NUS grabs second place from the Gurkhas at SAA Road Relays

Story by REDintern Colin Tung. Pictures by Tan Huey Ying and Colin Tung.

Bedok Reservoir, Saturday, February 7, 2009 – A National University of Singapore (NUS) relay team came from fifth position to grab second spot in the men’s open category, preventing a clean sweep of the top two positions by the formidable Singapore Police Gurkhas at the 58th Singapore Athletic Association (SAA) Road Relays.

Running the full 4.3km loop of the reservoir, the Gurkhas, running in two teams under the banner of the Police Sports Association (PSA), fielded two teams, got off to a characteristically fast start with their teams in first and second position from the horn.

The first two NUS runners – Jayantha Ng and Madankumar Balakrishnan – kept their team in contention by keeping the Gurkha teams in sight. When 2007 SEA Games triathlon gold medallist Mok Ying Ren received the relay wrist band as the third runner, hopes went up that the race would only get better for NUS.

Starting from fifth position in the relay, Mok chased down the Gurkhas and did well enough to give final runner Sikhander Singh a real chance at a medal finish.

With Mok having done his part, anchorman Singh took over the wristband with at least one Gurkha in his cross-hairs. Approximately fifteen minutes later, the first Gurkha from PSA Team A crossed the finish line victorious. Eighteen seconds later, Singh crossed the line to split the two Gurkha teams and give the NUS team a second-place finish and a memorable victory over an elite force.

The road relays saw men and women runners compete in the Under-15, Under-17, Under-20 and Open categories. For all categories except the Men’s Open, the runners had to run a 3.3km loop.

The road relays were kicked off with the women’s races at 2.30pm.  For the school girls in the age-group categories, the starting of the various categories together meant an opportunity to run with and learn from the more experienced women in the Open category.

But any thought of an age-group team matching the Open teams has to be dispelled as the Macritchie Runners 25 (MR25), Swift Athletes Association and National University of Singapore (NUS) teams finished comfortably ahead of the age-group teams. They were first, second and third respectively in the Open category.

MR25 did not start the race well as their first runner, Natalie Seaman – runner-up in the 10km event at the Singapore Marathon - collided with another runner at the start and fell. Undaunted, she picked herself up, proceeded with the race and caught up with the rest of the runners.

By the second hand-over and third runner, things had begun to shape up in the Women’s Open with MR25 in the lead, followed by Swift and NUS. Unlike a movie though, there is no script to follow in a race, and Swift’s third runner Mok Ying Rong’s effort to catch up and overhaul the MR25’s runner certainly made things exciting for the audience watching the race unfold. Alas, Ying Rong’s effort did not yield a win for Swift.

MR25’s anchor runner, Renuka Satianathan, ate away the lead Swift held going into the last leg to win with a comfortable time of 54:05 min, one minute faster than the Swift time of 55:05 min.

Renuka recounted her commendable effort that regained the lead for good for MR25.

“It was high pressure. Ying Rong ran a very strong leg and gave them an intimidating lead. But it helped me focus, having someone to chase.”

When asked how she felt for Swift not to have won after giving them a good lead, Ying Rong (the younger sister of Mok Ying Ren) said, “It’s fine. We have not run together before and moreover, we did not expect to win.”  

In the other women’s events, Cedar Girls’ Secondary came up tops in the U-20 and U-15 categories while Wings Athletics Club was fastest in the U-17 category.

Following the women’s categories were the men’s age-group categories which saw Wings Athletics Club, Commonwealth Secondary and Anglo-Chinese Junior College (ACJC) coming up trumps in the U-15, U-17 and U-20 categories respectively.

Results (top-three teams only)

Women
U-15
1. Cedar Girls’ Sec – 60:39 min     
2. CHIJ Toa Payoh – 77:21 min     
3. Canberra Sec – 86.47 min     

U-17
1. Wings Athletics Club T1 – 59:49 min
2. Wings Athletic Club T2 – 61.56 min
3. Canberra Sec – 69.13 min

U-20*                                                       
1. Cedar Girls’ Sec T1 – 59.49 min
2. ACJC – 60:10 min    
*only three teams took part in the category and the third team – Cedar
Girls’ Sec T2 – did not finish (DNF).

Open
1. MR25 – 54:05 min
2. Swift – 55.05 min
3. NUS – 55:51 min

Men
U-15                                                                 
1. Wings Athletics Club – 57:16 min    
2. HCI – 58:16 min    
3. Commonwealth Sec – 59:59 min  
            
U-17
1. Commonwealth Sec – 51:47 min
2. HCI T1 – 52:28 min
3. Woodlands Sec T1 – 53:39 min

U-20
1. ACJC T1 – 48:34 min  
2. JJC T1 – 50:11 min    
3. ACJC T2 – 54:07 min  

Open
1. PSA T1 – 58:09 min
2. NUS T1 – 58:27 min
3. PSA T2 – 58:51 min