Story by REDintern Iman Hashim. Photos by Les Tan/Red Sports
Syed Hussein Aljunied of Pasir Ris Secondary won the U18 5km race in 17:04. (Photo 1 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
Bedok Reservoir Park, Saturday, February 6, 2016 — 16-year-old Syed Hussein Aljunied made an early statement to his rivals when he clocked 17 minutes 4 seconds over 5km to clinch first place in the Under-18 boys category at the 65th Singapore Athletics Cross Country Championships.
This championship is usually the first race of the cross country calendar as school athletes gear up for the National Inter-School Cross Country Championships.
Hussein, who took part in this championship as an unattached participant, is a secondary four student from Pasir Ris Secondary School. His timing was his 5km personal best and was also just one second slower than the time clocked by Under-20 men’s category winner, Tan Chong Qi of Raffles Institution (RI).
RI duo Armand Dhilawala Mohan (17:15) and Gupta Chirag (17:45) finished second and third respectively behind Hussein in the U18 race.
Hussein started the race strongly, leading the pack for the first 400 metres. However, at the 400m mark, Armand inched closer to him and soon overtook him after the hilly portion of the route near the pumping station.
Armand’s lead did not last more than 200 metres, though, as Hussein soon picked up his pace and snatched back the lead after following closely behind. As soon as Hussein went back ahead, Armand started to tire slowly and Hussein took the opportunity to open up the gap.
Hussein never relinquished his lead for the rest of the race. In fact, in the last 50m, he could afford to look back to make sure that no one else was nearing him.
On his race, Hussein said that overall, he was happy. He commented, “The race went according to plan. My race strategy was just to lead all the way and basically just do my best. The race always depends on the day itself and the other runners too. I was going for the position but I think I could have gone faster.”
This season, Hussein will take part in the B Division of the National Inter-School Cross Country Championships on March 23. He is also targeting the 3000m and 1500m events at the National Inter-School Track and Field Championships in April.
In 2015, he finished third and fourth respectively in the B Division 3000m and 1500m, while he did not finish the national schools cross country race as he got pushed midway.
He is therefore looking for redemption in the season ahead.
Hussein said that he feels confident of replicating this success but cautioned that he still needs to train harder from now on. “The rest of my competitors are definitely going to train harder too,” he added.
His next race will be the Wings Cross Country Championships on Saturday, February 20, which will act as the final tune-up before the inter-school season begins.
U18 Boys – 5km (Top 10)
1st Syed Hussein Aljunied (#264, Unattached) — 17:04
2nd Armand Dhilawala Mohan (#209, Raffles Institution) — 17:15
3rd Gupta Chirag (#200, Raffles Institution) — 17:45
4th Wen Han Er (#241, Hwa Chong Institution) — 17:51
5th Ali Lodhi (#259, Unattached) — 17:56
6th Zi Jian Yeo (#262, Unattached) — 18:19
7th Chai Wen Bin (#251, Catholic High School) — 18:20
8th Nixon Ng (#223, Singapore Sports School) — 18:23
9th Ziqing George Lai (#242, Hwa Chong Institution) — 18:33
10th Gabriel Neo (#230, Victoria School) — 18:36
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