Track Finals
Overall 1st
Overall 1st
Wednesday, 19 February 2014
This year's track finals was unlike any other Hall 2 has ever experienced, primarily because it was the first time in three years that we had a very strong chance of breaking Hall 3's dominance on the track. This was evident from our performance in the heats, where we qualified top for 3 events.
A last-minute change of date, however, threatened those chances as this meant that strong runners such as Toh Wee Hong, Angela Yap and Mainisah Buang would not be able to run for the hall due to other commitments. The team, though initially demoralized, quickly picked themselves up and used the disappointment to fuel their desire to win the championship in spite of the circumstances. They hit the track almost every night doing disgusting workouts no one knew was possible.
The loss of Mai and Angela also meant that the girls 4x100m team was in need of 2 more runners, which was not an easy task as all. Clarice Yung and Pei Ying were only drafted in as replacements 3 days before and baton passing training was only done on Saturday night, a mere 9 hours before the finals.
This also meant that Hall 2 running queens, Esther Bobby Ng and Wang Ling Toh will have to run 2 lactic-overloading events back to back; one does not simply run a 400m and 800m consecutively just like that. The body’s lactic threshold needs to be of a formidable level to perform such a task. As such, Captain/Coach Shukri took it upon himself to train these two queens for such a grueling task. This included doing long distance sprints such as 300s and 600s over and over again. But their bubbly personas meant that they pulled through with ease.
All was not sunny for the guys either, though they manage to qualify first for both 4x100m and 4x400m during the heats without Track King Wee Hong. Knowing that other halls will overhaul their relay teams to challenge them meant that our guys’ team needed to do so as well.Terence Cheng came to their rescue to replace the unavailable Wee Hong for 4x100m but this also meant that the race strategy had to be overhauled as no one as is as fast as the Track King/IVP Captain/IVP Champion/Legend. The 4x400m guys had to make do with they have and trained to prepare themselves for a tight battle to come. Clinton Chua Ming Kian, Emmanuel Chia and Lewis Kun all cut seconds during training leaving Captain Shuk as the only burden to the team both in terms of looks and improvement.
With all the trainings and hard work put in the last week, it was time to prove to the rest of the halls that even without our best, we are still the best.
Sunday. Our trackers hardly muttered a word as they started to warm up. Anger and hunger could be seen in their eyes as they did their drills and race preparation.
First up was the 4x100m F. Camellia Goh did a very good job in giving our hall a good position when she passed the baton over to Clarice, however faster halls quickly caught up leaving Clarice 5th or 6th by the time the baton was handed over to our track/hockey queen Shireen.Shireen Pj did an excellent job burning the curve to quickly catch up to second place and it was all left to Pei Ying. The girls lost out to a podium finish by a photo finish; it was that close. Our girls came in 4th and it was a very proud performance by our under-strength 4x100m girls team.
The guys’ 4x100m was next. Things were according to plan as Captain Shuk’s strong start gave our hall a slight lead over the other halls. Terence ran a superb second leg but ironically it was because he ran too fast that cost us a few seconds. He was too fast that by the time he reached Soon Chuen, both were not even in the legal passing zone to hand over the baton. For a good 3 seconds, there was a circus performance going on between the two of them and by the time Soon Chuen had the baton (legally), he had a mountain to climb and climb he did. The track almost melted from his tremendous speed passing the baton to our shining star Fadli in 3rd position. But it was a case of too little too late as he only managed to overtake another runner, helping the team (legally) finish second. The track was on fire from his speed though; they had to douse it with some sand and water afterwards.
The fact that Hall 3 was without their SEA Games runner for the 4x400m F meant that we had a chance for an upset. Camellia dubbed the "pom cha cha" 400m runner was very disappointing as she was so fast that she didn't had time to dance for us in the last 100m unlike in the heats. Jokes aside, she improved by 5 seconds from her heats, which was quite amazing, to handover in 4th position. Shireen made no fuss in closing up the gap, improving by 2 seconds to push the team up to 3rd. Esther was up next, overtaking Hall 3 in the process, but disaster struck when the runner she overtook accidentally stepped on her shoe, causing her to lost her shoe and stumble in the process.
What she did next was what Hall 2 is about. A true reflection of our sportsmanship, she ran back to her shoe and removed it from the track, preventing it from obstructing any runners. Though she lost precious seconds, she still managed to handover the baton at 4th. Just like Esther, Wang Ling too ran her heart out despite also having an 800m race coming up. But the gap left by the accident was one too big and despite her best efforts, our girls finished 4th yet again, just 2 seconds behind 2nd placed Hall 3. It has been that kind of day.
The second last event was a pretty exciting featuring our good-looking (especially Captain Shuk) 4x400m runners. It was going to be a close affair right from the start. As expected, Captain Shuk was a burden when he pulled his groin as he was going out of the blocks. Clearly slower and struggling (from 51.1 secs to 51.7 secs), he finished his leg tied with Hall 16 at first and Sports King Emmanuel Chia did not have such as straightforward a job as he did in the heats. Despite that, he still did fantastically, improving by a full second and handing the baton over to Hall King Clinton Chua again tied first with Hall 16. Clinton’s determination gave him the lead for a good 200m but the tactical Hall 16 runner waited till the last 100m to get back the lead. By the time the baton reached our final runner Lewis, guessed what? We are again almost tied for first with Hall 16 but Hall 3 having a stronger last runner meant that Lewis had to defend second place from the fast-approaching man in yellow. Only upon hearing his second name "Handsome" from the crowd did he realise that he needed to speed up and left the Hall 3 last runner in his wake to finish 2nd. Again they were clearly disappointed but it was a 3 seconds overall improvement by the boys from their heats performance. The boys decided to cheer themselves up by claiming that it was better without Wee Hong as the race would have otherwise been too boring; Wee Hong would have shaved 10 seconds off by himself.
The final race was the grueling 4x800m medley featuring Wangling, dancer Jordan, Esther and Commando Basketballer Ansong. Wang Ling gave a good start to Hall 2 as she run an IVP-level timing of 2:50. Giving Jordan a good base to dance his way through, he was so fast it was unclear if he was dancing or running but the end product was he finished his leg second behind Hall 3 with a time of 2:13. Esther on the other hand had a tougher job as she was sandwiched by 3 IVP runners and it was no surprise that she came in 4th at the end of her leg with a good time of 3:05. Commando Ansong was up and Hall 14 who was 4th had a long lead for him to claw back, which he did. He kept eating away at the lead but realised he was too full 1cm before the finishing line, hence finishing 4th with a personal split of 2:14. Yet again it was a close miss for a podium finish. But this was the best ever 4x800m performance in Hall 2 history. Never before was there a Top 8 finish so it was an excellent job by the 800m runners.
Overall Hall 2 got 29 points from the finals, finishing 2nd behind Hall 3. However, this was before technicalities got in the way. It was deemed that Hall 3 had two cases of obstruction, one in the 4x100m guys and another was in the 4x400 girls where it was against our very own Esther. As a result, Hall 3 were disqualified from both events, leaving Hall 2 champions with the following results from the races:
4x100m F 4th
4x100m M 1st
4x400m F 3rd
4x400m M 2nd
4x800m Medley 4th
4x100m M 1st
4x400m F 3rd
4x400m M 2nd
4x800m Medley 4th
We hence conclude this report with one word: K****.
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