ASEAN University Games: Elfi wins 100m gold while Teo Hui Juen bags javelin bronze

By Noor Farhan/Singapore Universities Sports Council. Reposted with permission of SUSC

Maejo University Main Stadium, Chiangmai, Thailand, Saturday, December 18, 2010 — Muhammad Elfi Mustapa’s gold medal win in the men’s 100m had the “Majulah Singapura” being played for the first time at the ASEAN University Games.

Earlier in the day, Team Singapore won its first ever medal in the Games through Teo Hui Juen’s bronze-winning throw in the women’s Javelin event.

“I feel quite happy to be able to get Singapore’s first medal. The standard is quite high, and so I was very happy to be able to compete with other female athletes competing at this level,” said Hui Juen.

“In my opinion, I felt that I’ve underperformed as I was hoping to do better and for today my throws were a bit slow. My throw today of 38 metres was quite okay. Although it was below my expectations, to be able to win a medal is good enough for me (for this Games).”

In the men’s 100m sprint, a false start by Malaysian sprinter Kannan Subramaniam proved to be a temporary setback for Elfi’s medal winning run.

The National University of Singapore (NUS) sprinter managed to refocus and pip Indonesia’s Fadlin by a mere 0.01 second for the win.

“I was being focused from the beginning, although I think my start was a bit wrong because my blocks flew out of the zone, probably due to the spikes that weren’t fastened properly,” recalled Elfi, who graduated from Tanjong Katong Secondary School in 2003.

“(Because of that) I was (lagging behind) the rest at first, but after the transition stage I went neck-and-neck with the Indonesian (Fadlin) all the way to the end,” said the former Tampines Junior College athlete.

“The AUG race is quite important to me, because I’m representing my school as well, as compared to running for the national team and I’m quite satisfied with my performance,” added Elfi.

Commenting on the level of competition, he noted: ”The standard is quite close to the South-East Asian (SEA) Games standard. The Indonesians are also in the SEA Games squad, so we’ll probably see them again in the next Games.”

Men’s 100m Race Results

1st: Muhammad Elfi Mustapa (Singapore), 10.59s
2nd: Fadlin (Indonesia), 10.60s
3rd: Fernando Lumain (Indonesia), 10.65s
4th:Muhammad Amirudin Jamal (Singapore), 10.69s