Of parents, school and sports — athletes have their say at the 100PLUS Athlete of the Year Awards night

By Noor Farhan/Red Sports. Photos by Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports

SAFRA Mount Faber, Wednesday, January 26, 2011 — Some of Singapore’s most outstanding school athletes showed a light-hearted side to their usual serious game face during the 100PLUS 2010 Athlete of the Year Award party.

Cross-country runner, Mok Ying Rong, 17, of Raffles Institution, was honoured for topping the reader-driven 100PLUS Athlete of the Year poll and she was joined on the night by six other school athletes.

A total of 29 individual athletes and 35 school teams were nominated by Red Sports readers.

In a talk-show hosted by Colin Tung and Yvonne Yap of the Red Sports crew, the audience got a glimpse of a rarely-seen side of the athletes.

A normally serious-looking Zachary Ryan Devaraj of Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) displayed a wry sense of humour during the evening.

The 17-year-old, who ran for Singapore in the 1000m at the Youth Olympic Games (YOG), deadpanned: “In fact from Sec 1 to Sec 3, I was content to get second or third but in the end I kind of won (races) accidentally.”

“It’s better to give than to receive … so I give them second place!” added the cheeky Zachary.

However, he was humble enough to acknowledge that international competitors usually leave him trailing in their wake.

”In Singapore, I usually lead all the races except perhaps the Open category. But in international meets, they usually do to me what I usually do to the local competition here,” said Zachary.

The evening took a more sombre tone when 100m sprinter Shahrir Anuar, 18, revealed the emotional turmoil he had to endure after he was overlooked by the national selectors to represent Singapore at the YOG.

“Missing out on the YOG was a disappointment for me, because prior to that was the Asian Youth Games (AYG), which I did well in with a bronze medal. I thought it booked my ticket for the Youth Olympics but things didn’t pan out my way and it affected me emotionally,” said Shahrir.

“I couldn’t really concentrate in school because of the reporters who kept calling me for interviews. It came to a point where my phone kept buzzing all the time and it got really annoying,” recalled the Singapore Sports School alumnus.

“At one point I was even skipping school to get my thoughts straight,” shared Shahrir.

“(Fortunately), my parents had written in to my form teacher to tell her what I was going through and she was very supportive of me. She even texted me frequently to wish me well and in hope that I was doing fine while at the same time not telling everyone else what I was going through,” said the Raffles Institution student.

It was apparent throughout the evening that the athletes had one thing in common — they had the influence and support of their parents, siblings, coaches and teachers.

Ying Rong, who won her first individual cross-country title in the 2010 A Division Cross-Country Championship, said: “For me, my brother (Mok Ying Ren) is sort of like my coach. During the off-season, I do pretty much whatever I want but during the on-season, he plans what I do for my workouts and rest periods.”

For Anglo-Chinese Junior College 400m runner R Avinash, 17, he had his teacher and coach to thank.

“My favourite teacher is Ms Tan, the track and field teacher in-charge. She puts up with all my nonsense, and I can just talk to her about anything, like when I’m down. She always knows the right thing to say.”

“She even sits down and plans my timetable for me and basically helps me walk through this school experience,” said Avinash, who was previously from Seng Kang Secondary.

“My coach is the one who really has an influence in my life. Aunty Margaret. She just wants me to be tough and not let little things pull me down. When I’m injured, she will be like, ‘Yeah, training will (still) be at 4.30.’ She expects me to recover as soon as possible and not let things get to my head,” added Avinash.

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