 200m in the B Division in 2014. Last year, she had finished sixth in the B Division 400m and fourth in the 800m.
She explained, “I guess it’s because I have been changing events literally every year, so I’m quite used to the changes. And having been a sprinter for very long, there was some foundation built up from previous years. I just trained hard, listened to (my coach) Mr Melvin Tan’s advice, did my best, and made sure I was very focused during the race to get my technique right.”
“I knew that from the start, I was at a very big disadvantage because some of my competitors have been hurdling for many years, perhaps since primary school, and then I’m just here like a beginner. So if I wanted to finish ahead of them then I would have to get my technique straight – I just focused on that.”
Acknowledging her pillars of support, she added, “I’m really thankful to everyone who has believed in me and supported me throughout this entire journey. Even though hurdles was a new event for me – I was scared – but I had my teammates, my coach, my family, friends and anyone who has encouraged me in some way or another, be it in training, competition or any point of time. I’m really thankful for their support.”
Clenyce will now look to do well in the 400m hurdles, where she had qualified for the final by finishing third overall in the heats.
The A Division Girls’ 400m hurdles final will take place on Monday, April 25.
Noteworthy: Clenyce, Joy and Isabelle were first-time medallists at the National Inter-School Championships. The last time three female A division athletes mounted the podium to receive their medals for the first time ever was in 2004. Koh Sihui, then of NJC, finished first in the 3000m final. Wen Nai Jun and Renuka Satianathan, both ex-Raffles JC runners, were second and third.
A Division Girls 100m Hurdles – Top 8
1st Clenyce Tan Zi Xin (#73, Raffles Institution) — 16.69 seconds
2nd Joy Wong Lynn (#51, National JC) — 16.88
3rd Isabelle Leow Jay Min (#138, Victoria JC) — 16.94
4th Jerrine Lim Hui Qi (#177, Anglo-Chinese JC) — 16.99
5th Gwyneth Ang Xin Yi (#76, Raffles Institution) — 17.33
6th Andrea Chong (#191, Hwa Chong Institution) — 17.38
7th Chua Xuan (#132, Victoria JC) — 17.41
8th Britney Chia Shi Qi (#190, Hwa Chong Institution) — 17.42
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