Story by Jiexin Neo/Red Sports. Photos by Matthew Lau/Red Sports
Carmel Teo (#232) of Jurong Junior College finishes in first place after clearing a height of 3.18m. (Photo 1 © Matthew Lau/Red Sports)
Choa Chu Kang Stadium, Monday, April 14, 2014 — Carmel Teo of Jurong Junior College (JJC) cleared a height of 3.18m in the girls’ Open Category Pole Vault event to emerge first at the 55th National Inter-School Track & Field Championships.
Chang An Zi of Hwa Chong Institution (HCI) finished second with 3.13m, while Ang Wei Lu of Singapore Sports School (SSP) came in third on a countback with 2.68m.
Carmel met the qualifying mark for June’s Asian Junior Championships, as did An Zi, who equaled her personal best.
The Open Category record was set by Carmel in 2012, when she represented Henderson Secondary School (HSS) to vault a height of 3.32m. That mark is also the current national under-23, under-19, under-17, junior and youth record.
After Wei Lu of SSP and Natalie Wong of Cedar Girls’ Secondary both failed to clear 2.68m, Carmel and An Zi were the only ones still in contention for the gold. Both of them cruised past 3.13m and went on to 3.18m. Carmel cleared the height in her first attempt, while An Zi did not manage to do so after three attempts.
With the gold medal already in the bag, Carmel tried to break her national schools record of 3.32m with a 3.33m attempt. However she failed to do so after three tries.
“I didn’t get first last year because of my injury, so one thing is that I’m happy that I’ve improved and managed to go higher than I did last year, and recover from my injury. But I really thought that I could aim for it, or even higher today, so I’m mostly disappointed,” said Carmel after falling short of her personal best.
Carmel sustained an injury last year and came in third after clearing 2.83m. She is currently in her second year of junior college and hence will not be competing next year.
An Zi, who came in second, said, “Actually I was quite happy with the height that I got because I have a partial tear on my shoulder. I’ve not been training so actually I feel that I did quite well. My teammates and friends supported me, which helped a lot.”
Open Category Pole Vault (Girls) Results
1st Carmel Teo (#232, Jurong Junior College) – 3.18m
2nd Chang An Zi (#200, Hwa Chong Institution) – 3.13m
3rd Ang Wei Lu (#90, Singapore Sports School) – 2.68m
4th Wong Shi Qi, Natalie (#182, Cedar Girls’ Secondary) – 2.68m
5th Adlyn Basil Heng Li Yan (#140, Victoria Junior College) – 2.53m
5th Lee Jiaqi Amanda (#107, Raffles Institution) – 2.53m
7th Tan Ying Lin, Felicia (#122, Raffles Institution) – 2.53m
8th Goh Wei Ling Diana (#147, Victoria Junior College) – 2.53m
9th Ong Rui Xiu Clarice (#172, Cedar Girls’ Secondary) – 2.33m
9th Joy Low Su-Ann (#351, NUS High School) – 2.33m
11th Chong Zhen Yi (#99, Raffles Institution) – 2.33m
12th Valerie Tan Shi Min (#227, Hwa Chong Institution) – 2.13m
12th Maria Belle Lee Shu Min (#164, Cedar Girls’ Secondary) – 2.13m
14th Cherlin Sia Jia Yi (#79, Singapore Sports School) – 2.13m
15th Beatrice Teo Chin Theng (#198, Hwa Chong Institution) – 1.88m
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