By Romaine Soh/Red Sports
Lynette Lim in action during the B Div long jump final which she won with a 5.20m leap. She set the national record of 11.79m in the B Division triple jump event. (Photo © Les Tan/Red Sports)
Choa Chu Kang Stadium, Tuesday, April 9, 2013 — Lynette Lim Enxuan, 15, leapt 11.79 meters in the B Division triple jump to win gold at the 54th National Schools Track and Field Championships. In so doing, the Cedar Girls’ Secondary school-athlete established records in seven categories at a go: national open, national junior, Youth Best Performance, under-23, under-19, under-17 and B Division.
The B Division record of 11.56m, previously set by Mariam Shazana Bte Jalalludin, then of Singapore Sports School in 2008, was bettered by a whopping 23 centimeters.
Lynette improved on the national record of 11.73m by six centimeters, a record that was set in 2009 by Mariam Shazana while she was in Vietnam.
“Being one of the youngest in Singapore to hold a national record, I feel extremely delighted as it is a feat that I did not dream of achieving before,” said Lynette.
“In this competition (the National Schools), my goal was just to break the B Division record, but with the help of my coach (Mr John Seem) and teacher (Ms Yang Pei Shan), I managed to push myself to break the national record as well. Besides that, I am also thankful for having such an amazing and great coach for being able to coach me well and allowing me to be where I am today,” added Lynette.
With this effort, the school-athlete has met the qualifying marks for two major overseas competitions this year: the 8th SEA Youth Athletics Championships (qualifying mark: 11.12m), and the Nanjing Asian Youth Games (qualifying mark: 10.73m).
“I started training for the jumps in Secondary One after the internal selection process (at Cedar Girls’). At first, I did not really like triple jump as I thought I wasn’t able to do it, but after trying it out for a few training sessions, I realised that it was actually quite enjoyable,” recalled Lynette of her start in the discipline.
Lynette, who turns 16 in November, joins a small elite group of athletes who have set national records at a young age.
Stefan Tseng was 16 years 5 months old when he broke the national triple jump record of 15.52m in July 2006 with a 15.52m effort at the ASEAN Schools Championships in Chiangmai, Thailand.
Chan Sheng Yao, at 17 years, 20 days old, of Hwa Chong Institution, wrote himself into the record books when he cleared 4.82 metres in the A Division pole vault at the 2013 54th National Schools Track and Field Championships.
James Wong was 17 years, 3 months old, when he broke the discus record of 41.45m in April 1986. James is the current national discus record holder with a 59.87m throw in Wiesbaden, Germany.
The youngest female national record holder is Mariam Shazana, who was 14 years, 26 days old, with her triple jump effort of 11.36m in July 2006.
Is a SEA Games in her future?
“I might consider training for the SEA games in the future. There are many factors affecting my decision about it, the most important one being my studies,” said Lynette.
For more photos of the B Division Girls Long Jump event, go to: Red Sports Images
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