Singapore sprinter Marc Louis aims to rewrite 100m national record on Olympic debut
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National sprinter Marc Louis will be heading to the Paris Olympics after receiving a universality invite from World Athletics.
PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO
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SINGAPORE – When Benber Yu first started coaching Singapore sprinter Marc Louis over a decade ago, the latter was never a favourite in races nor was his talent immediately apparent.
But what Louis has is an eagerness to work hard in pursuit of his goals, no matter how big they are.
Starting his track career as a hurdler, he showed signs of potential when he won a historic gold for Singapore at the 2019 Asian Youth Championships in the 400m hurdles.
He has also won a silver medal and three bronzes over two editions of the SEA Games and broken a longstanding 100m national mark.
Now, the 21-year-old is set to make his Olympic debut at the July 26-Aug 11 Paris Games after the Singapore National Olympic Council announced on July 11 that his universality spot was confirmed by World Athletics (WA).
With Louis’ inclusion, Singapore will be represented by 23 athletes across 11 sports in Paris.
Noting that securing Louis’ Olympic ticket was a team effort, Yu, 43, said: “He’s had to work hard to prove to other people that he can do it. Team Cicada (his club) backed him up – some parents, his teammates, his parents, we’ve helped each other.
“It is a collaborative effort that now Marc is heading to the Olympics – it means a lot to me, it means a lot to Marc and to all the people who helped him.”
With sprint queen Shanti Pereira
Universality spots are part of the qualification systems of certain sports and are awarded to countries with traditionally smaller delegations to increase the diversity of the competition at the quadrennial Games.
Singapore Athletics said on its website that its athletes’ performances are ranked using percentile under WA’s scoring table, with the universality nomination going to the athlete who has a result closer to the Olympic entry standard.
In 2023, Louis made headlines by lowering U.K. Shyam’s national 100m record of 10.37 seconds – which had stood for 22 years – with a 10.27sec run at the Hangzhou Asian Games.
The 10.27sec is just 7.5 per cent off the Olympic entry standard of 10sec.
In the last two years, no one has lowered the national records in the 800m (1min 50.56sec) and marathon (2hr 22min 59sec), which are more than 12 per cent off the Olympic entry standards of 1:44.70 and 2:08:10 respectively.
With Louis’ spot confirmed, Yu believes the youngster can fully focus on preparing for the Olympics. While they knew there was a good chance that Louis would be heading to Paris, they kept it under wraps.
Yu said: “We were excited about it but we had to be ready all the time. If we don’t get to go, it’s okay, at least we prepared, we still trained and it’s a good improvement for him.
“But if he got to go, then at least we’re prepared.”
Louis, who could not be reached, is now in Loughborough, England. He has been training and competing in Europe since May 15, after winning the century sprint at the Singapore Open in 10.36sec in April.
A month before that, he broke the 60m indoor national record with a 6.69sec effort at the World Athletics Indoor Championships, eclipsing Gary Yeo’s 6.71sec from 2012.
Yu is hoping that Louis’ European stint will help him acclimatise to the conditions there and get used to competing against stronger and bigger opponents, as he aims to rewrite the national record in Paris.
“Those (objectives) are met,” said Yu. “He’s been able to acclimatise already and he’s feeling good now.”
