19th Asian Athletics Championships - Hyogo, Kobe 2011

A view from the practice/warm up track

The 19th Asian Athletics Championship is held in Japan, Kobe. This is already the 3rd day and we are still very excited about this trip. Team Singapore sent 7 Athletes with 1 Team manager/Coach. They are:

Relay Men:
1. Calvin Kang
2. Amiruddin
3. Gary Yeo
4. Elfi Mustapa
5. Izwan Firdaus

Pole Vault Women
1. Rachel Yang

100m Hurdles
1. Dipna Lim

Today marks the beginning of the competition with the 100m Men Heats which started in the morning, 10.40am. There were 4 heats altogether and progression of 3 + 4 to the Semi-finals. Our representatives are Elfi and Amir, who did 10.78s and 10.70s respectively. Only Amir is lucky enough to squeeze through the heats and managed to earn himself a spot in the semi-finals as the last qualifier. Both Elfi and Amir tightened up towards the last part of the race, and this caused their reduction in the leg frequency.


For more information on the result, please visit: www.asianathletics.org

The athletes faced wet condition with heavy drizzle whole day, slippery training ground and cold weather. Our athletes were drench during warm up and did their best to stay in the cover as much as possible. I hope this bad weather will not last for the next 3 days of competition. The Pole Vault Men was also reschedule due to the rain and risk of injuries.

Warming up in the shelter

Had some nice Takoyaki before we leave for Hotel.

Our team when back to hotel for lunch and Amir was ready to set off for his Semi-final on the same day. We took the 3pm bus ride for the 5.45pm race. The sky still did not clear up and the heavy drizzle continued to wash the track. Most of the athletes took the initiative to warm up indoor on hard concrete ground, a long curved corridor of the main stadium.

Athletes preparing for the 100m

Amir was in heat 2 of the semi-finals where he challenged the Asian power house athletes. Sri Lanka - Shehan, Japan - Kotani, HongKong - Tsui Chi Ho and our SEA games countries Indonesia - Fadlin and Thailand - Jirapong (AYG Champion). Amir dipped with the pack and only managed to beat his previous time by 0.01s. Came in 2nd last with the time of 10.69s.

At the end of the day, we met up with James Wong and SAA President Mr Tang Weng Fai for dinner at a Japanese Restaurant. We went straight from the stadium, and that explains why we looked like going for training... We had a huge feast!

The Men's Relay 4 x 100m will be the next day, and I'll will be blogging very soon.
Oyasuminasai :)

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1st Singapore U23 / Open T&F C'ships

This Track and Field Championship was a good initiative by the association to get our youths more involved in the sport even after National Schools is over. It was a big step forward for the association as this Championship was heavily invested by Mr. SUN HUI of SUN INVESTMENT DEVELOPMENT PTE LTD. It was a Singaporean-only event for the youths to showcase their talents and SAA proposed to send the two top performers, 1 male and 1 female, to the 13th IAAF World Championships. Held at the Nanyang Polytechnic over 2 days, the event however saw very little participation.

Gunter's workshop was also held in NYP, focusing on the topic of throws. Our guys went to the workshop to sit in with the throwers, and the throw coaches. However, the participation for the workshop was also quite poor. Only 2 coaches, and a few of our throwers turned up.



On the Reactiv front, we had a few athletes putting their mettle to the test.

1. Lossini
800m Women open - 2mins 36.62secs
400m Women open - 1min 04.37secs

2. Calvin Kang
100m Open - 11.06secs



3. Marcus Kwuan
100m Boys - 13.28secs

4. Huang Laiyu
400m Boys - 1min 04.45secs

5. Nikita
Fell sick so was not able to participate.

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Republic Polytechnic Sports Award Night - Glitz

My Dearest RP Track team :)

It was a night to recognize the sporting heroes of Republic Polytechnic. Representing Athletics to win medals and breaking records were a team of athletes who fought their way through hardship and determination in their golden teenage years. These athletes reminded me of myself when I was competing during my school days. It was a fun night, organized by the OSG of RP, mainly to recognize the achievements of the students athletes in RP.

The Glitz Night.
"Glitz is a celebration and recognition of our students' passion, dedication and contribution towards Republic Polytechnic's sports development and excellence. it also recognizes our students' passion towards excellence and dedication in making an impact to their holistic development as a young individual."

The following athletes from RP were awarded for their contributions:

Nominees for Sportswoman of the year:
The Sportswoman of the year shall be awarded to any member who has by her performances, achieved a high standard of sporting excellence and displayed outstanding levels of Sportsmanship.
Nurhaishireen Bte Mohd Rahim (SAS)
POLITE Games 2010/2011:
Gold (triple jump & long jump)
IVP Games 2010/2011:
Gold (triple jump)
5th SEA Junior Championship, Bangkok:
4th (triple jump)

Nominees for Captain of the year (Female):
The captain of the year shall be awarded to the most outstanding captain who possesses good leadership qualities, has developed good camaderie with the team and advisors and demonstrated good sportsmanship.
Lieu Hui Xian (SHL)

