By Soh Rui Yong
Soh Rui Yong (left) with 5000m race winner Sivamani. (Photo 1 © Soh Rui Yong)
The 2012 Negeri Sembilan Open was my first overseas competition since the 2009 ASEAN Schools Games. Having closed my 2011 track season after setting a new personal best of 15 minutes 36 seconds at the Singapore Open in August, the Negeri Sembilan Open was also my first track race in almost 9 months, and I was excited at finally making a long-awaited return to the track after months of training.
Being in a new environment and facing foreign competitors as an ambassador of Singapore tends to put pressure on an athlete. Living away from home in an unfamiliar environment, coupled with the fear of facing higher levels of competition as compared to what we have back in Singapore, are potential factors that can unsettle an athlete and throw him off his game. Despite initially facing these difficulties during my first overseas competition, the ASEAN Schools Track and Field Championships in 2008, I have since learnt to use the unfamiliarity of my surroundings and competitors to refresh myself mentally, rather than allowing it to cause undue worry. Henceforth, racing overseas has always been something enjoyable, and I thrive on the pressure of representing Singapore Athletics in a foreign “battleground”.
On 4 May 2012, Friday, at about 2pm, I set off for Seremban, Negeri Sembilan, together with four fellow athletes from Wings Athletics Club. They included sprinters Kenneth Khoo, Asmah Hanim and Valerie Pereira, as well as thrower Hannah Lee, whom I had previously travelled with when representing Singapore at the ASEAN Schools championships. We made a five-hour drive up to Seremban and checked into our hotel, before proceeding to locate the competition track, intending to get a feel of the arena.
However, the track was closed. I proceeded to a nearby public stadium to jog and do some striding to loosen up my muscles after the long ride, before we went to a nearby Thai restaurant for dinner, where we also discussed our plans for the next day. Kenneth, an experienced national athlete, shared his past experiences at the Negeri Sembilan Open and told me of the possibility of facing Malaysia’s finest runners there and that me look forward to finally racing on the track again.
14 hours later, I was back at the competition track to begin the final preparations for my event, the men’s 5000m final. As I jogged outside the stadium and did some running drills to warm up, I noticed many other groups of athletes doing what seemed to be a distance runner’s warm up routine as well. “Looks like it’s going to be a crowded race,” I thought to myself. Finishing my warm up, I heard them call for the competitors in my event to report (Asmah had warned me to listen out for the words “limah ribu”, meaning “five thousand” in Malay), and proceeded to the call room.
After reporting to the race officials, I started on my stretching exercises, while the officials called out the names of the 5000m runners to report, one by one.
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