Story By Zachary Foo/Red Sports. Photos by Laura Lee/Red Sports
Bennett Yong (#286) of Hwa Chong Institution happily poses for a photo after clearing his new personal best height of 4.43m to clinch the A Division Boys Pole Vault gold medal. (Photo 1 © Laura Lee/Red Sports)
Choa Chu Kang Stadium, Wednesday, April 16, 2014 — Bennett Yong Hao of Hwa Chong Institution (HCI) clinched the gold with a personal best effort of 4.43m in the boys’ A Division pole vault final at the 55th National Inter-School Track & Field Championships.
The meet record is held by Chan Sheng Yao, also of HCI. He cleared a height of 4.82m in 2013 to set the record.
Sheng Yao finished in second place with a 4.33m effort, while Dewey Ng of Raffles Institution rounded out the podium by clearing 4.23m, a personal best which met the qualifying mark for the Asian Junior Championships.
Bennett and Sheng Yao were the only athletes left in the field after they both cleared 4.33m. The bar was raised to 4.43m, which Bennett cleared on his third attempt. In the process, he set a new personal best, bettering his previous mark of 4.20m. Bennett then had the bar raised to 4.53m, and fouled twice before withdrawing from the competition.
Sheng Yao passed until 4.83m, attempting to set the meet record in the process. Unfortunately, the former national record holder failed on all three attempts, finishing with his only clearance at 4.33m and enabling Bennett to be a first-time Schools champion.
This is the first time that Sheng Yao finished with a silver in the pole vault at the National Track and Field Championships. He had secured gold in the past four years that he had competed in this event.
Bennett of HCI said, “I think the win was quite undeserving. Nevertheless, I want to thank my coach and track batch mates for the win. I hope to do well in the Asian Juniors, which I have qualified for as well.”
Sheng Yao of HCI said, “Overall it was a very disappointing performance, I expected to clear at least 4.82m. I felt comfortable enough to skip to 4.83m. On the first two runs, my approach speed was relatively slower, hence I could not clear it. On the final attempt, I hit the bar on the way down, which was unfortunate. I hope to be able to clear at least 5.05 at the Asian Juniors, so that I can qualify for the World Juniors.”
A Division Pole Vault Results
1st Yong Hao, Bennett (#286, Hwa Chong Institution) – 4.43m
2nd Chan Sheng Yao (#254, Hwa Chong Institution) – 4.33m
3rd Dewey Ng (#142, Raffles Institution) – 4.23m
4th Cleon Wong Xin Zhan (#256, Hwa Chong Institution) – 4.08m
5th Ho Wen Jie Brian (#33, Singapore Sports School) – 3.73m
6th Oh Qi Yuan (#143, Raffles Institution) – 3.73m
7th Tan Yung-En Joash (#153, Raffles Institution) – 3.28m
Video © SAA. Used with permission.
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