I first started training as a sprinter under Coach Fabian as part of my CCA in SJI 2017 in Secondary 1. Coming in from a zero sports background in primary school, I found that it was a miracle that I was shortlisted for the Track & Field team. Unsurprisingly, I was far from the fastest on the team, and on many occasions, Coach Fabian suggested that I try my hand at the throwing events since I had a decent build for it.
Despite my lack of ability, I continued to train hard as a sprinter and began to enjoy training more and more. After some months of training and many talks with Coach Fabian, some of us in the team realised that if we really want to win and improve, we will need to put a lot more effort into our training and increase our training volume. Fortunately, Coach Fabian and the other coaches at FWCC offered those in our team extra training with them at a heavily discounted price, which gave us more chances to train and improve.
Eventually, all the effort and training began to pay off in visible results as, by the end of my first year on the track team, I came out with some of the best results in the school track team during our time trials. This further solidified my faith and trust in my coaches. As the 2018 season rolled in, I got a new personable best for my events every new race and I felt constant improvement each time under the guidance of Coach Fabian and the others. When the National School Games of that year came, I managed to attain results I would have never thought possible back when I first stepped onto the track in 2017. Despite my decent results, I was only hungry for more, 9th in the 400m, missing the finals by a hundredth of a second was not going to cut it for me, I wanted more and my coaches were able to support this hunger, training me and giving me the opportunities to improve myself.
Unfortunately, disaster struck towards the end of 2018 when I sustained my first long-term injury, which led to a disaster of one injury after another. First getting injured was rather devastating to me, the sports doctor told me that I will need to take a few months off from any sports to recover, which would completely destroy my plans for the 2019 season the following year. This was when Coach Fabian offered me a session at Movement Mechanics (MM) for an initial physiotherapy assessment, free of charge, something that I am and will continue to be eternally grateful to him for. Despite my constant injuries, physiotherapy at MM helped me to mitigate the severity of them and allowed me to continue training as much as I could. However, this training was not going to cut it if I wanted to be a champion and it showed in the 2019 season where I obtained subpar results in the National School Games that year and left the rest of the year with me focusing on recovery, on and off proper competitive training.
It was around this time of episodes of constant injury that Coach Fabian offered me and some other teammates some coaching opportunities, just for the exposure and experience, which we readily took up. This was when I discover the joys of coaching and seeing the little fruits of my labour show in the results of the children I coached. This lined up rather nicely as since I was unable to train as much as I used to, I was still able to be close to Track & Field, which I truly love, through coaching.
Since 2020 was the year Covid-19 came around, it was a rather quiet year for Track & Field and everything else in general, which gave me more time to focus on my recovery from my injuries. The effects of the pandemic carried onto the following year and disrupted many more competition opportunities. My injuries also continued to persist, leaving me with nothing much to do in any athletics-related activities.
By now I had graduated from secondary school and I was looking to continue sprinting the next two years of Junior College (JC) but there was no official school team for me to join. So I decided to go to Coach Fabian to ask for some help. In the end, the small team I assembled began training in hopes of competing in the 2021 season, only for it to be dashed due to the Covid-19 restrictions still in place. It was at this time my longest persisting injury, shin splints, had hit its peak, which completely left me of out training for a few months and this time – due to the severity of the injury – I really decided to stop training completely for the foreseeable future. With this newly gained freedom, I volunteered to coach for FWCC, since not only did I enjoy coaching but I also wished to make it into a career in my future, so this experience will benefit me in more ways than one.
In these last few years, Coach Fabian and the coaches at FWCC are people I have come to respect more than anything. They display both their professionalism and passion for the sport and their coaching and guidance, which have allowed me to improve beyond any expectations. Being part of FWCC has given me countless opportunities in more ways than I thought and it has helped me to grow as an athlete and in character as well.
200m 11TH PLACE - 2018 B Division Secondary School National School Games Track & Field Championships
400m 9TH PLACE - 2018 B Division Secondary School National School Games Track & Field Championships
400m SILVER MEDALIST - 2018 U14 Akira Swift 65th Annual Track & Field Championships
MIXED MEDLEY RELAY SILVER MEDALIST - 2018 U14 Akira Swift 65th Annual Track & Field Championships
PENTATHLON BRONZE MEDALIST - 2019 U17 UIPM Global Laser Run City Tour - Singapore
400mH GOLD MEDALIST - 2019 U16 Festival of Athletics
MIXED MEDLEY RELAY GOLD MEDALIST - 2019 U18 Festival of Athletics
