By the tiniest of margins, Victoria Junior College (VJC)'s Claudia Tang and Lim Wei Feng of Anglo-Chinese Junior College (ACJC) grabbed victories in their respective A Division 800-metre finals to make up for second-place finishes in the 1500m.
With all other events on the track completed and with dozens of pairs of eyes on him, Raffles Institution (RI)’s Aloysius Loh delivered on his final throw — and literally the last piece of action at the meet — to snatch victory and eclipse the A Division boys’ shot put (5kg) record with 17.89 metres.
In the event’s inaugural contest at the annual National Schools, Cedar Girls’ Choo Jia Yi and Anglo-Chinese School (Independent)’s John Tan emerged as the champions in the C Division girls’ and boys’ 200-metre hurdles finals respectively.
HCI's Eleana Goh (#85) wrapped up the sprint double with victory in the A Div girls' 100m final clocking 12.44s (+2.8m/s), while VJC's Ashley Tan (#216), champion in the 100m hurdles, took silver in 12.82s.
RI's Anson Loh (#322), who set a new national U15 and championship record in the C Division boys' discus (1kg) with a throw of 58.88 metres, sealed his second gold of the meet with a personal best 15.51m in the shot put (4kg) event.
Raffles Institution's Garrett Chua leapt a huge 6.44m to rewrite the C Division boys' long jump record set by RI old boy Syafiq Poh in 2007; while Methodist Girls' Chloe Chee jumped 5.12m to narrowly miss the C Division girls' record by 7cm.
"10.59, 10.59...": Those were the digits Mark Lee, 18, kept telling himself the day before he had set out to make history in the A Division boys' 100-metre final. And that turned out to be the exact magical number he found himself staring at after his crowning as the fastest schoolboy to ever grace the National Schools. Mark's 10.59s (+0.6m/s) gold-winning time not only saw him rewrite the championship and schools national record of 10.70s set a decade ago by Hwa Chong alumnus Donovan Chan, but also makes him the fourth-fastest under-20 Singaporean all-time over the distance.
Despite multiple delays due to lightning warning and eventual postponement of the event to the next morning, Enoch Tew conquered his competition and soared highest to win the A Division boys’ pole vault. The first-year Victoria Junior College student flew over 4.30 metres to conquer his competition, with the Raffles Institution trio of Rhineson Kok, Daniel Xiao and Liu Yucen coming in at 2-3-4 with clearances of 4.20m, 3.95m and 3.85m respectively.
