Newsflash: Latest news of Team Singapore at the third leg of Asian Grand Prix 2007 in Pune, India, held 27th June Wednesday

Team Singapore Performance

For Leg 3

India, Pune Asian Grand Prix 2007 (27 June)

Full result http://www.asianathletics.org/AGP07/pun-finalresult.html

100m Men / Ranked 13th of 24th / Poh Seng Song / 10.87s
100m Men / Ranked 17th of 24th / Amiruddin / 11.04s
100m Men / Ranked 20th of 24th / Alfred Sim / 11.16s
100m Men / Unranked / Shameer Ayub / FS
100m Men / Unranked / Gary Yeo / DNS

100m Women / Ranked 9th of 16th / Amanda Choo / 12.49s
100m Women / Ranked 10th of 16th / Lee Yan Lin / 12.65s
100m Women / Ranked 12th of 16th / Balpreet Kaur Purba / 12.76s
100m Women / Ranked 13th of 16th / Ann Siao Mei / 12.95s
100m Women / Unranked / Wong Ze Teng / NA

Relays 4x100m Men / Singapore, 5th 40.84s (Alfred, Seng Song, Amir, Shameer)

Relays 4x100m Women / Singapore, 3rd 47.53s (Yan Lin, Amanda, Siao Mei, Zeteng)

100m Men review

In the third and last leg of the Asian Gand Prix we finally saw a sub 11 seconds run by our own Poh Seng Song (10.87s), breaking the duck of sorts after a string of 11 plus run lately. Running in Final ‘C’, he was close Thai’s Pussa Panom, just 0.01s away. Seng Song finished 4th in that final. Our next ranked 100m Singapore athlete is up and coming senior sprinter Amiruddin, who ran in the Final ‘C’ too with a time of 11.04s, finished 6th. An marked improvement timing from previous 11.60s timing in Leg 2. Alfred Sim, who was selected to run in Men’s Final ‘B’ ran a 11.16s finishing 8th behind former SEA Games champion Malaysia’s Nazmizan (11.09s). Singapore’s fastest men currently, Shameer Ayub was unceremoniously given the False Start during his 100m Men’s Final ‘A’. So unfortunately he did not run. The final 100m Singapore athlete, Gary Yeo did not start for his individual event nor selected for the relays. His condition unknown.

100m Women review

Once again, NTU undergrad Amanda Choo once again comes tops among the Singapore girls as the fastest women in Singapore currently. She ran 12.49s in Final ‘B’. In fact all the ladies except Wong Zeteng who did not start, competed in Women’s 100m Final ‘B’. It’s a 3-4-5-6 finish, Amanda (12.49s), Yan Lin (12.65s), Balpreet (12.76s) and Ann Siao Mei (12.85s)

4x100m Men review

The men’s team under the coaching of Tang Ngai Kin and Hamkah Afik (former relays inspirational captain turn coach) led the team to another season best of 40.84s, eclipsing the previous Leg 2 timing of 40.97s. The team reshuffled again with this time Alfred Sim starting the first leg, Seng Song second, Amir third and Shameer last leg. Alfred Sim replaced Gary Yeo who started in Leg 2 Guwahati. Team Singapore finished just behind the Malaysian team (4th, 40.79s)

4×100 Women review

The womens relay team is quite extraordinary. Hear me out. We’ve five ladies sprinter, all averaging 12.6s, ranging from 12.3s to 12.9s between these five ladies. With that kind of average, the relay timing should be around 48-49s even with flying start, but the girls have been averaging 47.5s each run. That run makes out the average per leg is around 11.8s. It just don’t adds up, although an amazing run, considering their average is well into the mid-12 seconds range. Either their stepping is ‘perfect’ or baton passing are well executed. This shows the girls are excellent relay runners. Personally I feel, when running the individual 100m, I think they should try running with the baton. Maybe it will help and spur them on, thinking it’s the relays? Well at the last Asian Grand Prix leg, they finished third with a timing of 47.53s, just pipping India (47.58s) for third sport

For Leg 2

India, Guwahati Asian Grand Prix 2007 (23 June)

Full result http://www.asianathletics.org/AGP07/guw-finalresults.html

100m Men / Ranked 6th of 20th / Shameer Ayub / 10.69s
100m Men / Ranked 16th of 20th / Gary Yeo / 11.05s
100m Men / Ranked 19th of 20th / Poh Seng Song / 11.12s
100m Men / Ranked 20th of 20th / Amiruddin / 11.60s
100m Men / Unranked / Alfred Sim / DNS

