Story by Jiexin Neo/Red Sports. Photos by Clara Yuan, Laura Lee and Rebekah Abbott/Red Sports
Singapore Sports School’s Kugapriya d/o Chandran (in orange) engineering a come-from-behind victory over Ahmad Ibrahim Secondary (red) to win the gold medal in a time of 4 minutes 12.77 seconds. (Photo 1 © Clara Yuan/Red Sports)
Choa Chu Kang Sports Stadium, Wednesday, April 16, 2014 — Singapore Sports School (SSP) won the B Division girls’ 4×400 metres relay gold at the 55th National Schools Track and Field Championships.
SSP’s Kugapriya d/o Chandran passed Ahmad Ibrahim Secondary (AIS)’s final runner Nurul Natasha with 150m to go, and they went on to win in a time of 4 minutes 12.77 seconds. AIS clinched second in 4:14.31, while CHIJ Secondary (Toa Payoh) clocked 4:16.00 to finish third.
Stacey Choo gave SSP the lead after the first leg. Her teammate Celeste Goh had to fend off her AIS counterpart on the second bend before pulling away to give SSP a sizable lead at the second changeover. A sloppy baton exchange between Celeste and Addeen Idzni Imran, which led to the baton being dropped, erased all semblance of an advantage, and the race was back on.
AIS’ third runner, Nur Maisara, an ex-Sports School runner, stalked Addeen for 250m before powering past the latter as they approached the home straight to hand AIS a lead of about 10m, going into the final 400m. A fast-tiring Addeen was caught by the CHIJ Toa Payoh runner as she handed the baton to anchor Kugapriya. The latter shrugged off the challenge of the CHIJ Toa Payoh anchor, before powering past her AIS counterpart just as they entered the final bend.
Nurul Natasha, the individual 400m winner, was unable to respond, and Kugapriya closed out SSP’s ninth win in the last 10 girls’ B Division 4x400m relay final races.
Kugapriya, who was running her third race of the day, said, “We were very nervous. I guess everybody did their best.”
The B Division 4x400m girls’ relay record is 4:01.98 and was set by Singapore Sports School in 2011.
B Div 4x400m (Girls) Results
1st Singapore Sports School — 04:12.77
2nd Ahmad Ibrahim Secondary — 04:14.31
3rd CHIJ Secondary (Toa Payoh) — 04:16.00
4th Nanyang Girls’ High — 04:17.00
5th CHIJ St Nicholas Girls’ — 04:20.35
6th Cedar Girls’ Secondary — 04:28.90
7th National Junior College — 04:37.13
8th Raffles Girls’ School — 04:40.76
Video © SAA. Used with permission.
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