Story by Clement Tan/Red Sports, with additional reporting by Erwin Wong. Pictures by Rebekah Abbott/Red Sports.
Jerrell Lim (SAS #296) won gold in a time of 6 minutes 38.67 seconds. (Photo 1 © Rebekah Abbott/Red Sports)
Bishan Stadium, Monday, 24 April 2017 — After finishing third at last week’s 3000 metres and last month’s National Schools Cross Country behind Raffles Institution’s Armand Mohan and Hwa Chong Institution’s Joshua Rajendran, frustration was starting to mount for Jerrell Lim at the 58th National Schools Track and Field Championships.
On Monday, he not only finally broke his gold duck this season, but brought home St Andrew’s Secondary’s first gold medal from this meet in 19 years — Aaron Huang was the last with his 100-200 metres A boys sprint double in 1998. Jerrell finished the B boys 2000 metres steeplechase ahead of the three people who have recently outrun him, including Singapore Sports School’s Rohan D’Costa.
“This is the first time I’ve won gold in a track event, and after two bronzes this year,” Jerrell said. “Hard work pays off, this is a breakthrough for me.”
Jerrell crossed the finish line in 6 minutes 38.67 seconds, with Rohan claiming silver and Armand the bronze, while Joshua finished fourth. Joshua’s Hwa Chong seniors cleared the podium in the A boys’ 3000m steeplechase event, led by Fang Yiyang in 10:40.11, with Ivan Song claiming the silver and Er Wen Han, bronze.
For Wen Han, this medal was particularly poignant after he finished out of the medal placings after having led the chasing pack in the 5000m. The three Hwa Chong A boys medallists were also very keen to credit their coach Steven Quek for their success.
“Our plan was to go fast, but the pace was a little slow at the beginning so I decided to break away,” he said. “We had a common goal together as a team and that’s what worked for us.”
Isaac Tan of Anglo-Chinese School (Independent), the silver medallist at the national schools cross country last month and the 5000m last week, could only muster a sixth-placed finish in the 3000m steeplechase.
But there was no such woes for Victoria Junior College’s Phoebe Kee, who completed a hat-trick of distance titles, winning the A girls 2000m steeplechase to add to her 3000m and the cross country titles.
“I was quite clumsy with the steeples, but I just wanted to do my best today,” said Phoebe, for whom Monday’s race was the first time she ran a steeplechase event competitively.
A Division Girls 2000 Metres Steeplechase Final Top Eight
1st Phoebe Kee (#184 Victoria Junior College) 7:51.65
2nd Corrie Teo (#109 Raffles Institution) 7:58.38
3rd Ng Qi Hui (#183 Victoria Junior College) 7:59.44
4th Elaine Quah (#122 Raffles Institution) 8:03.05
5th Levyn Wong (#157 Dunman High School) 8:16.40
6th Cheryl Chng (#229 Hwa Chong Institution) 8:47.65
7th Tay Ling Yin (#188 Victoria Junior College) 8:53.96
8th Chen Sui (#228 Hwa Chong Institution) 8:58.76
A Division Boys 3000 Metres Steeplechase Final Top Eight
1st Fang Yiyang (#263 Hwa Chong Institution) 10 minutes 40.11 seconds
2nd Ivan Song (#284 Hwa Chong Institution) 10:45.15
3rd Er Wen Han (#261 Hwa Chong Institution) 10:48.06
4th Vignesh Ravi Baskar (#164 Raffles Institution) 10:54.38
5th Gabriel James Beo (#217 Victoria Junior College) 10:54.70
6th Isaac Tan (#86 Anglo-Chinese School (Independent)) 11:05.28
7th Brandon Quek (#209 Victoria Junior College) 11:22.46
8th Ryton Teo (#153 Raffles Institution) 11:42.78
B Division Boys 2000 Metres Steeplechase Final Top Eight
1st Jerrell Lim (#296 St Andrew’s Secondary) 6 minutes 38.67 seconds
2nd Rohan Paul D’Costa (#123 Singapore Sports School) 6:39.50
3rd Armand Dhilawala Mohan (#258, Raffles Institution) 6:45.94
4th Joshua Rejendran (#536 Hwa Chong Institution) 6:52.33
5th Chiew Le Wei (#462 Victoria School) 6:55.64
6th Winson Zheng (#392 Dunman High School) 6:57.49
7th Chua Jia Wei (#528 Hwa Chong Institution) 7:00.39
8th Chan Ho Him (#90 North Vista Secondary) 7:02.12
More photos next page
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