James Wong returns to competitive throwing and qualifies for SEA Games at 2nd All-Comers Meet

Story by REDintern Colin Tung. Pictures courtesy of Fana Farhanah and Colin Tung.

Bukit Gombak Stadium, Sunday, February 15, 2009 – The first day of competition saw ex-national thrower and multiple SEA Games gold medallist, James Wong coming out of retirement to record an effort of 47.55m in the men’s discus throw (2kg) to beat the qualifying mark for the 2009 Laos SEA Games.

James easily bested the bronze medal mark of 41.82m of the last SEA Games in 2007. Toh Weide of Wings Athletics Club finished second to James with a decent effort of 37.26m.

The 2nd All-Comers Meet was an opportunity for athletes looking to qualify for the Laos SEA Games to post a qualifying mark. The event is one of four official meets, excluding the Singapore Open, for athletes to achieve qualification.

At this All-Comers Meet, held over Saturday and Sunday, the events lined up were the 200m, 400m hurdles, 800m, 1600m race walk, 3000m, 5000m, men’s high jump, men’s long jump, women’s triple jump, women’s shot put (4kg), men’s discus throw and women’s javelin throw.

Away from the field and on the sand-pit, Mariam Shazana of the Auckland University of Technology (AUT) was just 3cm away from breaking her women’s triple jump national record of 11.66m. She recorded 11.63m with only two other women going over 11m.

On the track, there was no lack of action as the two-month old owner of the 110m hurdles national record, Abdul Hakeem Abdul Halim, put in some speed endurance practice in the 200m event. Going head-to-head with Olympian Calvin Kang, who ran in the 100m in Beijing 2008, the 1.83m tall sprinter displayed speed and strength as he led Kang and clocked the fastest time of 22.05sec amongst all the competitors. Kang clocked 22.63sec.

In the 800m, the women’s races saw Lossini J. of Swift Athletes Association powering her way through to a time of 2min 23.93sec.

Given the early stage of the athletics season, this All-Comers saw some athletes opting for distances that were longer than their usual to build up endurance. This must be what 400m national runner Kenneth Khoo had in mind as he lined up in the 800m alongside Fang Jian Yong of Singapore Polytechnic. Fang has been posting some promising times under two minutes in the 800m recently.

The first lap was run in just under a minute as Khoo sat behind Fang, happy to use him as a shield against the headwind. The first lap must have been easy for Khoo, who has a 400m personal best (PB) of under 48sec. Spectators expected Khoo to go sub-60s for the next lap to clock a sub-2:00 min for the 800m. As Fang slowly faded from fighting the wind and the accumulated lactic acid, Khoo took over the lead and drove towards the finish.

As with most efforts in the 800m, the latter 400m was slower than the first. Nonetheless, Khoo managed to get under two minutes to clock a time of 1min 59.05sec. Despite a valiant effort, Fang though could not do the same but still clocked a credible time of 2min 00.85sec. For these two, the season sure looks promising.

Rounding up the action on the track and on Sunday was the mixed 5000m run which had the men and women racing alongside each other. Once again, the name to look out for was Mok Ying Ren as he looked to claim his second win in two days.

Even after his exertions of the previous day at the Wings Cross Country Championships, Mok still managed to win the 5000m by sixteen seconds in a time of 16min 30.58sec, a testament to Mok’s conditioning and fitness.

In the race for second place, Ang Chee Yong of MR25 started conservatively and from down the field of runners, made a strong push to overhaul Darshananth Jayaraman who was second for a significant part of the race. Ang finished in a time of 16:46.62 min while Jayaraman finished third in 16:50.08 min.

Fastest amongst the women was Singapore’s fastest marathoner, Vivian Tang, who clocked 18min 42.70sec. In a separate heat, Natalie Seaman emerged second fastest overall in a time of 18min 58.53sec.

For full results, visit the Singapore Athletics Association (SAA) website at www.singaporeathletics.org.sg.