Wings Athletics Club organised the Wings Meet for the local athletes after 1 week of break from the Singapore Open. It meet was held at ITE Simei where the events waere delayed due to the pouring rain and the logistic problems. They couldn't find a starter gun in time for the races thus causing delays to about an hour or so.
However, there were still PB times made in this Wings Meet.
1. Calvin Kang
100m - 10.94sec Mens 100m Heat 6
Mens 4x400m relay
2. Shalindran
100m - 11.27sec (Season Best) 200m - 22.29sec (Personal Best)
The Wings meet created another platform for more local athletes to compete. The meet was not perfectly organised, but at least we managed to have fun and had friendly competition between athletes. We hope that there will be more of these races in a year to help athletes prepare for their competitions, e.g. IVP, National Schools, Major games like Commonwealth Games, Asian Games, SEA Juniors and even SEA Games.
We have many clubs in Singapore, However, the active ones that have been organizing competitions for the past 5 years are Swift and Wings. I believe the future of Singapore Athletics will be club based and subsequently create the friendly competition within clubs in Singapore. More clubs, more athletes, more chances to represent and compete and thus this will hopefully increase the participation of Athletics in Singapore.
The Singapore Open 2010 was held on the 18th and 19th of Sept and it attracted many foreign and local athletes to Singapore. We saw countries like Japan, Sri Lanka, Chinese Taipei and Thailand to name a few.
Locally, the Singapore men's 4x100m relay team used this meet as their preparation race and tried to emulate the SEA GAMES medal placing run which they did last year. There was however a shuffle in the team as Lee Cheng Wei had to sit out due to a hamstring injury. Calvin Kang was picked to replace him and anchored the race.
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.
The Sprint King program, the brainchild of the Portuguese Athletics Federation, was created in a bid to attract the youth in Portugal to athletics. In order to fight the popularity of football in their country, the program gave athletics coaches and managers the opportunity to identify talented youths in Portugal and subsequently allowed the different channels to assist them in their sporting careers. Taking a page out of the Portuguese’s playbook, Reactiv decided to scale down the event to the school level. One of the first ever Sprint King events in Singapore was held in Anglo-Chinese School Independent (ACS(I)) to help in their recruiting of students from their affiliated schools. It was a 2 hours session with 18 students from Anglo-Chinese School (Junior) and Anglo-Chinese School (Primary) participating. The students were grouped into 3 heats and were subsequently ranked based on their best times in the 60m, to compete in the second race. A training workshop was conducted before the race, where simple running drills and proper starting position were taught to the students. After the 3 finals heats, the 8 fastest sprinters were selected, with the winners being awarded a Reactiv training tee.
The Sprint King
We would first like to thank the teachers of the 3 schools involved, and also the parents of the students, without whom the event would not have been a success. Thanks also go out to the ACS(I) teachers who helped in the logistical and the administrative part of the event; Mr Lawrence Ang, Mr George Lam, Mr Wong Ting Ee and Mdm Kelly Chan. And not forgetting the student helpers from the ACS(I) track team. As a token of our appreciation, everyone involved received a free sample of our Reactiv training apparel line. For more pictures: CLICK HERE
Mens 100m Heat 6
Women 800m
