School of the Arts student dazzles on track with C Division hurdles title

SINGAPORE – Anmiela Kagoro’s school does not have track and field as a co-curricular activity (CCA), but that did not stop the School of the Arts (Sota) student from winning the National School Games (NSG) C Division girls’ 80m hurdles title.

The fastest qualifier in the heats, Anmiela, 14, replicated her performance in the final, winning the gold in 13.29 seconds at the NSG track and field championships at the Choa Chu Kang Stadium on Friday.

Tanjong Katong Secondary’s Mayah Kaufmann bagged the silver after finishing 0.57sec behind her. Singapore Sports School’s Ashley Seah was third in 14.71sec.

Anmiela said: “I think I did pretty well, especially for the start, and I managed to continue the race despite a few stepping mistakes.

“This is my first hurdles competition so I was a little nervous because everyone looked really fast. But I was still very excited because I wanted to win for my school since we don’t have a track and field CCA.”

Anmiela, who was born in Singapore to a Zimbabwean father and Filipino mother, trained four times a week with personal coaches. This is her first NSG and she will also be participating in the long jump.

Her father Andrew Kagoro, who is one of her coaches, said he tried not to be too hard on her daughter while making sure she had enough training.

He added: “She has been wanting to compete in the NSG since she was in Primary 4 but there was Covid-19, and last year she wasn’t ready. Everybody loves a win. I’m happy for her.”

Ashley Tan of Victoria Junior College and Samantha Looi of St Nicholas Girls’ School (SNGS) won the girls’ A and B division 100m hurdles, with respective timings of 16.19sec and 15.99sec.

Victoria School’s Kayden Fang was the boys’ C Division winner in 14.39sec.

Despite the humid weather, the crowd of about 200 parents and students continued to cheer for the athletes, recording races on their phones and applauding loudly. 

In the 110m hurdles boys’ B Division final, Raffles Institution’s (RI) Garrett Chua came from behind to beat Reagan Song of Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) by 0.26sec with his 14.33sec effort.

Garrett said he did not expect to win as Reagan was “technically better”.

“He beat me right from the start and, through the first few hurdles, he was about two metres ahead of me.

“But after the third and fourth hurdle, I started to push and found myself getting closer to him. At the eighth hurdle, I felt myself pushing right past him and stuck out all the way to the finish line.”

There was much to celebrate for RI – the school also finished one-two in the boys’ A Division shot put and 110m hurdles.

The hurdles final saw teammates Brandon Ang and Hayden Audy Haslizal sharing a tight hug after crossing the finish line.

Brandon, 17, who won by 0.21sec with his 15.23sec, said: “That was an emotional moment for me. We’ve always done hurdles and I’ve been running with him for about six years. I’m very happy we managed to go one-two.”

RI sprints and hurdles coach Melvin Tan, 56, said his students outperformed expectations.

“Before last week’s heats, we didn’t expect so many of them to qualify for the finals.

“Even today, I could not help but feel nervous and would even hold my breath.

“They are very focused during training and competitions, and will even watch videos of their races to analyse how they can improve.”

RI’s Low Chuan Yi, 18, said his A Division shot put title was a “long time coming” as he had been training hard since he was in primary school. His 16.12m effort easily defeated teammate Kan Fu Yi’s best of 14.71m.

In the last final of the day, Chan Sok Mun from SNGS won the girls’ B Division javelin title with 32.89m.