Singapore Open 2010

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.