Story by REDintern Colin Tung

Choa Chu Kang Stadium, Friday, April 17, 2009 – Soh Rui Yong of Raffles Institution capped off a red-letter season in which he has already made successful defences of his cross-country and 5000m titles by winning his maiden A Division boys’ 3000m steeplechase title at the 50th National Inter-School Track-and-Field Championships.

Rui Yong clocked 10 minutes 09.84 seconds in leading team-mates Su Yen Bing and Yong Shi Kai to a sweep of the podium places. Yen Bing and Shi Kai registered times of 10:40.77 and 10:46.35 respectively.

This means that Raffles Institution have now swept the podium places of both the 3000m and 5000m distance events, adding a total of 44 points to their divisional ranking score just from these two events alone.

Soh Rui Yong has conquered all this season and this race presented one of the last opportunities for anyone else to break his winning streak at the inter-school level. Nobody was more capable for the task than Lee Ming Hui of Victoria Junior College, the defending champion. With the experience of winning the A boys’ 3000m steeplechase in 2008 in a time of 10:12.69, all eyes were on Ming Hui to see if he could do it.

The race began in earnest with Ming Hui doggedly keeping pace with Rui Yong for the first three laps with the two of them pulling away from the other runners. With each jump of the steeple, Ming Hui faltered perceptibly as Rui Yong grew from strength to strength.

Going at someone else’s pace, with each quicker-than-comfortable step, the pain soon gnawed away at Ming Hui and as the two of them passed the fourth lap, Ming Hui seemed to concede ground to Rui Yong.

Bit by bit, Rui Yong pulled away from him as the rest of the field caught up with Ming Hui. A fumble at the water-jump, as Ming Hui crashed into the waters, served to put the nail in the coffin for whatever hopes he had of catching Rui Yong again.

Drenched and obviously demoralised, Ming Hui, who is admired for his sense of respect for opponents and selflessness, picked himself up and carried on, albeit at a more muted pace.

With his only challenger left reeling, Rui Yong was left unopposed to complete his treble of individual gold medals at the inter-school level this year, crossing the line in delightful triumph as he turned to receive his team-mates Yen Bing and Shi Kai in second and third places respectively.

Ming Hui faded to seventh place in a time of 11:09.49 but his effort in challenging Rui Yong was certainly applaudable.

In the only other steeplechase race at the Championships – the 2000m steeplechase for the B Division boys -, T. Haarishankar, 15, of the Singapore Sports School, marked a return to form by winning the event in a time of 6:40.07. Finishing second and third were Rodrigo Cyril of Victoria School and Sumanthiran Selvarajoo of St. Joseph’s Institution in times of 6:44.21 and 6:45.59 respectively.

The race renewed the rivalry of B Division boys’ cross-country champion Sumanthiran Selvarajoo and runner-up Ruben Demetrius. Sumanthiran had snatch the title from under the nose of Demetrius at the cross-country championships earlier this year.

Alas, the race billed as the battle between the two never realised as Haarishankar took centre-stage and stole the limelight from them, writing his own comeback story of a former C boys’ cross-country champion.

Haarishankar had placed 14th at the Cross-Country Championships a month ago and in the field of runners for this event were the top-three cross-country runners – Sumanthiran Selvarajoo, Ruben Demetrius and Rodrigo Cyril respectively – amongst others who had finished ahead of him.

When asked how he felt facing so many runners who had finished above him at so recent a race, he said: “I wanted to make a comeback statement.”

The race started rather slowly and Haarishankar snuggled into the pack of runners near the front. Everyone ambled along as nobody really took up the initiative.

Signalling that he had had enough of the leisurely pace, Haarishankar made his move to take control of the race.

He said: “I wanted to relax the first couple of laps but the pace was just too slow so I decided to take control.”

From there, it was no looking back as he subdued the demons of this year’s Cross-Country Championships.

Cross-country champion Sumanthiran Selvarajoo acknowledged Haarishankar’s performance.

“I know he’s a good runner. The cross-country performance could have been just due to him being off-form.”

Results (Top-Eight Only)

A Division Boys’ 3000m Steeplechase
1. Soh Rui Yong Raffles Institution 10:09.84
2. Su Yen Bing Raffles Institution 10:40.77
3. Yong Shi Kai Raffles Institution 10:46.35
4. Choo Shi Jun Hwa Chong Institution 10:49.42
5. Muhammad Shauqi Catholic Junior College 11:01.22
6. Lian Wei Cong Victoria Junior College 11:06.74
7. Lee Ming Hui Victoria Junior College 11:09.49
8. Tse Rong Gary Hwa Chong Institution 11:13.18

B Division Boys’ 2000m Steeplechase
1. T Haarishankar Singapore Sports School 6:40.07
2. Rodrigo Eugene Cyril Victoria School 6:44.21
3. Sumanthiran S/O Selvarajoo St. Joseph’s Institution 6:45.59
4. Prakash S/O Arasu Singapore Sports School 6:55.54
5. Yeo Si Heng Hwa Chong Institution 7:04.64
6. Ruben Galen Demetrius Kuo Chuan Presbyterian 7:05.15
7. Wan Azhar CC 7:05.31
8. Ho Hsien Hao Wilbert Raffles Institution 7:07.31

For full results, please refer to www.schoolsports.sg.

Related Stories
Soh Rui Yong of Raffles Institution adds 5000m title to cross-country crown
What’s gone and what’s on at the National Inter-School Track-and-Field Championships 2009
Soh Hua Qun and Zachary Devaraj win respective divisional 800m races but sub-2 min eludes them
Mok Ying Rong wins 3000m B girls’ title at her first appearance in the National Inter-School Track-and-Field Championships
Muhd Taufiq leaves it late to clinch B division boys’ triple jump crown
Inez Leong sets new record in the B division girls’ 100m hurdles final
T. Haarishankar of Singapore Sports School claims second gold in B Division boys' 3000m
Ranjitha Raja of Anderson beats Mok Ying Rong in B Division 1500m
Final day preview of Inter-School Track and Field Championships
Shahrir Mohd Anuar of Sports School breaks B Division boys' 100m record
Berenice Lian of RGS holds off Clara Poon of Cedar Girls' for B Division 800m win
Superman Adriel Tay lands 1500m A Division win for third Raffles Institution podium sweep

For more pictures, go to the gallery.