Newsbreak: Sean Lim breaks five pole vault records – including national open mark – in one day

Rising pole vault talent Sean Lim was undoubtedly the star of the National Schools Track and Field Championships at the Choa Chu Kang Stadium on Monday.

The 17-year-old Hwa Chong Institution student, who is coached by David Yeo,  realised one of his biggest dreams when he broke Mok Hay Foo’s 18-year-old national pole vault record of 4.66m with his stupendous efforts yesterday.

Sean first broke Mok’s record with his effort of 4.69m, and then proceeded to completely destroy that new national mark subsequently with a stunning 4.80m effort.

And in so doing, he set not one, not two but five records. Apart from setting a new national open record as well as a national junior record, Sean’s height is also a new national under-19 mark, a new schools national record as well as a championship mark.

It was quite simply, a brilliant performance from the young man who must now most certainly be a medal contender at this November’s SEA Games in Indonesia.  He had qualified for the Palembang Games by clearing 4.50m at the National Junior Championships and the silver medal winning height at the 2009 SEA Games was 5 metres.

My heartiest congratulations to Sean for his fantastic achievement. He had a quiet year last year because of injuries so it is great to see him bouncing back with such a vengeance.

My congratulations too to Chan Sheng Yao, also of Hwa Chong Institution, who set a new pole vault championship record in the Boys B Division final. He cleared 4.38m to erase Sean’s record of 4.36m set in 2009.

A shout out too to Seow Yeong Yang of Raffles Institution for equalling the A Boys 400m record of 49.35sec in the semi-finals today, which was set by Shalindran Sathiyanesan of Milennia Institute in 2008

I hope this will spur him on to go one better and break the record in the final on Wednesday morning.

Yours in sport

Singapore Sports Fan