Track and Field Part 5

Kenneth called me earlier today and apparently he doesn't seem to enjoy his time serving his country. Well, who would anyway? But yet I'm dying to get started with National Service. Maybe cause 2 years later, everything will revert back to normal and that is when I'll get started on achieving what I've set out to achieve.

Well, speaking of my maiden race, out of the other 7 competitors I was competing with, I ended up 3rd which I'm pretty satisfied with. But being 3rd wasn't enough to secure a place in the next qualifying round. Unfortunately, my timing (13 seconds) wasn't good enough. It can't be helped I guess, coz afterall the people participating in the Nationals are all freaks. Nevertheless, my coach was pretty happy with me.


I didn't have much time to get over my disappointment for the 4x100m C division was next. Strangely, I can't remember anything about the qualifying races. But what I do know is that we made it to the finals - which is possibly the greatest thing I've achieved in my 2 and a half years in TnF.

I remember the baton training though, due to the fact that we practised baton training loads and loads of times. Often people will question what's so difficult about passing a baton from one guy to another. Well, the Americans (Tnf powerhouse) had two 4x100 teams (male and female) disqualified because they dropped the baton. I still remember how shocked the "TnF world" was when it happened.


But what is so difficult exactly? Well, I would say it is pretty tough to get the timing and coordination right. Say the 2nd runner in the 4x100m race. He has to pace himself to receive the baton when the 1st runner is at his fastest, and he has to be fast enough to deliver the baton over to the 3rd runner (before he sprints off). So if the 2nd runner is too kan chiong and run out of the "baton passing zone" before the 1st runner can pass the baton over to him, the white flag will be raised.

There are many ways to get disqualified, but I wouldn't elaborate too much about it. Thus, the only way to minimize the chance for us to be disqualified is via practice and more practice. I was the 4th runner, so I kinda had it easy. What I needed to do is listen for "Up!" and swing my arm backwards with my palm opened, grab the baton as tight as possible once I feel it and head towards the finishing line.

But how can a team not have at least a sprinter in the 100m finals and still qualify for the 4x100m relay finals. I would say it's a combination of luck and more luck that we actually managed to get into the finals really. We barely made it because one of the top team crashed out due to disqualification (dropped the baton apparently) during the qualifying race. And so we sneaked in.

Of course, we didn't have much hope of getting a medal in the finals. But we still had an objective, which is to not finish last. I would rather not qualify than finish last in the finals frankly speaking. And we didn't thankfully, though I think I let my team down. I failed to maintain the 5th spot when the baton was passed to me and finished 6th. But still, 6th in the whole Singapore is no mean feat.

It's sad that I didn't go on to achieve better things when a combination of various factors resulted in me quitting TnF. Though I feel a little regrettable about it, but if given the chance to undo my decision. I still wouldn't know if I would really do so.