There’s a really good – albeit short – story in TODAY about Singapore Sports School student Dylan Wong (see below).
The 16-year-old not only won the Boys B Division triple jump with his leapt of 14.27m at the National Schools Track and Field Championships yesterday (Monday), but also set a new championship record with the distance. It was 7 centimetres longer than the 14.20m set by Benjamin Ong in 2012.
But what was more heartwarming about Dylan’s gold was the fact that he couldn’t even make the Sports School team last year because he was “not good enough”.
I am also given to understand that the gold – and the silver he garnered in the long jump last week – are the first medals that Dylan has ever won at the Schools Championships. What a wonderful way to end one’s find participation at the National Schools Championships.
Will Dylan ever make good on his stated ambition to one day break the national long and triple jump records set by Matthew Goh (7.62m) and Stefan Tseng (16.04m) in 2009? I don’t know – but then again, he is being trained by Valeri Obidko, the former coach of Matthew and Stefan, so if there is one person who can help a jumper to realise his full potential, it would be the former Russian-turned-Singapore citizen, whose proteges are all in the national record books.
Congratulations, Dylan, and all the best in your jumping endeavors.
Yours in sport
Singapore Sports Fan
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Dylan makes the jump from zero to hero in one year
(TODAY Online, April 15, 2014)
SINGAPORE — What a difference a year makes.
Twelve months ago, Singapore Sports School (SSP) student Dylan Wong was not even selected by his coaches to compete at the National Schools Track and Field Championships because he was, in his own words, “not good enough” for the level of competition.
Yesterday, the Secondary 4 student not only won the Boys “B” Division title in the triple jump at the annual meet, he also set a new championship record while doing so. Dylan leapt 14.27m at the Choa Chu Kang Stadium to erase the existing mark of 14.20m set by Benjamin Ong — also from SSP — in 2012.
It was also his second medal of the Championships — he had won a silver in the long jump last week with his 6.60m effort.
The 16-year-old, who is 1.75m tall, credits his growth spurt for his success at this year’s meet.
“You can say puberty hit me late, or I am a late bloomer, but my increase in height has helped me a lot in my sport,” said Dylan, who has grown by more than 10cm in less than six months.
In fact, Dylan has now set his sights on eventually breaking the national long jump and triple jump records set by Matthew Goh (7.62m) and Stefan Tseng (16.04m).
“During triple jump trainings in the past month especially, I have been consistently doing 14.50m jumps … I feel that it is easier now that I am taller, and also because I have been working on my landing which is my weak point,” said the teenager, whose uncle is former national high jumper Wong Yew Tong who still holds the national record for the event.
There were also new records set in the Boys “C” Div Discus (1kg) and the Girls’ “B” Div 200m yesterday. Raffles Institution’s Jonathan Low, 14, set both a meet and national Under-15 record when he hurled 53.66m to eclipse the 51.54m recorded by Jordan Chia last year.
His nearest competitor, Alfred Leong from Hwa Chong Institution, finished more than eight metres behind with his 45.62m effort. SSP’s Kugapriya Chandran, 16, clocked 25.51sec in the 200m sprint to break the record of 25.64s set by Eugenia Tan in 2012. ADELENE WONG
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