12/04/2010
C Division - Individual Champions of the past (1977 to 2010)
Let me discuss about this first before going to B Division and A Division Individual Champions.
1977 - M. Kumar, the Fearless
Cross country was not my cup of tea and as a 12 year old, I thought that one can do well in running by running with will and determination on the day of the race itself. Training was never in my mind. I did not know what training can do. The maturity to understand the importance of the effects of training, especially aerobic, was not there.
When I was in St Josephs' Inst, I was popular because of my one year older brother's running prowess. All the teachers in SJI knew me because of my brother. My brother as a sec 1 boy, without any form of training was able to come in 7th in National Sch Cross Country. However, he played soccer nearly everyday.
When my brother was sec 2, I was sec 1 and we were in the same C Division team.
With once a week training, I ran the race. M. Kumar was a popular runner from Henderson Secondary School. In 1977, M. Kumar came in first. He was given a voucher to buy shoes and sports stuff because of his impressive performance by the Ministry of Education. In those days, I have seen the runners, including Jagtar Singh, who later on broke the 5km with a time of 15min 06sec, fought with each other with great challenge and at the finish I used to see the runners dying out, nearly jogging 500metres before the finish point.
My brother, Murugiah S, made a transfer to Henderson Secondary to study and made Henderson champions in Nat Sch Cross County 1979, His running mate was M. Kumar's. Four of their runners came in top 10 usually in the then SAA , Swift Cross country race. At that time to do a 16min plus was a great deal. In the year 1977, I came in around 66 position and did not do well.
A year later in 1978, while I was training seriously for the Nat Sch Cross Country once a week, I realised from my teacher in-charge, Mr Joseph Vargese, that the race was cancelled because of the ongoing flu epidemic during the time. About Mr Joseph Vargese, I used to laugh at his jokes who was known in teaching pupils in a brilliant manner. The joke I like alot is ,"If you don't train hard, you can go and fly kite."
Anyway, I was very depressed with the officials' stand to cancel the race. However, at that time, I did just once a week training only. The bout between Jagtar Singh, who in later years became the record holder of the 5km with a time of 15min 06sec, and M. Kumar, when both were in B Div, was not witnessed. People were very excited to see the challenge between the two.
Around the year 1981, M. Kumar gave up running totally. M. Kumar, nevertheless became an inspiration to my running later on. On the other hand, Jagtar Singh's fire in running was still burning and he kept improving the timing for the 5km and over time he broke the 5km track record which was held by P.C. Suppiah (15min 11sec), who is still the current 10km record holder and a one time Sportsman of the Year award winner.P. C. Suppiah has a personal best of 31min 18sec.
At one time, I used to train with Jagtar Singh at the age between 17 and 18 and follow a top runner by the name of Pannirselvam for long runs. We used to run from Telok Blangah rise to Dover Road and then to Bueno Vista and come back. Always, when coming back I could see Jagtar and Pannir challenging at the last part fo the run. I could see the beautiful stride of Jagtar and was impressed with his form of running. Sadly, Jagtar has not won any Nat Sch cross country. However, in track he was very famous. During my adolescence years, I kept seeing Jagtar defeating G. Krishnan in 5km. From 15min 20sec to 15min 26sec, later on, the time went down to the ultimate 15min 06. Jagtar later on won a bronze medal in the SEA Games few years later.
Later on G. Krishnan, who was Jagtar's greatest threat as the top runne did a 15min 03sec for the 5km and improved Jagtar's timing and not the record as his citizenship was still Malaysian at that time. It was, hence, Jagtar's record still. As for me, G. Krishnan was an inspiration as he used to hold about 3 jobs and still do training. On top of that, he was of the height 1m 58cm approximately, very slim feature. Later on, he became a Singaporean after marrying his wife, a Singaporean.
Year 1979 - 1980 - Toh Chee Leong ( Jalan Teck Whye )
Not much was known about Chee Leong. Around that time, I was also not running much. Whenever I am running passionately I take note of many things. It was the year 1980 and 1981 that I became very crazy of running.
Toh Chee Leong made an impressive victory in 1979 by coming first in the nat sch cross country race. However, in the B and A Division, later on, he not the top runner anymore.
Year 1981 - Chung Soon Oon (SSS)
Chung Soon Oon. I really don't know what time he did but he became the champion. of the C Division race. Little was known about this boy. At that time, I was running the B Division and I was one of the favourite to come in top 3 individual in the cross country race. The B division athletes were running with faster times at that time. The focus for the year was more on B Division and not C. The top 6 runners, including myself, were able to do a sub 16min for the Macritchie Reservoir Boys route (4.8km). I did a 16min 02sec for the heats and 15min 56sec for the finals of the Nat Sch Cross country race.
Year 1982 - S. Vasu (CHR) , the Great Steeplechase Runner Singapore has ever produced.
This boy at that time was very active running cross country and steeple-chase races. He came in as the 1982 champion. He also broke the record of Steeple- chase 2000m in 6m 09sec. To date, none have ever come close to this record, except for Nigel Foo (ACS) 16m 11sec (Electronic Record) and Harpreet Singh (Teck Whye Sec) 6min 19sec.
1983 - Satvinder Singh (MHS)
It was sad that Satvinder Singh was only running actively when he was in sec 1 and 2. He gave up competitive running totally later on. However, his feats will be forgotton. He came in as the national schools' cross country champion and in C Division, Satvinder broke the 800m to 2m 04sec and 1500m to 4m 24sec. Hence, eventhough his record was later broken by Kannan Poobalan, his name will still be remembered as one of the fastest youth for C Division.
1984
Next Story is on M Maran, who later on went to break the national record to 9min 13 sec. in the Asian Track and Field Meet 1991. Although, he did not get top three for the race, this was a remarkable performance will be there until someone comes and break the recore. The nearest to break was G. Elangovan who from a time of 10min, over time did 9min53sec and over time did 9min 18sec.
M. Maran, was a lanky guy at that time. After his coming in first, he was earmarked by his coach to be developed to be better runner over time. In the C Division he ran a good race, even though it was not remarkable. His remarkable performance came over time in not B but A Division race, where he did 14m 13sec for the 4.8km Mac Ritchie Reservoir route. He was also showing promising signs as a good middle distance runner at that time. Over time, this athlete finally did 3min 53sec for the 1500m and very shortly he retired from the running scene. He became a fitness instructor and currently is now managing his own Fitness Center.
1985
Lian Ruimin (CCS) became the next champion for the year 1985 and little is known about this athlete.
1986
Xu Youzhi from the then Chinese High School ran the race and became a champion. This became one of the rare moment where this runner brought glory for the school
Sorry ....under construction still
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