Story by reader Singapore Sports Fan
Remember this name: Goh Weining. For this Singapore Sports School hurdler could well become the new owner of the national girls Under-17 100m hurdles record next year.
The 14-year-old Secondary Two student – who set a new C Division 80m hurdles record (12.52sec) at the 49th National Schools Track and Field Championships earlier this month – gave a glimpse of that possibility yesterday when she clocked a stunning 15.51sec to win the Girls U-14 100m hurdles final at the 11th Thailand Sports School Games in Khon Kaen.
Although the time is 0.16sec slower than Noreen Herman's yet-to-be-ratified national U-17 record 15.35sec (which was set at the 49th National Schools Track and Field Championships), the fact remains that Weining is two years younger than her 16-year-old Sports School schoolmate.
Weining's new personal best also sets up a healthy and potentially exciting triple-threat jostle for the ownership of the national U-17 girls mark next year. This is because St Nicholas Girls’ student Inez Leong, 16, is also another potential record-breaker.
Of course, such a mouth-watering clash of the titans can only take place if Noreen and Inez are still competing in the U-17 category when the next edition of the Singapore Juniors rolls around next year.
(Note: Inez is the current national U-17 record holder until the Singapore Athletics Association ratifies Noreen's time. She had set the current mark of 15.74sec at the 34th Singapore Junior Athletics Championships last month. She also finished second to Noreen in the National Schools Girls B Division 100m hurdles final in 15.47sec)
Weining's gold was one of two track titles that the Sports School won on the first day of the athletics competition at the Thailand Sports School Games. The other was won by new sprint sensation T. Piriyah in the Girls U-16 400m.
What is interesting about Piriyah's time of 58.29sec is that even though it is more than a second off her sensational personal best of 57.11sec (which she set at the National Schools Championships and which is pending ratification as a new national U-17 mark), it is still the second fastest 400m time clocked by a Singapore runner this year.
The Sports School also won silvers in the Boys U-16 400m (Jamie Coates in 50.08sec), Boys U-16 4×100m relay (Dennis Lim, Jamie Coates, Jared Lim and Anuar Shahrir, 42.70sec) and Boys U-14 4×100m relay (Luqman Zamrot, Vivekanand, Seamus Shi and Nicholas Tang, 45.15sec).
Meanwhile, national triple jump record holder Mariam Shazana could only manage a bronze in the Girls U-17 final after she leapt 11.30m. The distance is 0.29m off her national mark of 11.57m. Sports School's other bronze came from the quartet of Nurul Sakinah, Lim Ying Jia, Valerie Loo and Habibah Najihahbi.
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