Story and photos by Stefanus Ian/Red Sports.

Chan Zhe Ying (#161) of NUS won the Men's Triple Jump event with a distance of 14.40m. (Photo 1 © Stefanus Ian/Red Sports)

Chan Zhe Ying (#161) of NUS won the Men’s Triple Jump event with a distance of 14.40m. (Photo 1 © Stefanus Ian/Red Sports)

Kallang Practice Track, Saturday, January 12, 2019 — Chan Zhe Ying of National University of Singapore (NUS) clinched the gold medal in the Institute-Varsity-Polytechnic (IVP) men’s triple jump event with a distance of 14.40 metres, beating his school teammate Joseph Zhao by 0.29 metres.

Joseph, who recorded only two jumps — 13.91m and 14.11m, ignited the competitive streak in Zhe Ying.

“Actually, coming to this competition I wasn’t very well prepared because it was after the holidays and all that,” said Zhe Ying.

“So actually, I hit 14m I am quite happy already but… my teammate Joseph, he hit 14.10m,” recounted the 23-year-old.

“He was actually in front of me, so I was like, I just had to beat him.”

His winning jump ensured a 1-2 finish for NUS and continued the friendly rivalry between Zhe Ying and Joseph, who were roommates in Myanmar where they competed in the ASEAN University Games. In that competition in December, Joseph had beaten Zhe Ying with a jump of 14.22m.

Arfan bin Azhar of Republic Polytechnic wrapped up the top three with a jump of 13.84m as he adds another bronze to his collection. He also came in third during the POL-ITE triple jump event in November 2018.

Last year’s POL-ITE champion Shawn Jong was edged out of the podium as he came in fifth with a final distance of 13.32m, which was some distance off his previous winning jump of 13.94m.

Zhe Ying said this would probably be his last competitive IVP as he would be focusing on school after the competition. He did not rule out a return in his final year of schooling but he said he “wouldn’t be at this level”.

“I would like to thank my coach, coach Gabriel Lim for putting in so much effort since secondary two, JC, army — all the results I achieved are due to him — and my teammates, and also Joseph.”

“I think without him to compete against me, I probably wouldn’t have done so well.”

Results
IVP Men’s Triple Jump
1 # 161 Chan, Zhe Ying 23 NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 14.40m (2.0)
2 # 197 Zhao, Joseph 21 NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 14.11m (-1.4)
3 # 260 Arfan Bin Azhar 18 REPUBLIC POLYTECHNIC 13.84m (-2.0)
4 # 111 Justin Lee 20 NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY 13.68m (1.0)
5 # 221 Jong, Shawn 19 NGEE ANN POLYTECHNIC 13.32m (1.9)
6 # 274 Soh Ern, Ephraim 21 REPUBLIC POLYTECHNIC 13.32m (1.1)
7 # 437 Chua, Ding Zu 19 TEMASEK POLYTECHNIC 12.70m (0.2)
8 # 62 Putera Muhammad Ariffin 19 NANYANG POLYTECHNIC 12.57m (1.1)

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