100m Women / Ranked 10th of 16th / Amanda Choo / 12.37s
100m Women / Ranked 11th of 16th / Ann Siao Mei / 12.59s
100m Women / Ranked 13th of 16th / Lee Yan Lin / 12.63s
100m Women / Ranked 14th of 16th / Wong Ze Teng / 12.66s
100m Women / Unranked / Balpreet Kaur Purba / DNS

Relays 4x100m Men / Singapore, 3rd 40.97s (Gary Yeo, Poh Seng Song, Muhd. Amiruddin, Shameer Ayub)

Relays 4x100m Women / Singapore, 4th 47.49s (Lee Yan Lin, Choo Sze Min Amanda, Ann Siao Mei, Wong Ze Teng)

100m Men review

Our 100m men saw their timings plummet for the second leg except for Shameer Ayub, where he clocked 10.69s, close to his season best of 10.68s. Slotted for the 100m A Finals, where all the class of 10.3s runners are present such as Thai’s Sittichai & Wachara plus China’s Wen Yong Yi, Shameer ran a very good race and even pipped the highly rated Thai’s Wongsala Seksan & Malaysia’s Mohd Latif. The rest of our runners was dumped in the 100m C Finals. They didn’t do so well. There was no wind gauge information provided, so we can’t ascertain if the windy condition might play a part. Alfred Sim did not start for his 100m, who might be out injured, who has a history of a string of injuries previously.

100m Women review

Our ladies sprinter performances however was better than the Mens as all of the ladies except Balpreet ran a better timing on the second leg. Balpreet did not start for this leg. Amanda Choo lead the Singapore ladies with a timing of 12.37s. It’s her season best. Next up is Ann Siao Mei, this NTU undergrad ran 12.59s and also a season best. Third up is another NUS undergrad, who is a former National Schools champion who ran 12.63s pipping ITE’s Wong Zeteng 12.66s. All of them ran in the 100m B Finals. I do hope one or two Singapore ladies hopefully be slotted for the 100m A finals. Being in a fast pack, it might do wonders to their timing. But how one is selected for such A or B Finals, we don’t know

4x100m Men review

We don’t exactly know the lineup for the relays on Leg 1 as they did not finish it, thus no information was provided. But on the second leg, with the following relay lineup of Gary Yeo, Poh Seng Song, Muhd. Amiruddin, Shameer Ayub in that order, Team Singapore clocked a credible 40.90s, dipping into the sub 41s region and a season best for the team. They even pipped the Malaysian team for third position and just 0.01s away from the Indian Team. However. the Thai team stamped their class act on the relays finals when they clocked 39.85s. China team did not finish the race.

4×100 Women review

The women relay also improved their relay timing. They brought their previous Leg 1 timing of 47.66 to 47.49s in Leg 2. The lineup consist of Lee Yan Lin, Choo Sze Min Amanda, Ann Siao Mei, Wong Ze Teng in that order. The coach made changes to the first runner, where Balpreet was replaced by Lee Yan Lin. Slowly the ladies relays team are inching closer to the SEA Games qualifying of 46.01s but it’s still a long way to go. They need to at least dip below 47s to show they’re in contention for medal placement. The Thai ladies again showed their class act when they finished ahead of the pack with a 44.43s timing. Second was China in 44.53s and India third 47.33s

For Leg 1

Thailand, Bangkok Asian Grand Prix 2007 (19 June)

Full result http://www.asianathletics.org/AGP07/bkk-results.html

100m Men / Ranked 8th of 25th / Shameer Ayub / 10.85s -1.00m/s
100m Men / Ranked 15th of 25th / Poh Seng Song / 11.00s -1.20m/s
100m Men / Ranked 17th of 25th / Gary Yeo / 11.02s -1.40m/s
100m Men / Ranked 23rd of 25th / Amiruddin / 11.14s -1.00m/s
100m Men / Ranked 24th of 25th / Alfred Sim / 11.16s -1.00m/s (SB)

100m Women / Ranked 11th of 15th / Amanda Choo / 12.57s -1.00m/s
100m Women / Ranked 12th of 15th / Lee Yan Lin / 12.78s -1.00m/s
100m Women / Ranked 13th of 15th / Balpreet Kaur Purba / 12.79s -1.00m/s
100m Women / Ranked 14th of 15th / Wong Ze Teng / 12.93s -1.00ms
100m Women / Ranked 15th of 15th / Ann Siao Mei / 13.20s -1.00m/s

Relays 4x100m Men / Singapore DNF

Relays 4x100m Women / Singapore 47.66s (Balpreet Kaur, Amanda Choo, Ann Seow Mei, Ze Teng)

Leg 1 report

It seems that most of our sprinters wasn’t running to their best potential at this Asian Grand Prix 2007. I don’t believe Poh Seng Song is a 11 seconds runner. The mens 4x100m relay team once again in three attempts had a ‘Did not finish’ (DNF) end. They did however clocked 41.09s in the recent 2ndAllComers, quite way off the SEA Games 2007 qualifying mark of 40.59s. That’s the bronze timing of the 4x100m for SEA Games 2005. Let’s hope the next attempt will bear fruit.

