C Div 400m Hurdles: Late surge carries Ringo Han of RI to victory in 62.87

Choa Chu Kang Stadium, Thursday, April 5, 2012 – Ringo Han’s late surge over the final 40 metres gave the Raffles Institution student the victory in the Boys’ C Division 400m Hurdles final, at the 53rd National Schools’ Track and Field Championships.

Ringo cleared the 10th and final hurdle together with Hwa Chong Institution’s Ow Yeong Wei Bin, and even though he clipped the hurdle, he still managed to burst past a fast-tiring Wei Bin. Ringo clocked a time of 62.87 seconds, while Wei Bin was third in 63.59.

The Championship record for the event is 58.73 set by Loh Guo Pei, then of Hua Yi Secondary, in 2005.

Singapore Sports School’s Jay Choo came from sixth place at the halfway point to storm to a silver-medal finish, in a time of 63.10. He had won the 100m hurdles title a day before, with Wei Bin taking second place. Ringo was fourth in the 400m final on Tuesday.

With the win, Ringo became just the second male runner in 14 years to win a 400m hurdles final at the Schools’ Championships from lane seven. The last athlete to achieve the feat was Abdul Hakeem Bin Abdul Halim in the A Division seven years ago.

Results

1st Ringo Han Jia Ming (Raffles Institution) – 62.87 sec
2nd Jay Choo Zhan Xian (Singapore Sports School) – 63.10
3rd Ow Yeong Wei Bin (Hwa Chong Institution) – 63.59
4th Dymtryk Sng Wen Jun (St Joseph’s Institution) – 64.38
5th John Soh Weng Yang (Hwa Chong Institution) – 65.63
6th Ang Yong Kiat Bryan (Hwa Chong Institution) – 65.86
7th Jason Peter Lim Tao-En (Raffles Institution) – 67.11
8th Brandon Lee Wen Jie (Gan Eng Seng) – 70.29

Video © SAA. Used with permission.