By REDintern Justin John Surin
Nabin Parajuli won the IVP 3000m steeplechase final in 10:18.20. (Photo 1 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
Singapore Polytechnic, Saturday, January 11, 2014 — Nabin Parajuli of Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) struck gold in the men’s 3000m steeplechase final in a time of 10 minutes 18.20 seconds at the Institute-Varsity-Polytechnic (IVP) Track and Field Championships. This comes after he won the gold in the same event at the Polytechnic-Institute of Technical Education (POL-ITE) Track and Field Championships.
Running barefooted in the blue vest of NYP, he ran a convincing race, leading from start to finish to win by almost 100m. Wilbert Ho of NUS finished second in 10:37.88 with Kevin Lim of Ngee Ann Polytechnic rounding off the podium in 10:51.70.
The race started at a moderate pace with all the runners bunched up but Nabin soon found his rhythm and moved to pole position. Widening the gap with each stride, Nabin had built an insurmountable lead by the third lap, with Wilbert engaged in a close fight with Kevin about 30 metres back. Wilbert ultimately won this contest with a late surge to drop a tiring Kevin and clinch the silver medal.
Nabin, who only joined the track fraternity a mere two years ago, felt that the race was not ideal due to the erratic starting pace. “I was aiming to hit 85s for each lap but the starting pace was about 83s which was not ideal for my race plan. However, this was the first race of my season and I have not done much mileage as of yet. I credit my coach, Mr Toh Yow Kin, my training partners Nash and Azmir as well as my teammates and supporters,” said Nabin.
T Haarishankar of Republic Polytechnic holds the IVP 3000m steeplechase record of 9:45.26 in this event but was unable to participate due to injury.
P.S. Nabin also won the gold in the 10,000m on Wednesday, January 15, finishing in a time of 34:56.08 to complete an impressive double. Fang Jianyong added a silver to his 800m gold, finishing in 35:04.20 with Benjamin Quek rounding up the podium in 35:10.29.
3000m Steeplechase Results (Top 8)
1st Parajuli, Nabin (#68, NYP) – 10:18.20
2nd Ho, Wilbert (#163, NUS) – 10:37.88
3rd Lim, Kevin (#228, NP) – 10:51.70
4th Chang, Albert (#212, NP) – 11:20.26
5th Hamid, Mohamed Ajmil (#45, NYP) – 11:26.94
6th Ang, Xinyao Desmond (#311, SMU) – 11:33.25
7th Thangaraju, Manoj (#194, NUS) – 11:44.17
8th Muhammad Rafie B, Razali (#268, RP) – 11:56.65
10,000m Results (Top 8)
1st Parajuli, Nabin (NYP) – 34:56.08
2nd Fang, Jian Yong (SIM) – 35:04.20
3rd Quek, Benjamin (NUS) – 35:10.29
4th Loh, Yuting, Alvin (NTU) – 36:00.77
5th Chew, Jee Keng (SP) – 36:07.21
6th Tapie, Emmanuel (NUS) – 36:24.06
7th Muhammad, Nashiruddin (NYP) – 37:09.25
8th Foo, Xiao Wen Giebert (SIT) – 37:15.59
Leave A Comment