Young Athletes Give Their All On The Track

THE Bukit Jalil Sports School (BJSS) International Combined Events championships will be a bigger affair next year.

The inaugural championships, organised by the BJSS, at the National Sports Council (NSC) training centre in Bukit Jalil, were a big success with six teams taking part in the event.

BJSS principal Marina Chin said they were encouraged by the response and feedback from the participating teams.

Off he goes: SMK Hussein Onn’s Muhammad Nurulharitulfariz (left) racing towards the finishing line in the medley relay.

The championships were a platform for Form One students from the participating teams to evaluate their progress. All participants had to take part in the six events — 80m hurdles, high jump, shot put, 800m, 100m and long jump — as well as the medley relay for both both boys and girls.

Besides the BJSS, the other schools involved in the championships were SMK Seri Sentosa, Bandar Penawar Sports School, Tun Hussein Onn Sports School (Johor), SMK Putra (Kelantan) and Singapore Sports School.

Marina, a former national hurdler, said the results were good.

“More importantly, we had created an opporunity for the students to take part in a competition, Sometime ago, the National Sports Council (NSC) had the Tunas Cemerlang programme and the students, basically in Form One, were able to take part.

“But the event has been discontinued which is why we have initiated this programme. Two schools from Australia and one from Thailand have already agreed to be part of next year’s programme. We are also looking at inviting a school from South Africa,’’ she said.

Big winners: The BJSS team were the overall champions.

In the boys’ category, BJSS’ Ardiyanshah Saman won the gold medal with 4090 points while SMK Hussein Onn’s Muhammad Afiq Ahmad Naim and Muhammad Nurulharitulfariz were second and third with 3860 and 3720 points, respectively.

SMK Hussein Onn’s Nurul Shafika Mohd Razak collected 4350 points to win the gold medal in the girls’ section. The second and third spots went to BJSS’ Ling Wen Yi and Fatin Izzati Ahmad with 3790 and 3670 points respectively.

BJSS were champions in the boys and girls team category. The highlight of the championships was the medley relay (100m, 200m, 300m and 400m) among the participating teams.

In the boys’ section, SMK Hussein Onn won the gold medal when they clocked 2:14.30 followed BJSS (2:16.70) and SMK Seri Sentosa (2:17.58).

SMK Seri Sentosa clocked 2:38:85 enroute to winning the gold medal in the girls’ event. BJSS settled for the second spot on 2:39.43 while SMK Hussein Onn (2:43.02) were third.

BJSS were crowned the overall champions and received the challenge trophy.

Marina said they were also looking at having two categories — Form One and Form Two — in next year’s championships.

“The participants who took part in this year’s championships will be in Form Two next year. We are keen to see their progress in the next 12 months,’’ she added.