By REDintern Alethia Tiang
National hurdler Abdul Hakeem on his way to a win in the 110m Hurdles. (Photo 1 © Alethia Tiang/Red Sports)
Bukit Gombak Stadium, Sunday, March 15, 2009 – A close race in the men’s 100m Hurdles (0.840m) saw Low Ziron of Hwa Chong Institution (HCI) beat Ryan Kalmani of Singapore Sports School by just 0.01s. Ziron clocked 14.62s.
National hurdler Abdul Hakeem Abdul Halim won the 110m Hurdles event easily in a time of 14.88s, beating his nearest competitor by 1.5s. Abdul Hakeem rewrote the national record of 14.76s set by Osman Merican in 1966 with a 14.45s performance at the ASEAN University Games in KL in December 2008.
A thunderstorm just as the women’s 400m race was about to commence forced organisers to cancel more than half of the events and the meet will resume on Thursday, March 19th, 2009.
In the men’s 100m Hurdles (0.914m), Sean Toh of Victoria School blitzed the field in 14.24s, with the second-place runner 0.6s behind, an eternity in the world of sprinting.
In the women’s High Jump (SH 1.40m) event, Michelle Sng of UNA was untouchable, jumping a height of 1.65m, while the rest of the field failed to clear 1.6m.
In the men’s Javelin (600g>35m), Wong Chuen En of Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) threw five meters further than runner-up James Chong of HCI with a 40.48m performance.
The Women and Men 400m for all race categories, Men 2,000m and 3,000m Steeple Chase, Women and Men 2,000m Walk, Women High Jump (SH:1.20m), Men Javelin 700g and 800g and Men Triple Jump have been postponed to Thursday, 19 March 2009, at Bukit Gombak Stadium from 8:30am onwards.
For full results of the completed events, visit the Singapore Athletics Association (SAA) website at www.singaporeathletics.org.sg.
Sports School athletes leading the way to the finish. (Photo 2 © Alethia Tiang/Red Sports)
A VJC hurdler pulling away from the rest. (Photo 3 © Alethia Tiang/Red Sports)
Crossing the hurdle as fast as he can… (Photo 4 © Alethia Tiang/Red Sports)
Narrowly scraping the hurdle… (Photo 5 © Alethia Tiang/Red Sports)
Joel Wei (ACJC) pulling away from the rest of the hurdlers… (Photo 6 © Alethia Tiang/Red Sports)
…while competing hurdlers fight for second place. (Photo 7 © Alethia Tiang/Red Sports)
The huge black clouds starting rolling in as the day wore on… (Photo 8 © Alethia Tiang/Red Sports)
…before the inevitable thunderstorm forced a stop to proceedings. (Photo 9 © Alethia Tiang/Red Sports)
PHOTO 5 ! PHOTO 5 ! The hwachong guy is Samuel Tay Chin Keat :DDD
well lets forget about wind guages and records etc. Hakeem broke the national 110m hurdles record. and its his for life end of story. So lets all wait for renuka to break the womens 1500m record… and colin tung to smash the 800m mens record. till then god bless all athletes in singapore. peace.
Lol ranger, Hakeem broke the record at the AUG in KL, not singapore, so technically its not the SAA too broke to have a wing gauge. In fact they have it(should be) cause other records broken in singapore were all certified.
PS. This doesnt mean that i am supportive of SAA. Just clarifying matters. Though SAA could be broke SINCE THEY WERE LATE!! IN APPLING FOR GRANTS…sheeesh
alrite then… all athletes shall chip in and buy SAAA a brand new and improved…. WIND GUAGE… since they can’t afford one.
But u must wonder how can they afford all the sunquik orange drinks then??? hmmmmmmmmm…. suspicious happenings….
Thanks for poking around to get the info, Renuka.
Hey Alethia, Excellent article and photos! 🙂 I hope you’re enjoying covering these events, it makes for much better reading when someone who knows the sport so well writes about it..
Anyway, with regard to Hakeem’s record (and I think it should be his!), I saw a post on singaporeathletics.com saying that the time could not be recognised as a record because there wasn’t a wind gauge in use. (the link: http://www.singaporeathletics.com/singapore-news/hakeem-110m-hurdles-record)
It’s not the first time this has happened..Mona Kunalan (Mr C. Kunalan’s youngest daughter) had an outstanding run as a junior which would have been a natl record but the lack of a wind gauge at the meet (that one was a local SAAA meet) meant it wasn’t official.
Hey there,
I believe Abdul Hakeem broke the national record last December, running 14.45sec at the Asean University Games in KL.
Thanks for letting us know.
Why then does the SAA record still state Merican’s name and record of 14.76s?