Singapore Sports School girls break A Division girls’ 4x400m Championship record on first day of the SPH Schools’ Relays

Story by REDintern Colin Tung. Photos by Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports.

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Anchor runner T. Piriyah runs home to set a new championship record. (Photo 1 © Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports)

Gombak Stadium, Saturday, March 28, 2009 – The Singapore Sports School 4x400m Under-17 girls’ team, competing one category up in the A Division, set a new championship record at the Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) Schools’ Relays with a time of 4 minutes 08.95 seconds, breaking the old mark of 4:09.45 set in 2007 by their Sports School seniors.

The girls were humble about their record-braking effort as T. Piriyah, the anchor-leg runner, shared.

“We were just aiming to win. Breaking the record was a bonus.”

There was nothing understated about the manner in which they won though. They led from start to finish to win with a nine-second cushion over the Singapore American School who were second in 4:17.24. National Junior College were a further eight seconds back in 4:25.33.

When asked to comment on the girls’ performances, Sports School hurdles and sprints coach Viatcheslav Vassiliev said that the win was “easy” despite the girls running against older and theoretically stronger girls. He pointed out his expectations of anchor-runner T. Piriyah, who is going to compete in the 400m and 400m hurdles at the National Schools. He said that he “expect(s) Piriyah to break the National Schools record in both events”.

As this performance goes, the 4x400m Sports School girls, consisting of Norhamizah Binte Abdul Hamid, Wendy Enn, Gina Lau and T. Piriyah in their running order, look promising for further record breaking performances at the National Inter-School Track and Field Championships in two weeks time.

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