A Division 400m: Ng Chin Hui breaks 49-second barrier in winning gold

Choa Chu Kang Stadium, Wednesday, April 20, 2011 — Raffles Institution’s Ng Chin Hui responded to the gauntlet thrown down by teammate Seow Yeong Yang in fine fashion, clocking a personal best of 48.98 seconds to win the Boys’ A Division 400 metres final at the National Inter-School Track and Field Championships.

Chin Hui had been the premier 400m runner in Singapore this year and had gone sub-50 seconds four times, topping out at 49.42s. No one else had breached 50 seconds this year till Yeong Yang did so in Monday’s semi-finals. The latter ran a massive PB of 49.35 to rank first in the rankings, but not for long.

In today’s final, Chin Hui stopped the clock in 48.98 seconds, breaking the electronically-timed record that Yeong Yang had equalled in the semi-finals. In doing so, he became the first Singaporean since Kenneth Khoo, in February last year, to go sub-49 seconds in the 400m.

Chin Hui was also a whisker away from breaking the 27-year-old hand-timed championship record of 48.8 seconds, held by Sandy Ang in 1984.

Yeong Yang finished second in 49.54 seconds, while Anglo-Chinese Junior College’s R. Avinash, last year’s winner, was third in 50.71.

A Boys’ 400m Final Results

Position/Name/School/Time

1. Ng Chin Hui, Raffles Institution — 48.98 seconds (new electronically-timed record)
2. Seow Yeong Yang, Raffles Institution — 49.54
3. R Avinash, Anglo-Chinese Junior College — 50.71
4. Let Jian Jie, Anglo-Chinese Sch (Independent) — 51.47
5. Nicholas Chan Yu Herng, Anglo-Chinese JC — 51.77
6. Aaron Tang Jia Wei, Victoria JC — 52.41
7. Khong Zhi Wei, Raffles Institution — 52.68
8. Joel Tang Soon Chien, Anglo-Chinese JC — 53.09

Video shown with permission of SAA and SSSC