B Div 1500m (Boys): Keith Yong of Sports School wins gold in 4:29.95

Story by REDintern Gabriel Goh. Photos by Clara Yuan and Rebekah Abbott/Red Sports

Singapore Sports School’s Keith Yong came in first with a timing of 4 minutes 29.95 seconds in the Boys’ B division 1500m final. (Photo 1 © Clara Yuan/Red Sports)

Choa Chu Kang Stadium, Wednesday, April 16, 2014 — Singapore Sports School’s Keith Yong won the B Division 1500m final with a time of 4 minutes 29.95 seconds at the 55th National Inter-School Track & Field Championships.

Dylan Tan of Hwa Chong Institution came in second in 4:32.41, while Catholic High’s Chester Lee ran a 4:32.61 to finish third.

Sprinting away from the blocks, Paul Simmy of Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) led the pack before Catholic High’s Chester pushed forward to take the lead late in the second round. The latter soon opened up a huge advantage, but Keith, who clocked a personal best of 4:19.53 at last year’s Asian Youth Games in Nanjing, kept his cool despite being 40m behind with 300m to go.

He reeled Chester in by halving the deficit down the back straight, before sprinting past the Catholic High runer on the final bend as the race lead changed hands for the final time.

This was his second gold medal of the championships, and his fifth overall since 2012.

After his win, Keith said, “I want to thank coach Eugene and my supportive parents in my running journey, along with my friends Gary, Ierhan, Grace and Addef, and many more. The win was all I wanted and I’m happy!”

Keith’s 4:29.95 surpasses Narayan Paudel’s 4:29.89 in 1996 as the slowest winning time in the B Division in the last 34 years.

The hand-timed record is 4:07.3 set by C Veeramani, then of Bukit Batok Secondary, in 1994. Zachary Ryan Devaraj, formerly of Anglo-Chinese School (Independent), holds the electronically-timed mark of 4:12.61 set in 2010.

B Division Boys 1500m Results
1st Keith Yong Sheng Wei (#121, Singapore Sports School) – 4 minutes 29.95 seconds
2nd Tan Yong Jin, Dylan (#558, Hwa Chong Institution) – 4:32.41
3rd Lee Zhong Kian, Chester (#204, Catholic High School) – 4:32.61
4th Paul Simmy (#171, Anglo-Chinese School (Independent)) – 4:32.64
5th Mohammad Shafiq Anshad (#346, Saint Joseph’s Institution) – 4:33.05
6th Lim Wan Hao Mark Llewellyn (#207, Catholic High School) – 4:36.96
7th Hu Huaxin (#532, Hwa Chong Institution) – 4:37.85
8th Shamus Lim Shi Hoe (#554, Hwa Chong Institution) – 4:38.11
9th Chia Zhi Hong (#584, Nan Hua High School) – 4:38.11
10th Chua Ming (#67, Nan Chiau High School) – 4:39.21
11th Juan Banchs (#315, Saint Joseph’s International School) – 4:40.58
12th Gideon Phong Wei Sheng (#155, Anglo-Chinese School (Independent)) – 4:41.15
13th Aaron Chan Siang Joo (#281, Raffles Institution) – 4:41.18
14th Lim Chang Yu (#483, Victoria School) – 4:42.46
15th Louis Shia Wei Jie (#85, North Vista Secondary School) – 4:44.10
16th Cavin Christopher Peter (#34, Deyi Secondary School) – 4:45.77