Our ladies sprinters also didn’t run well. All our five ladies sprinter took the last five spots of the field of fifteen. Although they bettered their 4x100m relay timing to 47.66s, they still have a huge hurdle to get over as the qualifying SEA Games mark for 4x100m ladies is 46.01s. Their last run was a month ago in the 2nd AllComers where they clocked 48.06s. To qualify for SEA Games, to cut down 1.6s off, each of the ladies need to at last shave 0.4s of their current 100m time. That might mean we might see a new individual 100m ladies record or their baton passing is absolute ‘perfect’

Following the lucrative European Grand Prix, we now have our very own Asian Grand Prix to follow suit, where a total of around US$150,000 prize money is up for grabs. One thing this Asian Grand Prix need however is more visibility and publicity. I’m sure plenty of people around locally don’t even know much about this event.

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The previously defunct Asian Athletics Website is up and running online finally, by the way. Check them out here. Do spread the word, I think they need all the support and hits.

The Team

Team Singapore sent out our Mens and Women sprints team to this Grand Prix, ten athletes in total. The number of officials sent is unknown. The question is now where’s the rest of the team. We’re are especially missing out on the field event athletes, the distance runners and the longer sprints which are totally ignored time and again by SAA. I guess if you want to get to SEA Games, do the 100m or the 4x100m relays.

This Asian Grand Prix is the chance to send our athletes for exposure to run up against the best in Asia. Where else can you get such a chance to compete along side a world class athlete. Also this is a good pre-race build up leading up to SEA Games 2007 and also a big event to help our athlete to qualify and meet the SEA Games qualifying mark.

Who gets to go?

Yes obviously you don’t send any Tom, Dick or Harry for the competition, but this year we saw some credible performance by our local lads such as the below list. Why aren’t they not on-board? I think there’s too much fixation and ‘obsession’ with the sprints espiecally the 4x100m relays. If you noticed from the overseas meets or training stint being held, our sprinters have most of the luxury in being selected time and time again.

Is it a matter of funds? Well it could be that, I don’t know. But if our association want to be in the league of the Thais, we need to invest and spent wisely. The keyword is ‘wisely’. Even the Vietnamese and Myanmar athletics which was in the abyss athletics unknown few years ago, have surpassed us. I think it’s about time we go local and have faith in our local coaches.

Triple Jump

Tseng, Ke Chen Stefan 15.28m (SSP)

This young fella from Singapore Sports School is an exciting talent who jumped a season best in the recent Singapore Junior. Even though he will be placed last in Leg 1 of Asian Grand Prix, it will be a good exposure. Sukon Kittisak of Thailand came last in 8th position at Asian Grand Prix with a jump of 15.62m by the way. The last SEA Games 2005 bronze distance was 15.75m, so Stefan is not far from qualifying nor is he far from grabbing a medal standing this coming SEA Games

400m

Khoo, Kenneth 48.20 (Wings)
R, Muthukumaran 48.21 (Flash)

Their timings which was ran at the recent AllComers is good enough to earn themselves 5th to 6th position in the Leg 1 of Bangkok. And to think they ran with that kind of timing locally with no push. Such world class races might just spur them to run faster. The last SEA Games 2005 bronze timing was 47.24s. So our local 400m need to break our very own national 400m record of 47.40s to qualify for SEA Games. I feel the 400m lads stand a better chance in the 4x400m relays for the medal

Discus

Wong, Wei Gen Scott 50.16m (HCI)

*Edit – 2nd AllComers uses 1.5kg discus while Asian Grand Prix is 2kg. Apologise for the error in compilation. We do make mistakes but we admit it :-)

This Hwa Chong Institution school kid recently threw a personal best of 50.16m at the 2nd AllComers. Based on his best throw, he would have performed better than the two Thailand discus thrower during the Leg 1 of Asian Grand Prix. Sawasdee Wansawang threw a 48.97m and Numsomboon Kvanchai 48.75m. These are the guys probably who will be at the upcoming SEA Games 2007. Hmm wonders why this kid was not sent by SAA. For your info, the previous SEA Games bronze medal discus throw was 51.31m