By Coach Jat
On fine early saturday morning at quiet Gombak Stadium, JS Athletics kids were getting ready for the Akira Swift meet. As usual, we were the largest contingent to support and grace the meet as we encourage our athletes in these friendly atmosphere of rivalry. We like to inculcate into the athletes “athletes first and winning second” motto. First were all the 60m Dash for kids Under 8 and as for many of JS athletes, this was their first competition outside JS Trials. Shivakumar Rithvik came in 5th in a time of 10.65s, followed by Pranav Lokesh in 8th place (11.04s) and our tough looking Agasthya Mukilan who arrived just in the nick of time to participate, finished in 9th place with the time of 11.28 without even warming up. Narun Aravind and Aritra Moza gave a commendable performance in their very first race.
In the Under 8 girls section, spiritedly and charming Deianira Jeffrey came in 10th place with a time of 11.32s. In the under 9 girls, the industrious Nurizzaty coming in fast in the last 5 metres of her Heat and manage the silver in 9.84s as all the Heats are time-finals. As for the boys in the Under 9 section, the boys were jittery and had butterflies in their stomach but prevail by giving their best and claim that they will work harder for next year.
Athletes in the afternoon session were made up mostly of athletes gearing up for the Primary Schools Nationals. In the 100m races, first up was Dylan Hughes, in his Heat he came in 8th in 15.02s, Caleb D’Souza was 4th (14.63s) in his Heat followed by Sousuke Parker who is a quiet worker and ended strongly to clinch the bronze in 14.56s and was within a whisker from the silver medallist (14.50s) and Jonathan Chua was timed at 14.4s and was the eventual winner. Noah Hopkins clocked 15.34s in Heat 1 followed by John Tan (15.80s), Roshan Manimaran (16.56s), Akashraj in Heat 3 at 16.08s with Shehan Thomas George at 16.56s. Mohd Dani in 15.89 (Heat 5) while Kieran Ho and Aryan Jhamb came in a time of 15.47 and 17.54 consecutively. Nurizzaty and Emma Mouchel came in a time of 16.16s and 17.15s in Heat 4, followed by Heat 7 Deetya G in a time of 17.07 and ending in Heat 8 with a time of 18.24s was Naya Aravind.
Moving on with the under 11 category, hurdle specialist Anagha V finished 8th overall with a time of 15.36s, Emma Pasupathy who just started running seriously came in 16.69s in Heat 6. Next up was, Kieran Tan who was in Heat 4 and ended in a time of 15.9s. Under 11 boys, Iain Wong was 5th overall who had not been training regularly cause of a knee injury bothering him lately came in with a time of 14.73s. Other results Joshua Tan (13.99s) in heat 2 followed by Aryan Jhamb (16.85s). In Heat 3, Alexis Avinesh and Kannan Ravi came in a time of 15.39s and 17.01s, Kushal Gupta was timed at 16.91s in Heat 4. Janna Chew time of 16.02s in girls under 12 and in the boys under 12 boys, Ishaan Arora and timed at 15.84s and Jaydon Yam was timed with a credible time of 15.63s.
Maha Khan threw with a distance of 4.80m in the shot put event and not long after, heavy downpour and lightning alert whitewash the whole afternoon Programme which our 600m runners were eagerly waiting for. Overall in day One, JS Athletes had a very good promising showing.
Day Two, started off in remarkable mood as Luca Wigley in his first race, ran the 400m in 1.03.28s and bagged the bronze. The ever improving Mia Hopkins finished the 400m in 1.07.67s and romped home with gold medal. Leah D’souza, the long jump specialist bagged the gold medal with a distance of 4.34m.
In the afternoon schedule, Nurfarishma finish in 6th overall with a time of 13.87s, Leah D’souza was 7th with a time of 13.91s in the under 17 category. The ever-improving Shiv Ahuja was 5th with a time of 11.73s followed by the tired Nathaneal Kusunda who ran the 100m twice, as he did not hear the recall by the starter and ran the entire race before running again and was timed at 12.37s. Yeo Jun Peng with only few weeks of training and running his first race in years was timed at 12.20s in the under 20 boys category.
Mia Hopkins bagged her second gold medal in the 800m with a time of 2.49.91s in the under 14 girls. Luca Wigley ran a great race in the 800m and coming home with a time of 2.27.29s for a silver medal. Jezer Han who always lets his feet do the talking ran a credible 2.19.31s in the under 17 category 800m race and was duly rewarded with a bronze medal.
To end the day in the open category 1500m, Jayson Chua a fitness student cum assistant coach who train diligently on other days came in first with a time of 4.45.24s and in the same race, our superboy Ori Sade (age 14) ran a superb race, coming from behind strongly to a silver medal finish (4.51.99s) and James O’Reilly (age 13) came in 15th place out of 20 participants.
The 2 days were fruitful for young and budding athletes and the coaches that spent their weekend guiding our young stalwarts.