Take care.
16th Asian Games 2010 Guangzhou, China
The 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou had the hopes of the incredible success of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. As China were well prepared and ready to take on the Asian Games, it was a success. I would say that my stay in Guangzhou was great. Firstly, the very smooth traffic conditions, to the very courteous volunteers ready to greet you at every corner at any time of the day. And the high level of competition at the games. Track and field was scheduled in the later part of the games thus, we had been exposed by the media on how the Asian Games was going and I can remember that I was waiting patiently but eagerly to participate in the games. I was going there for one goal which is the 4x100m relay. There were daily times on the sports on the newspaper given to us every morning in our apartments, there was this interview and the girl said that the experience at the Asian Games were better than that at the YOG simply because the service was so good. The Chinese people had to pride of their country and thus giving their best in their area of volunteering. However, we cannot compare to China mainly because of the people to area ratio. There were hardly any hiccups, bus timings were very consistent, the reporting times and race times were smack on the dot.
On the race day of the 4x100m, I was charged up to run the race of my life as it was the last competition for me for the year. Equipping my mind mentally and staying relax helped me to feel good. The weather was cool and definitely dry, and it did not struck me that I may have been dehydrated. 30mins before reporting I had a major calf cramp. Thankfully, a masseur (sathi) was there to attend to me, shaking and stretching my calf. Downing 2 full bottles immediately helped me to recover. We had our spirits lifted up and were ready to give our best. Our heat had strong competitors like Japan, China, Saudi Arabia. I was at the 4th runner position counting my steps, feeling the cheer of the crowd for china was daunting and having Japan (Olympics bronze medalist) team on the outside of me gave a slight anxiety. But I knew that the Singapore team had trained well and we had the camaraderie and we were ready for this meet.
On your marks! Set, Go! Gun went off. Gary did a great start not letting the Japanese Eruguchi to pull away. Stepping on the mark, Elfi took off, accelerating down the straight. Shouting for ‘ Up!’ Elfi’s Hand went up, Gary aiming to place the baton in his hand. First time, it missed and slip, trying the second time made Gary over stretch and lose his running momentum only leaving elfi pulling further away and out of the exchange zone. There the relay time for the Singapore Team had ended. Leaving Amir and me to watch and observe the other runners zooming past us. We did not know what to do at that moment. In the minds of Gary and Elfi it was a shocker and in my mind, I guess the race was over and it was the end of my season. However, the relay is a team event and we took the result as a team.
Thankfully, they managed to squeeze me in the 200m. I was very fired up to run in the 200m. Usually, I did not have a clear race plan but this time round. I really had a plan from the blocks, coming out fast the first 30m mainly opening up my strides. Coming into the straight at the 80m to engage the frequency and powering and maintaining down to the finish line. In most races, the last 20m would kill me. But having a good race plan and being confident helped me to stick with the pack and finishing with a personal best of 21.68s . I was happy with my timing as I was aiming a personal best. And there I finished my 2010 season on a high. In the 100m having a season’s best of 10.61s and in the 4x100m in 40.14.
Thank you Calvin for sharing your wonderful experience in the Asian Games.
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I personally feel that there were too much pressure on the boys, hoping for a new national record. Having said that, there were also lots of indirect stress on the runners. For example, the new relay coordinator Mr Melvin Tan, took over Coach Hamkah for the responsibility of the 4 x 100m. For the past 4 years when Coach Hamkah and Mr Tang Ngai Kin took control over the relay team, there were resistance from personal coaches, uncertainties and even fights within the team and the coaches. However, the ex SAA had a team of experts to conquer these problems. These people include: Ralph (TD), Veera (Chief Coordinator), Hosni (Head Coach Sprints), Sharon (Video Analysis) and myself (Assistant Coach Sprint). We had a huge team to work closely together. However for this incident in Guangzhou, I would say Mr Melvin Tan is fighting this battle alone. I will not regard this as a failure, and Mr Melvin Tan should face it and come back stronger.
