C Div 100m Hurdles: Joshua Chua of RI clinches gold in 14.37s

By Tay Jun Wen/Red Sports

Joshua Chua (#206, centre) of RI was first in 14.37s while Marcell Tan (#74, left) of Sports School was second in 14.78s. Charlton Tan (not in picture) of SJI edged out Muhammad Nur Haqim (#74, right) for third place. (Photo © Les Tan/Red Sports)

Choa Chu Kang Sports Complex, Thursday, April 11, 2013 — Joshua Chua of Raffles Institution (RI) bagged the gold in the C Division 100m hurdles final at the 54th National Schools Track and Field Championships. Joshua came in first in 14.37 seconds while Marcell Tan of Singapore Sports School was second in 14.78s. Charlton Tan (#249) of St. Joseph’s Institution (SJI) was third, stopping the clock at 15.23s.

The C Division record is 13.81s and was set by Linus Chong, then of Sports School, in 2010.

“I did not do that well today. My hurdling technique could be improved on. I was also injured. It was a very fast and tight race,” said Joshua, who also managed to set a new personal best.

With regard to future aims, Joshua replied: “I will try to go below 14 seconds next year.”

Silver medalist Marcell Tan was not satisfied with the result and felt that it was not as good a race as he expected it to be.

“I did the first eight hurdles pretty well. However, I hit the second last hurdle. Joshua hit it too. I could have caught up with him if I did not hit the hurdle. My speed between hurdles needs to be improved on,” Marcell remarked.

On the other hand, second runner-up, Charlton Tan of SJI, felt that it was quite a good race for him, although he started slow. “I managed to catch up at the third and fourth hurdle. I did well mentally because I was rather nervous during warm-up. My coach calmed me down,” said Charlton.

He also said that he needed to learn to keep himself calm. He felt that he was focusing too much on his opponents and needed to focus and see it as himself running his own race.

Charlton commented: “My opponents put up a good fight. It was a hard race because technically, the person who was fourth (Muhammad Adnan Hakim of Sports School) was better. But I guess I managed to keep my composure and he clipped a hurdle as well.”

C Division Boys 100m Hurdles Results
1st Joshua Chua Hanwei (Raffles Institution, #206) — 14.37s
2nd Marcell Tan Yann Guang (Singapore Sports School, #74) — 14.78s
3rd Charlton Lucian Tan Kian Ren (St. Joseph’s Institution, #249) — 15.23s
4th Muhammad Nur Haqim Bin Abu M (Singapore Sports School, #78) — 15.57s
5th Randall Choo Tian Xi (Hwa Chong Institution, #437) — 15.96s
6th Liew Bing En (Hwa Chong Institution, #429) — 16.60s
7th James Soh Weng Kit (Hwa Chong Institution, #425) — 17.09s
8th Muhammad Hafizul Hakim B M (St. Joseph’s Institution, #262) — 17.20s