IVP Track and Field: NUS lead men’s and women’s competitions by 76 and 10 points respectively

Story by Colin Tung/Red Sports. Photos contributed by Farhanah Ghaffar

Bukit Gombak Stadium, Sunday, October 24, 2010 — The defending champions National University of Singapore (NUS) emerged from the first day of the Institute-Varsity-Polytechnic (IVP) Track and Field Championships as leaders in both the men’s and women’s competitions.

While the NUS men are runaway leaders with 134 points, 76 more than Nanyang Technological University (NTU), their female counterparts have a closer fight on their hands when competition resumes next Saturday. With 65 points, the NUS women are only 10 ahead of their rivals from NTU.

17 finals (10 and 7 in the men’s and women’s competitions respectively) were contested that many first feared would be postponed because of the haze. As the day wore on, it was the gathering storm clouds that caused anxiety instead.

It did rain but events still went on after the rain abated, albeit with the programme set back by about 45 minutes.

The wet track was no factor to the NUS men racing away with eight individual wins in 10 finals. These wins were earned by Jayanta Ng (3000m steeplechase), Madankumar Balakrishnan (800m), Sharman Abdul Rahman (110m hurdles), Lance Tan (400m), Mok Ying Ren (10,000m), Lai Yong Hui (triple jump), Toh Weide (discus), and Lee Yue Jer (javelin).

The only men’s events in which the individual champion did not come from NUS were the 100m and the pole vault.

NTU’s Nikita Sharda and NUS’ Lance Tan were two standout performers who had two events in a day and finished amongst the medals in both.

Nikita is the IVP women’s 400m silver medallist and the 800m champion from last year when she had competed for Republic Polytechnic. As a freshman in NTU this year, she went one better in the 400m, winning in 1 minute 00.26 seconds, improving on her earlier time of 1:00.68 in the heats.

Nikita’s winning time is also one of three new championship records. The record of 1:00.52 that she broke was held by Wong Zeteng of the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) and set in 2006.

The two other records broken on the day are in the women’s shot put and men’s 10,000m. Wan Lay Chi of Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) broke her own mark of 12.99m set in 2009 with a heave of 13.73m in the shot put.

Mok Ying Ren of NUS improved 20 seconds on his previous 10,000m record of 33:32.90 with his effort of 33:12.85.

For Nikita, what is remarkable is before she went on to set her record in the women’s 400m final, she had run not only in the heats of the 400m but also in the 800m final.

Though she could not mount a successful defence of her 800m title, she, however, improved on her winning time from last year — 2:34.61 — with a 2:32.72 effort that placed her as runner-up.

Lance Tan also had a juggling act on his hands. A 400m gold medallist and 400m hurdles silver medallist from last year’s IVP Championships, he doubled up duty in his pet 400m event with an event he is not quite known to do — the triple jump.

Nonetheless, he managed to place a highly respectable second position in the triple jump with a distance of 13.36 metres. In addition to that, he capped off what must be a good day for him with a second consecutive IVP Championships 400m victory. His winning time of 50.29 seconds is slightly faster than last year’s 50.38sec.

When competition resumes on Saturday, October 30, finals* will be contested in the 400m hurdles, 1500m, 200m, 3000m (women only), 5000m (men only), 4x100m relay, and 4x400m relay.

* all finals contested are in both the men’s and women’s competitions unless otherwise stated in parentheses

New Championship Records
Women’s 400m: Nikita Sharda, Nanyang Technological University, 1:00.26
Women’s Shot Put: Wan Lay Chi, Nanyang Polytechnic, 13.73m
Men’s 10,000m: Mok Ying Ren, National University of Singapore, 33:12.85

For full results, please click here.
For scoring tables, please click here.

Standings

Men
1. National University of Singapore — 134 points
2. Nanyang Technological University — 58
3. Singapore Management University — 56
4. Singapore Polytechnic — 31
5. Singapore Institute of Management — 30
6. Nanyang Polytechnic — 17
7. Ngee Ann Polytechnic — 15
8. Temasek Polytechnic — 13
9. Republic Polytechnic — 12
10. Institute of Technical Education — 5

Women
1. National University of Singapore — 65
2. Nanyang Technological University — 55
3. Singapore Management University — 39
4. Nanyang Polytechnic — 32
5. Temasek Polytechnic — 24
6. Republic Polytechnic — 15
7. Singapore Polytechnic — 14
8. Ngee Ann Polytechnic — 13
9. Singapore Institute of Management — 2
10. Institute of Technical Education — 1

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