Sprint quartet eye Incheon final

SINGAPORE — The Republic’s 4x100m sprint relay team are eyeing a place in the Asian Games final to put a troublesome season behind them and give their long-time coach Melvin Tan a worthy send-off.

A stirring 2013 saw the team set a national record of 39.45s in May at the Asian Grand Prix in Thailand, after Calvin Kang, Gary Yeo, Muhammad Amirudin Jamal, Muhammad Elfi Mustapa and Lee Cheng Wei took a year off from studies and work commitments to train and compete full-time for the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) World Championships and Myanmar SEA Games.

In December last year, they won silver again in Naypyidaw for their event, while Amirudin also took bronze in the men’s 100m.

But 2014 has been a bumpy one, as the sprinters have only raced together in three major meets: The Hong Kong Inter-City Athletics Championships (39.93s), Glasgow Commonwealth Games (40.05s) and last month’s 76th Singapore Open Track and Field Championships, where they clocked a time of 40.44s.

With Tan expected to step down after the Asiad (Sept 19 to Oct 4), the team — which includes a sixth member, Muhammad Naqib Asmin — are to go beyond the heats and banish the memories of a botched baton exchange during the semis at the 2010 Guangzhou Games which ended their campaign.

“This year we have been really short on competitions,” said Kang, 23, a third-year undergraduate at the Nanyang Technological University.

“On average we used to race six to seven meets a year, but we only did three this year because of the tight schedule and the cancellation of the Asian Grand Prix series.”

Added Amirudin, who is also pencilled in for the 100m alongside Kang: “I had an Achilles injury early this year and a back misalignment problem after that, so the year has not been so good for me. The Asian Games are my last chance to salvage my season.”

TODAY understands there was recent unhappiness over team selection, but Kang said: “This team has been together for four years and been through a lot, but the team spirit is still there.

“Mr Tan made clear at the beginning of the year what the criteria for selection were, and we have a time trial at the Sports Hub on Saturday. We want to try to match our season best or national record at the Asian Games and get into the final.”

The Asian Athletics Association’s 2013 rankings places Singapore at seventh, with Japan (38.23s), China (38.73s) and Hong Kong (38.94s) in the top three spots. Japan have clocked the season’s fastest 38.34s.

For Tan, a sports specialist at Raffles Institution, the Asian Games is his last mission for now.

“The target for the Asian Games is definitely to qualify for the final and they have to aim for a national record,” he said.

“I think they have a good chance. We really hope to end the season on a high and it will be a morale booster for the team.”