New year brings a new record for Yuan Chow

SINGAPORE — Last month, schoolboy runner Lui Yuan Chow (picture) became the first Singaporean youth to go under the 4 minute-mark in the 1,500m, clocking a new national Under-20 record time of 3min 58.92s at the Victorian Milers and Athletics Victoria Knockout Round 3 in Melbourne.

And the 16-year-old — regarded as one of Singapore’s most promising middle distance talents — proved last week that the result was no fluke, bettering the mark with a gold medal run of 3min 58.62s at the Victorian Junior Track and Field Championships.

Yuan Chow is determined to go even faster, as he told TODAY: “It was a blessing that the race was led by a phenomenal athlete and para athlete, Jaryd Clifford. He made it much easier to achieve the time because all that was required was a little bit of speed on the last lap.

“It feels good (getting a personal best), any improvement is an improvement! That said, it isn’t where I’d like to be yet for this season, so I will be aiming to shave a bit more off that time.

“I’m hoping that by the end of this year I will hit sub-3min 55s in the 1,500m and sub-8min 40s in the 3,000m.”

The teenager, who is enrolled at Melbourne High School, has been in record-breaking form in recent months.

Last December, he set new Singapore Under-17 records in the 1,500m and 3,000m at the Australian All-School Championships. A month later, he rewrote the 28-year-old national Under-20 mark (1,500m) set by Pillai Arjunan Saravanan, before bettering it again last week.

Yuan Chow is pencilled in for the South-east Asia Youth Athletics Championships and Asian Junior Athletics Championships in April and June, and he is looking forward to the challenge.

“I am expecting SEA Youth to be similar to this weekend’s Victorian Junior Championships and therefore I am hoping to place,” he said. “I believe that the Asian Junior Championships is a lot tougher and faster based on past results, therefore I would be hoping for a decent place or a quick time.” LOW LIN FHOONG