SINGAPORE - Marc Louis broke the national Under-20 record for the 110m hurdles when he clocked 13.77 seconds at the World Athletics U-20 Championships on Friday (Aug 20), continuing his upward trajectory in the sport.
The 19-year-old's effort in the heats in Nairobi, Kenya, eclipsed the 14.03sec record that Chong Wei Guan set at the International Association of Athletics Federations U-20 Championships in 2018.
Louis advanced to the semi-finals, but his 13.83sec time saw him place 11th and miss the eight-runner final.
France's Sasha Zhoya led the list of finalists with an U-20 world record of 12.93sec, while Czech Republic's Stepan Schubert took the last spot with his 13.63sec time. The final will be held on Saturday.
Louis has improved steadily over the past few years, notching major milestones such as becoming Singapore's first Asian youth champion in the 400m hurdles and claiming the 110m hurdles national U-18 record.
His coach Benber Yu was proud of his charge's performance in Nairobi and felt that the teenager had exceeded expectations as the target set for him had been 13.8sec.
Louis had previously gone under the U-20 national record with a time time of 13.91sec last year, but the effort was not recognised as it was clocked at an exhibition race.
Yu pointed to how the teenager could have gone faster in the semi-finals had he not clipped the second hurdle and believes the youngster has a bright future.
The 40-year-old said: "Marc did a wonderful job by breaking the old U-20 record twice.
"After the race, we both agreed that this is just the beginning and we will have to keep working hard to keep the momentum going."
For now, Yu hopes that the athlete, who is also a sprinter, will take the chance to relax, saying: "Now's the chance for him to enjoy the next few days before he comes back to serve his quarantine.
"Then, we can start looking back and discussing more about the things he's learnt from the competition."
