SEA Games: Fleet feet and a cool head key to teen sprinter Marc Louis' rise

SINGAPORE - It was a superlative athletic effort, and an equally brilliant celebration to match.

In the 400m hurdles final at the Asian Youth Athletics Championships in Hong Kong in 2019, Marc Louis found himself in fourth place after bounding over the penultimate hurdle. After clearing the last, he was third.

He was still about five metres behind race leader Fahad Al-Abdulla of Qatar with about 40m left. But the Singaporean, then 16, was far from defeated.

"As I cleared that last hurdle I remember I was gaining a bit (on Al-Abdulla in the next lane) and so I thought, 'I actually can catch up'," he told The Straits Times.

With an almighty push, he turned on the afterburners and surged beyond his rivals to cross the finish line first. He had won Singapore's first - and only - gold medal at the Asian Youth Championships.

As his strides slowed to a halt, Louis raised his arms to the sky. Then he hunched over. And as the gravity of his achievement began to sink in, he collapsed onto his knees and buried his face into the track.

"At that point, I couldn't believe it," he said. "I was asking myself, 'Is it actually true? Did I win?' "

That spontaneous, raw outpouring of emotion partly stemmed from the youngster's journey in track and field, which has not always been straightforward. He has gone from casual school athlete to talented prospect, to almost giving up the sport before rediscovering his fire for it.

Becoming an Asian youth champion was the biggest validation yet for the soft-spoken speedster.

As he prepares to make his SEA Games bow in Hanoi on May 14, Louis singled out the triumph in Hong Kong as the moment which crystallised his focus in sport.

In the Vietnamese capital, however, Louis will not leap over hurdles. Instead, he will crouch over the starting line of the 100m dash as Singapore's most exciting sprinting prospect in decades.

Last December, he clocked 10.39 seconds at a local meet. It was the third-best time by any Singaporean and caught the attention of many given his tender age - he turns 20 only in August.

By comparison, the legendary C. Kunalan was two weeks' shy of 26 when he clocked 10.38sec at the 1968 Olympic Games that stood for 33 years as the national record. U.K. Shyam, the man who holds the current mark of 10.37sec, set it in 2001, weeks after he turned 25.

Louis is still years away from his physical peak and full maturity as an athlete, and his taciturn demeanour in media interviews is a reminder he is still getting accustomed to the attention his rapid legs have attracted.

What makes his emergence in the 100m sprint more impressive is that he meant for the switch to the event to be only temporary, as he transitions to the taller 1.07m (up from 99cm) hurdles at senior level.

The hurdles remains his pet event, which he has specialised in since taking up athletics as a co-curricular activity at Sembawang Primary "just for fun" to join his cousin.

Louis' talent was apparent early on, and he won the silver medal at the National School Games (NSG) for three straight years.

He earned a spot in the Singapore Sports School, but his time there went pear-shaped and he left a year later under a cloud. He has steadfastly declined to elaborate why, but has spoken about how the episode left him disillusioned and ready to give up the sport.

Persuasion from his coach Benber Yu - who has trained him since he was eight - saw him return to the track, where he claimed back-to-back B Division NSG titles running for Anderson Secondary.

His renaissance continued with the Asian Youth Championships win, which Yu also said was a pivotal moment for his charge.

"He became more mature after Hong Kong," said the coach, who is Filipino. "Everything changed. How he trained, the way he took care of himself in terms of how he rested, what he ate... He has really been giving his best since."

Louis is planning to make the most of his opportunity in Hanoi, having earned short-term deferment from National Service to compete. He had been scheduled to enlist in January.

Yu and Louis have ramped up the frequency of training sessions in preparation for the SEA Games, from six to nine. The sprinter has embraced this, driven by gratitude.

"I may start to feel the nerves when I'm flying there, or a day before (competition), but right now, all I feel is grateful," he said.

"I just want to have a good experience. A new personal best would be good, but I'm still young. If I don't win this time, it's fine."

His blazing speed on the track may have gotten him to Hanoi, but it is this cool head on young shoulders - made resolute by that momentous win in Hong Kong three years ago - that will be crucial to taking Louis further.

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Fact file

Name: Marc Brian Louis
Date of birth: Aug 7, 2002
Height: 1.75m
Weight: 67kg
SEA Games events: 200m (May 14), 4x100m (May 16), 100m (May 18)

2020: Meritorious Award for Sportsboy
2019: Asian Youth Championships gold medal (400m hurdles) and bronze (110m hurdles), South-east Asia Youth Championships gold (400m hurdles) and silver (110m hurdles)
2018: National School Games B Division gold (110m hurdles, 400m hurdles)
2017: National School Games B Division gold (110m hurdles)

100m: 10.39 seconds (2021)
Under-20 110m hurdles (99.1cm): 13.77sec (2019)
U-20 400m hurdles (91.4cm): 55.09sec (2019)