I also feel that nobody should be penalized for the baton passing. Accidents do occur and it happens to be during a major game. In fact, these boys should make full use of the chance to observe and learn from the Asia's best athletes and share it with our local athletes and coaches, and eventually improve our sporting culture in Singapore.
I can't wait for the new season to start and to look out for more young talents and potential athletes from Singapore school's system.
This is Alfred Sim signing off.
400mH
The meet saw its first real action in the Men’s 400mH events where there was a close fight between Muhamad Zaki Sapari from Republic Polytechnic (training under SDSC) and Sharman Dustageer from NUS. There was little to separate the two in the early stages of the race, but it was obvious that Zaki had a good race tempo going and was having an easier time clearing the hurdles because of the height advantage he had over Sharman. It was a close fight but Zaki triumphed in the end, coming in first with a time of 56.09s to Sharman’s 56.69s. Fudin (coach Remy Gan) came in 15th among the 17 hurdlers with a time of 68.10s. This is also his first attempt in the 400mH.
200m
In the 200m, Melanie Francisca and Abdul Hakeem both did personal best and seasons’ best timings respectively. Both athletes managed to qualify for the finals easily, coming in second in their respective heats to qualify automatically. Natalie from RP also came in 4th in the finals with a time of 27.46s. She was racing with powerhouse national athletes and managed to beat the rest of the athletes from other institutions.
The Men’s 200m final boasted a strong field of competitors but Hakeem managed to hold his own, coming in 2nd with a time of 22.08s; a strong showing from him given the fact that he had been away from competition for about half a year. Gary Yeo came in 1st with a time of 21.64s. Marcus and Kyser from RP managed 26.40s and 24.54s respectively in their heats but couldn’t qualify for the finals. It was a struggle for Kyser to start racing so soon after a few months of break. He only had a month of training prior to the IVP.
The Women’s 200m final also saw a quality field of athletes competing. However, with a more aggressive start compared to what she did in the heats, Melanie was able to finish the race in 3rd place with a personal best timing of 25.74s. Dipna Lim Prasad and Valerie Pereira produced stellar performances and fought each other to the finish to take gold and silver respectively with timings of 24.68s and 24.69s respectively.
Relays
The final events for the day were the Men’s and Women’s relays. It was an easy victory for the men from NUS in both relays, with their 4x100m team managing to break the Championship Record. The team was anchored by Abdul Hakeem. The Republic Polytechnic team ran well and came in 8th in the final. Although the time was not faster than the heats, they did their best and some athletes having run than 1 event on the day were evidently worn out. RP came in 3rd for the 4 x 400m, and the runners were Khalis, Zaki, Firdaus and Fudin.
In the Women’s relays, Nikita returned to the track to anchor NTU’s 4x400m team. She managed to sustain the lead they already had and brought the team to victory. Melanie ran in the 4x100 and 4x400m relays where NUS clinched silver medals. RP did not send any women relay team.
This marks the end of the season for most of the athletes. The winners of the events will be invited to race in the Asean University Games in Chiang Mai, Thailand at the end of the year. We hope that they will do well and make us proud.
Credits:
Written by Melanie and Alfred
Edited by Hakeem
Photos courtesy of Benedict Sirius Ong , Lance Tan Fana Farhanah and Singapore Athletic Association
We saw a few Personal Best (PB) and Season Best (SB) performances from Coach Alfred Sim-trained Republic Polytechnic as well as competitors from the Reactiv training group.
Personal Best and Season Best
1. Nikita ran 2 PBs yesterday with one coming in the 800m finals where she came in 2nd behind Lossini of Singapore Polytechnic, and another in the 400m where she established new PBs in the heats and finals, on her way to winning the 400m event.
(Coach Alfred: Nikita started proper sprint training with me during the 4th quarter of last year and improved on her speed after a year of training. She has shown much improvement in her running form. After a few competitions, she started to get the 400m race tempo, and eventually did her PBs at IVP. With the strong endurance base developed by her previous coaches, Mr Low Cham Pew and Mr Lim Kien Mau, it was not difficult for me to bring her to the next level.)