Meritorious Silver Award
The meritorious silver award shall be awarded to any member who has been in the polytechnic team for at least 1 full academic year, attained a reasonably high standard of play and displayed a high degree of sportsmanship.
Muhammad Zaki Bin Sapari
Nurhaishireen Bte Mohd Rahim

Certificate of Merit
The certificate of merit shall be awarded to any member who has been in the polytechnic team for at least 1 full academic year and who may not possess a high standard of skill in the sport, but by his/her dedication, enthusiasm and effort helps to promote the activity on campus.
Chua Chin Yang
Mohamad Khalis B Mohamad Rosli
Mohammad Firdaus B Subagio
Seelam Jayanth Vijay Kumar
Lieu Hui Xian
Natalie Lee Mei Ying

I hope this marks a new beginning for the athletics team, and will eventually motivate them to train and work hard for their sports and events. At least we know that after contributing through hard work and sacrifices, we get recognized by our peers, advisors and coaches.

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Team RSYC at Bay Challenge

Team RSYC is proud to be a participant of the first ever Bay Challenge held in conjunction with the Boat Asia 2011, held on the 14-15 May at the Marina Bay. 16 teams from all over the world had taken part in this race, including Team RSYC, helmer by Reactiv's very own athlete, Fendi.



Fendi had come to Reactiv seeking for apparel sponsorship for racing and Reactiv had provided each person of the 3 man team, 2 team shirts each, complete with bold artwork and designs unique to the team. That's not all as Reactiv had gladly provided the team with 15 extra T-shirts for Team RSYC's supporters and fans. Everyone wanted a shirt of their own and they were all given out by the very first day of racing.



Fendi's team were unlucky to lose out in the round robin as he was drawn up against the top 2 teams in his 'Group of Death' as there was no seeding system in the race. These two teams went on the win 1st and 2nd place. Despite all this, it is certain that Team RSYC was the team most widely remembered by their luminous orange racing wear provided by Reactiv and their effervescent attitude.



Team RSYC would like to thank their sponsors Reactiv for their support and sponsorship throughout the event and are looking forward for their continual support in races to come.


Written by Fendi
Edited by Shalindran

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2011 SAA Track and Field Series 4

The Track and Field Series 4 was organized at Singapore Sports School this time round and this meet saw little participants as compared to the previous meets. The end of the National School Competitions could be the main reason why there weren't many athletes being involved. The Series 4 was initially a 2 day event. However it had to be squeezed into one day as the Singapore General Elections were held on the 1st day, Saturday. Our athletes have been training hard over the past few weeks for this meet.

We are still adopting Gunter's training and yet to see any positive results. We have just moved into the NMS - plyometrics phase. Hopefully we are able to see some changes towards the end of the phase; in 5 weeks time. We are training diligently and able to stick to at least 80% of the required training components.

Under harsh weather condition and poor participation, we were struggling to compete and stay focus. Lossini, an experienced athlete, sprained her ankle at the first 200m of the 800m race causing her to lose her focus. She lost her balance and stepped on the metal rail on the left of lane 1 which resulted with an injured right ankle. Here's how our other athletes fared in the meet.

Khalis
400m - 53.65secs
800m - 2min 08.73secs

Calvin
100m - 11.35secs
4x100m - 41.98secs

Nikita
400m - 61.79secs
800m - 2mins 37.90secs

Lossini
800m - 2mins 42.05secs


I'm sure the next Track Series will be much better, in terms of participation and our athletes performances. As it is closer to competition phase, the performing athletes will need more competitions. Let us hear from the athletes, how they felt towards the track series and their training:

Nikita -
The usual competitors werent present at this meet, especially for the 800m. It was a below average performance for the 800m race, partly due to the lack of participants and the scorching weather. As for the 400m, there was intense competition as Singapore's finest runners competed in that event as well. My timing of 61secs was 2secs short of my targeted timing. Though it wasnt one of my best races, it was tackled with a new race strategy; starting off strong at the first 200m. I hope, with continual effort & training with Coach Alfred, the next Track Series will see some positive results.

Khalis -
I felt that Series 4 was something to look forward to. After training hard for the past few months, i was finally competing. I felt that i could have done better after analysing the mistakes after the race. I'm quite disappointed with the results but i hope that the next series would bring better results for me.

Calvin -
There were some hiccups in the men's 100m race due to the new starting gun. In my opinion, the gun sound was not loud enough for the athletes which resulted in a few athletes to fumble when the gun went off. Some of them slowed down thinking it was a false start.



However, i carried on running as i did not hear the 2nd gunshot indicating a false start what so ever. This being the 1st race after coming back from a month long holiday, i felt this race was a good gauge to know where i stood. In the coming months, i am looking forward to the upcoming local and overseas meets. This would give me more exposure for the year and push me even harder.

Lossini -
My race was a good platform for me to know where i stood physically and mentally, especially after making the transition from distance running to sprints. When i began my race, i felt strong and was in control of the pace. Something that i've not felt in a long time.



Despite spraining my ankle at the 200m mark, limping for the remaining 600m and not attaining the expected time, the race has given me the opportunity to know what else I should work on. It was only been 2 months since i joined Reactiv and I have faith in alfred, the trainings and myself.

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