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The Singapore Boys’ 4×100m relay team went through a wild rollercoaster ride of emotions, one that ultimately ended in bitter disappointment, as the Republic ended up empty-handed on the last day of the 13th Asian Junior Athletics Championships in Jakarta this evening.

From left to right (Calvin, Raja Kamarul and Shalindran)

The team of Mohd Nasir Refunggi, Raja Kamarul, Shalindran Sathiyanesan and Calvin Kang had initially finished fourth in the event behind top-three winners Japan, Thailand and Hong Kong, in a time of 41.45sec (just off the national junior record of 41.28sec).

However, the agony of just missing out on the medals then turned into joy when it was announced that Hong Kong had been disqualified for an illegal baton exchange.

The news meant that Singapore would finally come away with a medal from the Championships, after witnessing two narrow podium misses in the past two days. Calvin Kang had missed out on a bronze on Friday when he finished fourth in the 100m final while triple jumper Stefan Tseng also finished fourth in his event on Saturday.

Alas, all dreams of glory evaporated into dust when Hong Kong successfully appealed against the disqualification.

The competition’s technical committee studied the video evidence and finally decided at 10.00pm tonight that Hong Kong had committed no such offence and that the baton exchange had occurred within the zone.

As such, the disqualification was reversed and the bronze medal handed back to the Hong Kongers.

From left to right (Dipna, Shalom and Valerie)

In the Girls 4×400m relay final, the team of Dipna Prasad, Ng Yu Jun, Shalom See and Valerie Pereira finished sixth in 4min 00.48sec.

Despite not winning a single medal at the Championships, Singapore’s campaign still ended on a positive note, thanks to record-breaking performances from sprinter Calvin Kang and jumpe Stefan Tseng. Calvin re-wrote his national 100m junior record of 10.55sec when he clocked 10.53sec in his semi-finals.

Stefan re-wrote his national record of 15.71m when he cleared 15.78m twice during his event.

The duo will have another opportunity next month to set new milestones in their respective events – they have been selected to represent Singapore at the World Junior Athletics Championships in Poland.

Yours in sport
Singapore Sports Fan
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