800m - 2mins 32.72secs (PB)
400 heats - 60.68secs (PB)
400 finals - 60.26secs (PB)
2. Melanie ran her first 400m race this season.
(Coach Alfred: Mel was not familiar with the race tempo and messed up her race during the heats, going too fast in her first 200m and eventually dying out due to the early onset of lactic acid accumulation in her race. It was after the 2 hour break where she realized her mistakes and did a SB to justify her painful lesson learnt.)
400 heats - 64.71secs
400 finals - 62.87secs (SB)
3. Firdaus As a captain of RP track team, he managed to run a PB, at the same time clocking below 12s. He is also in the RP 4x100m relay team, where he runs the 2nd leg. RP is now in the finals of the 4x100m to be run this coming Saturday.
Despite coming in 2nd with a timing of 40.71s, the team was still in high spirits and took the opportunity to learn from their mistakes which was evident in the race. We hope they will get their work together before they leave for New Delhi 2 weeks from now.
It has been a tough season for most of the athletes, facing major events like the YOG. This is indirectly affecting our athletes, where it is a nation wide participation and training was slightly disrupted. Having not competed for a long time, our Reactiv athletes were eager to race at the Singapore Open.
Coach Alfred Sim with his athletes.
1. Calvin Kang - 100m - settled for 11th
Needless to say, Calvin's 100m performance was a disaster! His poor execution in his acceleration phase caused him his race. It could be due to his hamstring injury that he caused him to hold back during his race. He had a minor strain on the hamstring when he went to Vietnam Open, Hanoi. However, he did a good anchor for the relay. I hand timed him a fly-in 120m at 11.9s.
Calvin in his 100m heats. finished with a timing of 11.06
2. Shalindran - 400m - 3rd in the finals
Shalindran just recovered from a poplitious tendon injury which started since last Nov. He was still racing till March and was then told to completely rest. After some extensive rehab, he started training again in July. I was shocked when he ran his heats at 52s! Luckily he managed to get back his race momentum the next day in the finals and clocked an early 50s.
Shalindran did his Season Best with a timing of 50.20secs
3. Hakeem - 200m - 3rd in the finals
Hakeem switched from 110m hurdles to 200m. This is his first official race after his switch and a short training of 2 months after this return from the USA, Texas. We were working a lot on his running posture, as he was 'sitting' a little during his run when he just returned. I think 22.55s is a reasonable time for someone who just switched events. These races can be a good build-up for him for his University competition.
4. Melanie - 200m - 5th in the finals
We did a few adjustment this year for Melanie. Her problem is always the acceleration phase. We up the weights, worked on acceleration techniques, breathing techniques and increased her fitness level by increasing the intensity and volume of the endurance workouts. But seems like she can't transfer what we've done into the races. Application is one of the toughest things to do, knowing what to do and executing it, is different!
Melanie did a timing of 27.10secs which was far from her PB of 25.91secs.
5. Nikita - 400m - 4th in the finals
Nikita did a reasonably good timing (61.9s)despite her change in event - from 800m to 400m. I saw that she has the potential to do sprints, her running mechanics and her cadence in her strides convinced me that she can do well in her 400m. Her strong aerobics based training previously with Coach KianMao from RP, made her endurance training easy to handle. We now have to work on the race plan for the 400m.
Let's hope these athletes will do a better time this coming Wings Meet, and to prepare for their big games - Commonwealth Games and IVP for the University Students.
The Singapore Open also invited athletes from SDSC to participate in our event. 100m and 200m wheelchair/non-wheelchair. It is really interesting to watch these athletes compete, especially for our local junior athletes, hope that they will be motivated and train seriously to raise the standard of athletics in Singapore.
100m non-wheelchaired athletes
I personally feel that SDSC should be working closely with SAA and organise their competition with SAA. There should not be a separate meet, as we are all categorized under Athletics. In United Kingdom Athletics (UKA), I had a chance to speak to the head coach for the Paralympic Team - Coach Peter Eriksson, he said that athletics events are all grouped together, Olympics and Paralympics athletes. Therefore I think that this is a good start to let both association and council to work closely together.