By Les Tan/Red Sports

Choa Chu Kang Stadium, Wednesday, July 22, 2009 – Kang Yee Cher, 11, of Fuhua Primary won the Joe David Trophy at the recent 50th Inter-Primary Track and Field Championships.

The award is given to the athlete who wins the most gold medals and breaks the most number of records.

“Happy, quite surprised,” said Yee Cher about his win.

His school, Fuhua, also edged out St. Stephen’s School for the C-Boys divisional title by a whisker.

“My team worked so hard during the June holidays and we got the reward,” said Yee Cher.

Both schools finished equal on 46 points but Fuhua won the division by virtue of having four first-place finishes while St. Stephen’s didn’t have any.

“He definitely deserved it,” said his coach Elwin Yong. “He’s been fighting for it since the beginning of the season. We did goal-setting at the start of the year and it was his intention to break records.”

Yee Cher broke the record twice in the 100m C-Boys. He set a new record of 12.23s* in the heats and then lowered it again to 12.12s in the semi-finals before matching it in the final.

In the 200m C-Boys category, he set a new record of 26.05s** in the heats and then went on to win the gold medal in the 200m final.

Lim Ying of Nanyang Primary also matched Yee Cher’s performance on the track with her double-gold, record-breaking runs in the 100m and 200m races. However, Yee Cher broke a record that had been around longer and so that tilted the award in his favour, said the organisers.

* The old record of 13.07s was held by Feng Luwei of Nanhua Primary set in 2003 (source: www.schoolsports.sg).

The equivalent age-group (midget) record in America for the 200m is 23.74s set by Xavier Jones on July 28, 2007 (source: www.usatf.org).