Great leaps forward by Cedar girls
SINGAPORE — Two Cedar Girls’ Secondary students stole the limelight at yesterday’s National Inter-School Track and Field Championships at the Choa Chu Kang Stadium with their record-breaking performances.
Record breakers: Cedar Girls School's Low Seow Ting (left) set a national set national "C" division high jump record, while school-mate Lynette Lim (right) achieved a national triple jump mark at the 2013 Inter-Schools Track and Field Championship. Photo: Charles Ong
SINGAPORE — Two Cedar Girls’ Secondary students stole the limelight at yesterday’s National Inter-School Track and Field Championships at the Choa Chu Kang Stadium with their record-breaking performances.
Secondary Two student Low Seow Ting provided the appetiser in the morning session when she jumped 1.60m in the Girls “C” Division high jump to break her own championship record of 1.55m set during last year’s meet. Schoolmate Fatimah Zahra was second (1.40m) while Jezebel Koh of the Singapore Sports School was third (1.40m)
Cedar’s Sec 4 student Lynette Lim then served up the dish of the day in the afternoon by breaking both a championship record and a national open mark.
With a hop, skip and a jump, the 16-year-old rewrote the Girls “B” Division triple jump record of 11.56m as well as the national open mark of 11.73m when she flew across the sand pit to clock a distance of 11.79m.
Both records were previously set by Mariam Shazana — the former in 2008 and the latter in 2009. Wong Sumae of Nanyang Girls High School was second (11.27m) while Cedar’s Anissa Sharmaine Jefri Schmitt was third (11.13m).
Lynette’s achievement is the second national open record set at this year’s championships. Pole vaulter Chan Sheng Yao broke the national mark during the Boys’ “A” Division competition last Friday.
What is even more stunning about Lynette’s feat is that she only started training in the jumps less than three years ago. Back then, she had dreams of being a sprinter, but her coach John Sweem saw her potential in jumps and persuaded her to make the switch in July 2010.
In fact, Sweem was hardly surprised when Lynette broke the national mark yesterday.
“She is very powerful and springs off from the board very well,” he said.
I was planning for her to break the record at this year’s meet as she has consistently shown she could hit 11.50m — what she needed was just the extra push from her competitors.
“With her potential, she can easily go above 12m in the next few years. Hopefully, she can qualify for the Youth Olympic Games next year.”
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