Story by Nicole Lum and Carissa Tan/Red Sports. Photos by Clara Yuan/Red Sports
Muhammad Nur Haqim (#160) of Singapore Sports School clocked a timing of 56.56s to take gold. (Photo 1 © Clara Yuan/Red Sports)
Bukit Gombak Stadium, Monday, April 20, 2015 — Singapore Sports School’s Muhammad Nur Haqim struck gold in the B Division boys’ 400m hurdles final with a timing of 56.56 seconds at the 56th National Inter-School Track and Field Championships.
His 56.56s result is an improvement compared to his 58.77s third-place finish a year ago.
Second went to Haqim’s teammate, Marcell Tan who ran the race in 57.59s. Randall Choo of Hwa Chong Institution was third with 59.28s.
Despite attaining the gold medal, Haqim was disappointed.
“I didn’t hit my personal best of 56.1 seconds. I’m quite sad that I didn’t achieve my goal of breaking it; I wanted to do a sub-56s run,” he explained.
However, the Secondary 4 student is still determined to end his season on a good note. “There are still the relays, and I hope to come back stronger,” said Haqim.
When asked about Marcell, his strongest competitor, who also happens to be his teammate, Haqim remarked, “We’re friends during training but enemies on track. But I wouldn’t have gotten the gold if he hadn’t pushed me to go harder in training.”
“I would like to thank my coach. I was very lousy in Secondary 2 but he believed in me and his motivation slowly made me go from nothing to something, from zero to hero,” he concluded, crediting his coach for his progress.
Another athlete who earned the applause from the spectators was Joshua Chua of Raffles Institution. An unfortunate injury in the 110m hurdles a week ago dashed his hopes of a good finish in the 400m hurdles finals, but the 15-year-old still ran the race, limping his way to the finish line.
“I did it for the title championship. We (the schools) are all very close in terms of points. Two years ago, we lost the divisional title by two or three points, and I just don’t want the same thing to happen again.” said Joshua, explaining his decision to run despite having to nurse an injury. “Hopefully this one point can help us win.”
In the National Inter-School Track and Field Championships, athletes attempt to qualify for the final, which subsequently gives them the chance to garner rank points for their school. The team with the greatest number of points will win the divisional title at the end of the meet.
The B Division boys’ 400m hurdles record stands at 55.04s, set by St. Joseph’s Institution alumnus Raymond Lee in 2012.
B Division Boys 400m Hurdles Results
1st Muhammad Nur Haqim B Abu M (#160, Singapore Sports School) – 56.56s
2nd Marcell Tan Yann Guang (#157, Singapore Sports School) – 57.59s
3rd Randall Choo Tian Xi (#561, Hwa Chong Institution) – 59.28s
4th Toh Beam, Isaac (#307, Raffles Institution) – 1:00.12
5th Chiang Jai Ming, Luke (#447, Temasek Secondary School) – 1:00.19
6th Muhammad Hafizul Hakim B M (#341, St. Joseph’s Institution) – 1:00.28
7th Shaun Hin Fei (#303, Raffles Institution) – 1:02.14
8th Joshua Chua Hanwei (#286, Raffles Institution) – 2:01.70
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