Story by Iman Hashim/Red Sports. Photos by Cheah Wenqi/Red Sports.

Tia Louise Rozario (SSP #42) set a new championship record and clinched the National A Division gold medal with a leap of 5.66m. (Photo 1 © Cheah Wenqi/Red Sports)

Bishan Stadium, Thursday, April 6, 2017 — Tia Louise Rozario of Singapore Sports School (SSP) leapt 5.66 metres to clinch the A Division girls’ long jump gold at the 58th National Schools Track and Field Championships. In the process, the Year 5 student surpassed the previous championship mark of 5.43m set by Lynette Lim, then of Victoria Junior College (VJC), in 2015.

Tania Koh of Hwa Chong Institution came in second with a 5.17m jump while defending champion Daphne Kwok of VJC jumped 5.11m to come in third.

Coming back from an overseas competition, Tia said she was happy with her performance despite not breaking her personal best.

The 16-year-old said, “I’m quite satisfied because I just came back from a competition in the Philippines – so since I did well there, I didn’t want to overpush myself. So overall it was a pretty good performance for an event right after a major competition.”

Tia jumped 5.85m at the 12th South-east Asian Youth Athletics Championships held in Ilagan City, Philippines a week ago. That distance fell marginally short of her personal best and national under-18 girls’ record of 5.86m, set at the previous edition of the championships in Thammasat University, Thailand, last year.

“I was going for a PB (today), but I always hope for performances based on how I feel on that day – so if I feel good then obviously I would be going for more than my PB. But today I felt mediocre, so I thought, okay, if I managed to get within a certain range of my PB, I’d still be satisfied,” she said.

Tia had an underwhelming first three jumps, before first surpassing the championship mark with a 5.52m jump on her fourth attempt. Recovering from a foul attempt on her fifth try, she then cemented her place in the record books with her final jump.

Tia’s feat means she now holds the long jump record across all three girls’ divisions in the annual schools championships. This is also her fourth straight gold in the event, a run kickstarted with her C Division triumph in 2014.

When asked how she motivates herself before her jumps, she said: “I try to relax myself and if I’m in a winning position, obviously I would think, oh, I cannot just relax now because it’s not over. It’s only over after everyone has done her six jumps.”

“So I just have to constantly remind myself that if miracles happen to me when I’m jumping, it can happen to someone else as well. So I cannot let my guard down and just keep my focus all the way,” she said.

Tia will look to rewrite her national under-18 girls’ mark of 5.86m in other competitions this year, starting from the Singapore Open championships held in end-April. She has also qualified for the 2nd Asian Youth Athletics Championships in Bangkok, which she will compete in the following month.

For now, she has her sights set on clinching the A Division girls’ 100m hurdles gold. Having won four sprint hurdles titles in a row – the C girls’ 80m hurdles in 2013-14 and B girls’ 100m hurdles in 2015-16 – she is the overwhelming favourite come April 18.

On her hopes for the hurdles event, she said, “I won’t be going for the record this year, I’m going for it next year. But I’ll be trying to get a PB, and hopefully sub 15s.”

(Update: Tia now no longer holds the long jump record in all three girls’ divisions, as Dunman High’s Lim En Ning jumped 5.79m in the B girls’ long jump two weeks later – breaking Tia’s record of 5.56m set in 2015.)

A Division Girls’ Long Jump – Top 8
1st Tia Louise Rozario (#42, Singapore Sports School) – 5.66 metres
2nd Tania Nicolette Koh (#251, Hwa Chong Institution) – 5.17
3rd Daphne Kwok (#176, Victoria Junior College) – 5.11
4th Natasha Audrey Weers (#254, Hwa Chong Institution) – 4.98
5th Rachel Phua (#216, Anglo-Chinese Junior College) – 4.77
6th Tan Xinyi (#156, Dunman High School) – 4.72
7th Fay Yeo (#172, Victoria Junior College) – 4.70
8th Pearlyn Loh (#153, Dunman High School) – 4.61

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