Soh Rui Yong finished second in the 5000m at the recent 2012 Negeri Sembilan Open. He clocked 15 minutes 50 seconds, 14s off his personal best of 15:36. He shares with us a first-hand account of the race.
Looking around, I saw everybody in the pack happy with the status quo, with no one keen to make a move anytime soon. “Fine, I’ll do it then,” I told myself, and surged strongly past the two Gurkhas into the lead.
With 600 metres to go, I took a leap of faith, sprinting into the lead and pushing on hard. Karthic did not respond, and with the finish line in sight, I had a winning lead. The race was mine to lose.
Zachary led the race from start to finish and stopped the clock at 4 minutes 07.13 seconds, missing out on the championship record of 4:06.40 set by Nigel Foo Siang Kee of Anglo-Chinese Junior College (ACJC) back in 1995.
Reigning national schools C boys' cross country champion Thineshwaran S/O Krishnakumar of Bendemeer Secondary overhauled race leader Shohib Bin Abdul Wahab Marican of Raffles Institution (RI) in the final 250m to add the 3000m title to his cross country crown. He clocked 10 minutes 12.79 seconds to hold off a late charge by Shohib, who finished less than a second behind in 10:13.56.
Defending A Division steeplechase champion Eugene Cyril Rodrigo of Victoria Junior College (VJC) retained his title in style, grabbing the lead early in the race and pushing hard all the way to the end. His finishing time of 10 minutes 10.34 seconds was a massive improvement on his 2010 winning time (10:32.37), and also put him almost 12 seconds clear of silver medalist Benjamin Amaldas Samynathan of Raffles Institution (RI), who clocked 10:22.10.
Reigning A Division cross-country and 1500m champion Jeevaneesh S/O Soundararajah of Hwa Chong Institution (HCI), came from behind in the final 50m to pip Raffles Institution’s Benjamin Amaldas Samynathan at the line, in what will certainly be an historic final that will live long in the minds of athletics fans.
Raffles Institution's three-year stranglehold on the A Division boys' championship team title was finally brought to end last Wednesday when Hwa Chong Institution (HCI) conjured up a remarkable 1-7-9-10 finish, scoring a team total of 27 points to help them finish nine points clear of the defending champions.
