Zachary Devaraj smashes 14-year-old B Division boys’ 800 metres record en route to third consecutive title

Story by Koh Yizhe and Colin Tung/Red Sports. Photos by Koh Yizhe/Red Sports.

Choa Chu Kang Stadium, Thursday, April 8, 2010 – In 2008, when he was 14, Zachary Devaraj of Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) won the first of his 800m titles at the National Inter-School Track and Field Championships but came just shy of setting his first divisional record. He clocked 2 minutes 04.08 seconds then, just over three-tenths of a second off Kannan Poobalan’s C Division 800m record of 2:03.76.

Two years on, Youth Olympic Games (YOG) hopeful Zachary not only won his third consecutive 800m title but also broke the electronically-timed (ET) B Division record of 1:58.38 set in 1996 by Rajasegar Sivadas. Setting a time of 1:57.34, he beat the ET record by over a second though the hand-timed record of 1:56.70 by current Singapore Athletics Association (SAA) Technical Director C. Veeramani eluded him.

"I am quite happy with the race," said Zachary immediately after the race. "I was trying to break the record so I wasn't focused so much on the other runners. Instead, I was running against the clock."

"I wanted to set a fast pace at the start of the race," described Zachary. "There was a bit of pushing so it was quite a bad start, but I recovered well and still managed to take the lead. The second 200m was a bit slow, but I made up for it in the second lap."

"My coach has timed me at 1 minute 58 seconds so I have broken the electronic record, but not the hand-timed one. I am still quite happy as I missed out on the C Div. record the year before last."

Singapore Sports School's Dubey Kissan Kumar took second place in 2:06.73 while Chin Joo Ern of Hwa Chong Institution was third in a time of 2:07.43.

In the A Division 800m race, fellow YOG candidate R. Avinash won with a time of 2:01.74. Although he was not leading going into the second lap, he managed to pull away from the field with 200m left in the race. Patrick Lim of Anglo Chinese School (Independent) settled for second in 2:03.46. Hwa Chong Institution's Jeevanesh S/O Soundarajah finished in third with a time of 2:04.11.

"I got kind of boxed in at the start so it slowed me down," said Avinash after the race. "There were four people cutting me off so I needed to spend a bit more effort to overtake them."

"Together with my training partner, we led throughout the race throughout the race. It felt more like a training and it was very motivating to have both of us led throughout. In the first lap I just kept pace with the rest, although I was expecting a faster first lap."

"I knew I could win, but I had to give it my all. If not I wouldn't be able to win the race. Overall, I am happy with the race."

Muhammad Shahizam B Rasid of Peirce Secondary took home the C Division 800m title when he edged Anglo-Chinese School (Independent)'s Abdul Tsaqif by less than a second with a 2:15.87 finish. Tsaqif had to settle for second after finishing in 2:16.25 while his team-mate Jonathan Wong took third with 2:16.36.