Lim Yu Zhe sat and he sat and he sat, content to let the others set the pace in the C boys 1500-metre race at the 58th National Schools Track and Field Championships. But his agonising 0.06 second loss to Raffles Institution's Sean Tay in the 3000-metre last week was perhaps still fresh in his mind and he didn't want to make the same mistake again of making his move too late.
In crossing the line first in a time of 5 minutes 11.85 seconds, Vera also denied Elizabeth Liau of CHIJ St Nicholas Girls' School a hat-trick of distance titles. Elizabeth, the national schools cross country champion who had also earlier won the 3000m, finished third in the 1500m in a time of 5:20.75. Nan Hua High School's Clarice Lau claimed the silver with 5:16.67.
Elizabeth clocked a personal best timing of 11:22.70 for gold.
Three seconds were all that separated Raffles Institution's Sean Tay and Nan Hua High School's Lim Yu Zhe at the cross country nationals a month ago. The gap came down to 0.06 second between the two boys in the C division 3000m race at the 58th National Schools Track and Field Championships.
History was made in the 58th National Inter-School Cross Country Championships when unfancied Nan Hua High School clinched the B Division Girls’ team title and brought home its first ever cross country championship.
It came down to each school’s fourth-fastest B Division runner – ACS(I) had Joshua Loo in 11th, while HCI’s George Lai was 15th.
Indira Patel of JS Athletics won the under-14 3.65km race with a time of 14 minutes 49.37 seconds. Elizabeth Liau of CHIJ St Nicholas was second in 15:53.68 while Caitlyn Yeo finished third in 16:49.17.
Syed Hussein Aljunied powered through the 4.6km race route in 16:14.69 to claim another victory.
