Story by REDintern Danial Azmie.
Choa Chu Kang Stadium, Friday, July 11, 2008 – It was a phenomenal day for the 49th Inter-School Track and Field Championships as 11 records were broken (one national record), setting a hard act for next year’s participants to follow.
Though only one national record was broken this time, the fact is, some were milliseconds away from succeeding. Given their age and capacity to improve in the coming years, and in view of the coming 2010 Youth Olympics, this certainly bodes well for Singapore’s track and field.
The 4×400 Metres Relay C Division Boys team from Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) started the winning mentality rolling in the morning heats, clocking 3 minutes 38.29 seconds (meet record) and installing themselves as firm favourites for next Wednesday’s final.
Of the lot, one of the most impressive performances of the day was from Noreen Herman of the Singapore Sports School, who rewrote the national record set in 1993 by just 0.05 seconds, a feat not surprising considering her intense competition with fellow favourite Inez Leong from CHIJ St. Nicholas Girls’.
T Piriyah from the Singapore Sports School also duly smashed the 37-year-old National B Division Girls record by one second, the only 400m B Division girl to clock a timing of under one minute in her event. She even established a better timing than the more experienced A Division Girls.
Clara Poon of Cedar Girls also stood out in the C Division Girls 400 Metres, beating the meet and national C Division Girls record set way back in 1977 by Munirah Alatas.
Not to be outdone, the boys were also up to the task. Firm favourite and former C Division Boys record holder Jamie Ross Coates from the Singapore Sports School reestablished a new record in his name, romping home in 49.75s in the 400 Metres B-Boys Final, the first time a B Division runner has clocked under 50 seconds. The previous B Division record was set 25 years ago by Lee Ching Hing.
Shalindran Sathiyanesan from Millennia Institute also became a member of the under-50 club in the 400 Metres A Division Boys Final, clocking 49.35s in what was also a new meet record.
So far in all six days of competition, 20 new records have been set in total with two more sessions to go. Ample time for more records to be made.
Editor’s note: Interviews coming up, so do watch this space!
Selected Results:
100 Metres Hurdles B-Girls
1st – Noreen Herman (Singapore Sports School) 00:15.35 (Meet Record)
2nd – Inez Leong Hui Xin (CHIJ St Nicholas Girls’) 00:15.47
3rd – Lee Mei En Sarah (Nanyang Girls) 00:16.12
Shot Put B-Boys
1st – Cai Jia Shen (Hwa Chong Institution) 15.74m (Meet Record)
2nd – Tan Zhi Hao (Hwa Chong Institution) 14.34m
3rd – Brian Leow Ye En (Catholic High) 13.89
1500m B-Girls
1st – Chew Hanyu (CHIJ St Nicholas Girls’) 05:12.03
2nd – Leow Jia Hui Melody Joy (Singapore Sports School) 05:19.01
3rd – Ramandeep Kaur (National Junior College) 05:20.00
400 Metres B-Boys
1st – Jamie Ross Coates (Singapore Sports School) 00:49.75 (Meet Record)
2nd – Ong Chin Hwee (Tanglin) 00:50.23
3rd – Md Khalis B Mohamad (Ang Mo Kio) 00:50.52
400 Metres C-Boys
1st – Ng Chin Hui (Anglo Chinese School- Independent) 00:51.97 (Meet Record)
2nd – Samuel Tay Chin Keat (Hwa Chong Institution) 00:53.67
3rd – Nicholas Chan Yu Herng (Anglo Chinese School- Independent) 00:53.68
400 Metres A-Boys
1st – Shalindran Sathiyanesan (Millennia Institute) 00:49.35 (Meet Record)
2nd – Cui Naisheng (Hwa Chong Institution) 00:50.72
3rd – Timothy Tan (Victoria Junior College) 00:51.28
400 Metres C-Girls
1st – Clara Poon Jia Xin (Cedar Girls) 01:00.48 (Meet Record)
2nd – Nur Hamizah (Singapore Sports School) 01:01.26
3rd – Wendy Enn (Singapore Sports School) 01:01.80
400 Metres B-Girls
1st – T Piriyah (Singapore Sports School) 00:57.11 (Meet Record and National U-17 Record)
2nd – Fiona Ng Yee Lin (CHIJ St Nicholas Girls’) 01:00.39
3rd – Oh Shi Min Charmaine (Nanyang Girls) 01:01.38
400 Metres A-Girls
1st – Shalom Danielle See (National Junior College) 00:58.65 (Meet Record)
2nd – Lim Shanru (Hwa Chong Institution) 00:58.88
3rd – Ang Peixuan (Catholic Junior College) 01:01.47
80 Metres Hurdles C-Girls
1st – Goh Weining (Singapore Sports School) 00:12.52 (Meet Record)
2nd – Shermaine Chia Wen Yi 00:12.75
3rd – Cheong Huimin Cheryl (Nanyang Girls) 00:13.40
100 Metres Hurdles A-Girls
1st – Tan Xueling Amanda (Hwa Chong Institution) 00:15.47 (Meet Record)
2nd – Quey Li Zi Amanda (Raffles Junior College) 00:16.22
3rd – Siti Nurhanis (Victoria Junior College) 00:16.70
the hurdle height for the Bdiv 100mH is lower than that of the A div. (the Adiv height is the same height as that of the National Junior one.) So, the records cannot be compared in that way.
In that case, Noreen Herman also broke the 100 Metres Hurdles B-Girls U-17 record and National Junior record as her time of 00:15.35 eclipsed the 00:15.4 (Eileen Chai) and 15.6 (Lim En Ru) , if you use the Singapore Amateur Athletics Records as a guide : http://www.singaporeathletics.org.sg/download/SporeNatJrRecords.pdf
Thanks for the info, sportsfan.
Hi Les
National Schools A, B or C Division records are different from national age-group records. The event records of each Division are records OF the National Schools Track and Field Championships.
Usually, the national age-group records are superior to the division records in terms of timings and distances.
But in the case of T Piriyah in the 400m, she set a timing that was not only a B Division record but also a national age-group (U-17) record.
Hope this helps.
SSF
By the way, Piriyah set a new B Div 400m hurdles record today (Monday, 14 July). The report is up on my site. Cheers
oops ya i guess thats redundant, dui bu qi
Hey Dan,
when you say event record, you mean the Inter-School track and field championship.
So what does C Division record? Do you mean the National age-group record?
If so, I’ll change it to reflect that because saying it’s the C Division record means the event record as well because they are both the same.
‘beating an meet and national C Division Girls’
I don’t understand the meaning of this phrase. Guess there’s an error somewhere.
Its a new National Junior Record.
The Senior record is 00:14.81 held by Eileen Chai since 2005. thanks for enquiring! =)
just a question, if it’s a national record, does that mean that the girl is the fastest in the whole nation for 100m hurdles or just fastest among ppl of her age??