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.