51st Inter-school track and field coverage (Long Jump-Finals))

Hello again everybody. This will be the continuation of my experience at the track and field nationals. This post will be on the finals. As you can see from the previous post, I qualified with a breeze. Qualification was easy. The challenge only comes in the finals, where everyone there is already a 5 meter jumper. Being in the finals means a lesser "confidence bonus". I had to constantly remind myself that my personal best was 5.52 meters, that I could easily be on the podium if I manage to pull of a jump of that caliber. Such self consolation worked to a certain extent.

Minutes ticked by arduously. The rain was not stopping. My event was to be pushed back. This only helped in assisting the little devil known as nervousness to gnaw away bit by bit into my heart. The rain, as I thought that my event might be postponed to a later date, slowed to a slight drizzle, and soon, to a complete stop. I jumped straight away into my track suit and rushed to the call room immediately when the rain stopped. I took long deep breaths to regulate my ever racing heartbeat as well as to keep my muscles warm in the frosty cold call room. The 15 "survivors" of the qualifying round lined up and geared up, ready for some fierce competition.

Surprisingly, I was really surprised, I was the first jumper! I always thought I was one of the last and had time to prepare myself mentally for the competition. So, after a few practice jumps, the competition commenced officially at 5.30pm. I rubbed my hands together and wished for luck from the other competitors (Its a track value of friendship at competitions). I headed for my starting point. Slapped my thighs a few times to get them in "working condition" I took three steps back in prepare of my run up. I gathered my thoughts and off I went! I gathered up speed with every step I took (kind of obvious). my eyes flickered from the foul board to the end of the pit. I neared the foul line and leaped at the very last moment.......

A red flag came up. I looked away in despair. Faulting the first jump was not a good sign of things. I slumped back down onto my seat and tried to get myself to focus better. The next jumper had better luck than me, jumping a 5.08 meters. Quite easy for me to beat him, but my faulting condemned my first jump. I watched as the other Hwa Chong athlete jumped a distance of 5.21 meters. That was when I told myself that my medal was on the line and I had to buck up. The final Hwa Chong jumper also faulted his first attempt and we exchanged consolations. One jumper stood out from the rest of the other schools' jumpers as he jumped a distance of 5.52 in his first attempt. I was dumbstruck when I first heard his distance. He had already jumped my personal best! Therefore, if I wanted the gold medal to be mine, I had to set a new personal best.

The last jumper made his jump with a distance of 5.13 meters. I was up again in my 2nd attempt. I repeated the words "do not fault do not fault do not fault" over and over in my mind. Until I was sure of myself, I proceeded with my run up. Each step brought me closer and closer, I aimed at a few centimetres before the fault line and jumped, I could feel that I reserved a little power and had not gave it my best. I saw the white flag go up and waited eagerly for the results. It appeared I had jumped a distance of 5.34 meters. It was disastrous. I slapped myself a few times and told myself to get a grip. I was not leaving that event without a medal. Apparently, that distance alone brought me to 2nd place. That was until Marcus, the other Hwa Chong jumper jumped a distance of 5.35 meters! 1 centimeter hung in the balance. After all the jumpers finished their jumps, I readied myself for action once again.

I sucked in my stomach again and slowly let the air out. I calmed myself down and stretched some of my muscles. I told myself, it's now or never. Without much thinking anymore, I just broke off into a slowly accelerating run. At the last few moments, everything seemed to slow down, only the sand pit remained in my sight. I jumped.

The white flag was raised! I was actually quite delighted at that jump as I felt myself really soaring for the first time in the competition. The result was out and I jumped a whopping 5.51 meters! not my personal best but still, it was a good jump. In the end, my last 3 jumps still did not enable me to get a breakthrough and I settled for silver. It was a rewarding experience though, pressure on the mind and lots of new friends made. All in all, the competition was enjoyable and I now have 12 more contacts added on facebook Bye!

51st Inter-school track and field coverage (Long Jump-Qualifying)

It was a clear blue day when I arrived at Choa Chu Kang Stadium for my event, the long jump. Crowds of students were present at the grandstand, eagerly waiting for their event to begin. I found a comfy spot and plonked myself down onto one of the seats. I thought to myself that this would be the most important track and field day for Secondary 2. Soon, the time for reporting for my qualifying jumps drew closer and closer. I went to warm up at the allocated space in the car park, having jitters all over me that I would not even qualify. Alas, it was 10am, the officials called for all C division long jump boys to report to the call room. I picked up my shoe bag containing my precious spikes and went off into the call room.

A cold rush of air blasted itself onto my face as I walked into the call room. Eagerly scouting for my possible "threats", I began to shake myself up a little, to loosen up all that tightened brain nerves. Finally, we were led to the long jump pit. My heart rate went up. My breaths became shorter and quicker. After a quick confirmation of our positions, the qualifying round began.

429! the official called out. My fellow Hwa Chong Institution participant, Jonathan Chuang, was up. He strolled forward with an air of confidence and took his position along the runway. With a few fast strides, he broke off to a fierce run and jumped. Sand deposited itself metres away from his landing point. a white flag was raised. He qualified! Well, actually it was kind of expected but you sure got to be happy when you qualify for such a big event as this. The next participant looked as confident, but failed to qualify. Many people in front of me failed to qualify. This only added up to my anxiousness in my ability to qualify.

472! my number was called. I jumped up and down a few times on the spot to get my muscles geared up for action. That was it. I had to make it big. Qualify now let's go! I broke off into an insane run, a run I had never ran before. I felt myself picking up lots of speed as I neared the foul line. At the very last moment, I pushed my legs as hard into the ground as I could and felt liftoff. I watched the qualifying length throughout my entire jump. Thankfully, I had to look behind me at the qualifying mark after my jump. I saw a white flag raised and just realised I had qualified! The pressure in me loosened and I managed to regain calm and peacefulness. I smiled to myself as we walked away from the jump pit. It was just a matter of hours before I had to go for the Long jump finals held at 4pm. Stay tuned as I will bring you the coverage of the Long jump finals in the next blog post.