Story by Iman Hashim/Red Sports. Photos by Les Tan/Red Sports
Hannah Yeo of VJC in action during the 4x400m final. Hannah finished an unexpected second in the 100m final earlier in the day. That started VJC off on their way to winning the A girls’ divisional title on the final day of the championships. (Photo 1 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
National Stadium, Friday, April 29, 2016 — Victoria Junior College (VJC) clinched their first A girls’ divisional title since 1995 at the 57th National Schools Track and Field Championships.
VJC finished with a total of 168 points, just eight points ahead of traditional powerhouses Hwa Chong Institution (160 points). Raffles Institution (RI) were third in the standings with 156 points.
“I am overjoyed,” said Tan Yew Hwee, the Physical Education Head of Department at VJC. “Relief too as we were tied on points with HCI on the second last day and RI were hot on our heels. RI and HCI have better relay teams than us.
“In addition, RI have more runners in the last two individual events. I could see that the 800m would be the event to determine our title, thus I needed to find ways to motivate the three 800m runners,” added Mr Tan, who is a VJC alumni and has been with the school as a teacher since 1995.
Going into the final day of competition, both VJC and HCI sat at the top of the standings with 139 points each. A first-placed runner earns nine points for her school. Second place garners seven, third place six, and so on until eighth position, which earns a point.
VJC seized the upper hand first following the A Division Girls’ 100 metres final, with Hannah Yeo coming in an unexpected second in 13.20 seconds. There was no HCI runner in the final.
“Her silver was not expected because she was placed between 3rd-6th throughout the season (SA Track Series, National Juniors and National Schools),” said Mr Tan about Hannah, a CHIJ St. Nicholas Girls’ School alumni who had also clinched a surprise silver medal in the 200m earlier in the meet. “She is just a super determined fighter, with great attitude.”
VJC then pulled further away in the overall standings when Alexandra Louise Wee (2:36.53), Ng Qi Hui (2:40.35) and Kimberly Lai (2:41.86) finished first, fifth and eighth respectively in the A Division Girls’ 800m final, in comparison to HCI’s Dilys Hor (4th) and Claudia Sng (10th).
With a 16-point lead going into the final two events, successive fifth placings in the A Division Girls’ 4x100m and 4x400m relays for VJC then ensured they claimed their first divisional title in 21 years.
Other notable performers in the VJC girls’ team included Vanessa Lee, Nicole Low, Daphne Kwok, Desiree Tan and Lynn Teoh, who racked up a total of 85 points between them. Vanessa won the 1500m (5:06.61) and 2000m steeplechase (7:38.16, new record), while Nicole finished second in the steeplechase (7:56.82) and won the 3000m (10:57.61, new record).
Daphne clinched a jumps double gold, winning the long jump (4.97m) and triple jump (11.35m), with Desiree doing likewise in the throws (discus 32.93m, shot put 11.04m). Lynn won the javelin gold (34.13m) and came in third in the discus (27.04m).
On Nicole, who had no prior track experience, Mr Tan said, “Nicole was alerted to us by Cedar Girls’ teacher, Chris Chan. He reckoned that this girl just needed an opportunity to race. Vanessa did national inter-school cross country in Secondary 4 where she came in 4th. However, her teacher in TKGS, Tze Woon, has been mentioning her to me even before she took part in that race.”
With regard to Daphne, Mr Tan added, “Daphne Kwok was expected to get the double gold and she delivered. Very teachable girl. Credits goes to her coach and her own motivation.”
This is only VJC’s fourth A girls’ divisional title in the history of the annual Championships. Ever since their last title win in 1995, only three other schools have won it – Raffles Institution (formerly Raffles Junior College, pre-2009), Hwa Chong Institution (formerly Hwa Chong Junior College, pre-2005) and National Junior College, with 12, six and two titles respectively.
Meanwhile, HCI did not go home empty-handed, sweeping the boys’ B and C divisional titles. Their B boys finished with 151 points, ahead of Singapore Sports School’s (SSP) 127 points, while their C boys (163 points) got the better of Raffles Institution (129 points). It is their 33rd C Division title in 35 years.
Cedar Girls’ Secondary destroyed the competition in the girls’ B Division, finishing a huge 83 points ahead of SSP. In the girls’ C Division, Nanyang Girls’ High School successfully overhauled Cedar Girls’ on the final day of competition, clinching the divisional title with a 19-point difference.
For the A boys, RI wrestled back the divisional title from HCI, finishing 34 points ahead of their perennial rivals.
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