Athletics At YOG (Day 1)

Today marks the first day of the Youth Olympics Games for the Track and Field athletes. The weather was not our usual Tuesday morning sun but rather a scorching sun with little wind. That did not deter the Youths in their quest for medals. Today's events were mostly qualification rounds into the next level.


In the 100m hurdles for girls, we had our very own Singaporean girl, Goh Wei Ning. Being in the 1st heat, she was the quickest off the blocks as compared to those in her round. Her final timing of 15.01secs was only fast enough to be able to run in the lower classifications. Ekaterina Bleskina from Russia was the fastest qualifier posing a time of 13.32sec. However Megan Simmonds from Jamaica (picture below) caught my attention. She was the shortest among all her other competitors but had excellent technique clearing the hurdles. She would be one of the few to look out for at the Finals.



Sean Toh was the next athlete donning the Singapore flag and running 110 Hurdles. A hiccup in the starts caused the athletes in his heat to stop running once the gun was off. Though the siren was already sounded, Sean continued to run for another 40m until he was signaled to stop by one of the officials standing by the side. His final time after the 2nd run was 15.09secs which was more than 1sec of his PB. If not for the disruption, I felt he might have been able to run a better race.

Wendy Enn from the Singapore Sports School ran the 400m. The field for this event was very strong with athletes doing timings like 53s. Wendy clocked a timing of 62.74s. I would predict that the 400m girls final will be a fight between Robin Reynolds from the USA and Bukola Abogunloko from Nigeria.

The last sprint event for that day was the 400m boys. Once again, the youths showed their class by running fantastic timings which have surpassed our national record. One athlete was the talk of the town at this event. Santos Luguelin from the Dominican Republic (seen from the picture below) lead from the start to finish and his superlative time of 46.82secs was well enough to put him at the top.

It is just Day 1 and already we see so many outstanding results. As the days go by, we will be expecting first class performances by the youths. I cannot wait for Day 2 to come as it will be where the speed demons will be unleashed!! The 100m heats.

So till then, here's Shalindran signing off from Reactiv


Credits: Photos courtesy of Weijen Chao and Calvin Kang

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5th All Comers 2010

It has been quite some time since the last update on Track and Field. This is because there has not been much local races. Recently, a new team in the association was formed and they were put to test at the 5th All Comers 2010. The changes were quite significant for example a different competition venue was picked, (ITE SIMEI). Despite the few hiccups, it was a good job done by the new team with a vision to keep moving forward. We saw a Malaysian team (Nordin Jadi Athletic Club) coming over to compete in which many of them did personal best timings. It was a good exposure for our Singaporean Athletes.
As for our training group, since most of us are recovering from injuries, only Nikita and Prayaank were suppose to compete. However, during training that week, Nikita felt the same pain at the knee which many of our athletes have been going through. Thus, I decided that it was not feasible for her to compete but instead to rest and recover. Prayaank took part in the 100m where he did 11.53sec.




I am looking forward to the next big meet in Singapore which is the Youth Olympic Games 2010. Though none of my athletes will be competing, I was very interested in being involved with the Games. Just recently, I got myself accredited for the YOG Athletes Village located in NTU. The training stadium in sports and recreation centre is for Athletics, Weightlifting, Judo, BasketBall, Swimming and Basketball. And I have the privilege to be the National Technical Official of Athletics. It is one of the best place to be, where athletes will be doing their workout and "secrets" being revealed! Watch out for our blog, as I will update the trainings and pictures from the YOG.

Till the next meet, here's Alfred signing off.

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SAQ in Bishan Park Secondary School

Activo organized and conducted a 1.5hour SAQ (Speed, Agility and Quickness) program with Bishan Park Secondary School on the 8th of July 2010.

Mr Hansen Bey was the main coordinator for this program. We had so much fun meeting the super active kids from the Soccer and Basket Ball school team. The activities were arranged into 3 groups, managed by different instructors. Mr Hansen was incharged of the Agility Ladder, Mr Latiff took charged of the short hurdles, and I was incharged of the Reaction Ball. I have to thank Mr Eddie from Xpat Fitness, for helping us to film these video clips, and Brenda from Activo for the photos.

The SAQ is very beneficial to all students ranging from secondary to tertiary level, who are involved in sports. These 3 components will definitely enhance sports performance. It will be ideal if the coaches from the sports groups will adopt the idea of doing SAQ as part of their training regime.

Pls enjoy the video!

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Fit Band at Kuo Chuan Presbyterian Secondary School

Reactiv collaborated with Activo and conducted a Fitband session with the Teachers and Staff of Kuo Chuan Presbyterian Secondary School. The 20 minutes session was conducted in the early morning 7.30am on 28th June 2010.

The session started out with stretching warm up, brief introduction of how major muscle group can be stretched. Basic body weight exercises were introduced with Activo resistance fitbands. The teachers had a great time working on both upperbody and lowerbody muscles. They were exposed to the different variation of exercises that they can do even in their office.

The short session ended off after 3 sets of the 5 different fitband exercises, a great way to start the day! Please see the pictures below :)

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Strength and Conditioning Workshop at Singapore Polytechnic

A 2 hour session of Strength and Conditioning was conducted in Singapore Polytechnic on the 21st June 2010. Approximately 20 athletes from the Track and Field team attended the workshop. They were given a talk on mental skills by Mr Hansen Bey from Vitage Pte Ltd and followed by the S&C workshop by me. The equipment were provided by Vitage, Activo. For more information on the products, please visit www.activo.sg.

The Workshop covered a series of total body weight exercises and increased intensity of exercises with the help of equipment like the medicine balls, short hurdles and plyometrics boxes. It was interesting to see athletes of different event groups trying the exercises. Those exercises were done progressively and were designed to help them have proper technique of executing the exercises. The different variation of exercises allowed the athletes to have more choices to choose from when working on specific major muscle group.

The video clips are done by Reactiv, with the help of Mr Eddie Thomson of XpatFitness for taking the photographs and the videos. Please enjoy the video!

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