Dipna Lim Prasad twice rewrites her own national 100m hurdles record

By Erwin Wong and Colin Tung/Red Sports

Bukit Gombak Stadium, Sunday, January 23, 2011 – Dipna Lim Prasad broke her own national 100 metres hurdles record of 14.72 seconds not once, but twice, at the first Singapore Athletic Association Track and Field Series of the year.

The 19-year-old Nanyang Technological University freshman clocked 14.69 during the preliminaries with a tailwind of +1.9 metres per second, and improved to a 14.56 (+0.1 m/s) showing in the final. That broke her record set at the 2009 Malaysia Open meet.

“Breaking the 100m hurdles record was a great relief, and a pleasant surprise, because before this, I didn’t know how long it would take for me to get my hurdling back on form,” said Dipna, who had a year-long injury lay-off from the hurdles event.

“It’s such a technical event so being away from it for a year, only to run it after less than a month of training, is quite scary! I’m happy with my times, two new PBs (personal bests)! You can’t complain when you manage to get something like that.”

The rewriting of her national record marks an excellent three months of competition for Dipna. She ran a 100 metres PB of 12.21 at the first session of the SSA Track and Field series one week earlier. Only national record holder Amanda Choo has clocked quicker electronic-timed runs.

At last month’s ASEAN University Games, Dipna ran the fastest 200 metres by a Singaporean female since Prema Govindan set her 1984 national record of 24.54. Dipna’s time of 24.61 brought her the bronze medal then.

This followed a stunning 24.68s result at October’s Institute-Varsity-Polytechnic Games, a massive personal best by 0.71 seconds, which led to a question of whether she would give up the hurdles for the 200m.

Dipna told Red Sports then: “I don’t know about making the 200m my pet event. I really love to hurdle. I will begin hurdle training again in December after the ASEAN University Games (AUG).”

Her training and love for the discipline has paid off in the form of the newly rewritten records we have witnessed today, but Dipna is not resting on her laurels just yet.

“I was jumping over the hurdles and hanging too long, for the heats. My final run felt much better, but I definitely still need to work on my technique and get my rhythm back,” said Dipna as she compared her two record-breaking runs.

“I’m hoping to qualify for the South East Asian Games in Indonesia. That’s my main goal for this year.”

The qualifying mark for the November Games is 14.21 seconds, based on the bronze-medal winning result at the previous Games in 2009.