Hwa Chong Institution's Mei Togawa went beyond even her own expectations as she vaulted to a new A Division girl's mark of 3.19 metres en route to gold in the girls' Open pole vault event, while Lin Ziqi of CHIJ St. Nicholas Girls' School placed 11th with a 2.30m jump to crack the C Division girls' record.
On the same day that athletes from Hwa Chong Institution (HCI) emerged victorious in the B Division boys' long jump and A Division girls' high jump, Matthew Lee of Raffles Institution (RI) prevented a top three HCI podium sweep in the A Division boys' shot put when he won gold with the furthest throw of 16.66 metres. He finished ahead of HCI duo Kynaston Wee (16.08m) and Murali Sham Kumar (14.93m), while RI's Tim Ong posted 13.66m to sneak into the top four ahead of HCI's Mook He Jun (13.22m).
Coming into the 60th National Schools Track and Field Championships, Deseree Khor of Victoria Junior College (VJC) was upbeat about her chances at gold in the A Division girls' javelin. After all, she was the two-time defending champion in the event's B Division and had also set a then-new C Division record in 2016. Even as she moved up to the heavier 600-gram javelin in the A Division this year, her results remained status quo as she clinched victory in a new personal best of 32.62 metres.
Just three years ago, Hwa Chong Institution's Zeen Chia was competing in racewalking because his coaches told him his frame was too small to be a jumper. Fast forward three years, Zeen has the last laugh, clinching the B Division boys' long jump gold at the 60th National Schools Track and Field Championships in a huge personal best of 6.69 metres. His winning leap was at least 30 centimetres further than the best jumps recorded by his nearest competitors, HCI teammate Isaac Ong (6.39m) and Raffles Institution's high jump champ Mingwen Lee Sullivan (6.21m).
Traditional powerhouses Cedar Girls' Secondary and Nanyang Girls' High School (NYGH) began their title charge for the overall B Division girls' championship on the front foot with Cedar's Daakshayani Negi and Ann Lee of NYGH winning the javelin and triple jump respectively at the 60th National Schools Track and Field Championships.
"IHG brings the hall together. Winning titles, coming together to watch our athletes play, is one thing that we can share as a hall. It’s not often you see different groups from all of hall, despite not always understanding the sport or event, come together to support each other," says Eusoff Hall's JCRC president Matthew Tjoeng.
The Temasek Polytechnic quartet of Alanis Moey, Clara Goh, Haanee Hamkah and Andreana Tang won the women's 4x100m relay final to add to the men's gold; while the National University of Singapore retained their double gold in the 4x400m relays to cap off another successful IVP campaign.
Training mates Timothee Yap of NUS and Tan Zong Yang of SMU finished 1-2 in the men's 200m final in 21.65s and 21.69s respectively, while Clara Goh of TP claimed her first ever IVP gold in the women's final with a new personal best of 26.09s.
