Posted by Sha
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At the 2011 SAA Track and Field Series 2 held last week, the competition saw Wan Lay Chi meeting the qualifying mark for the SEA Games in the women’s shot put event.
The regional bi-annual event to be held from the 11th to 22nd December in Palembang, will be Lay Chi’s second SEA Games outing.
She bettered the 14.08 meters bronze medal mark set by Thailand’s Siwaporn Warapiang from the 2009 SEA Games edition, with an effort of 14.28 meters, thus booking her spot.
The Sport and Wellness Management student at Nanyang Polytechnic attest that her qualifying for the SEA Games that’s not of her pet event, the discus throw, came as a shocked surprise for her.
Initially hesitant to join the competition as the 22-year-old was in the midst of her exams, a slight nudge from her coach James Wong, saw her entering the meet, and to her delight, she has one foot in the door in making her chances of getting a medal in Palembang a reality.
Although Lay Chi has qualified for the SEA Games, it’s still an uphill task for what’s in store for her in Indonesia.
Her counterpart, Zhang Guirong, who has been a constant fixture in the shot put event, winning the event no less on three consecutive SEA Games outing since 2005, with an average distance of 17 metres plus is a firm favorite for gold.
Hot on her heels will be the Thai duo of Juttaporn Krasaeyan and Siwaporn Warapiang who will tussle for the silver and bronze medals with Wan Lay Chi.
SEA Games women’s shot put results | ||
2009 | 2007 | 2005 |
Zhang Guirong 17.12 m |
Zhang Guirong 17.21 m |
Zhang Guirong 17.40 m |
Below are a few comments asked posed to Wan Lay Chi on her journey to SEA Games 2011:
Q) Regarding the competition, T&F Series 2
The 2nd series I threw a distance of 14.28 meters. It was actually quite unexpected. Because I was having my final exam, I wasn’t really looking forward to, or in the right frame of mind.
However my coach, Uncle James (James Wong) asked me just to take part and just have fun. Therefore there wasn’t any high expectation from me initially.
Q) On throwing 14.28 meters
As the competition started, I did my first throw of 13.3+ meters and hence I knew that the last white line that was drawn on the field is a 14 meters mark.
That’s when I got really excited as I want to give it another go as the qualifying mark is quite close. So I tried very hard to throw over the last line. And to my delight I managed to do it on my third attempt.
Q) What becomes of your discus event, now that you’ve qualified in the shot put?
Yes. My main event is still the discus. However the SEA Games qualifying mark for the discus (49.12 meters) isn’t easy for me to achieve.
Even though I’ve qualified for the shot put event, the event I will be still focusing on the discus event.
In my opinion, I personally feel that the discus event is the one that I think I could stand a possibly higher chance of getting any success, compared to the shot put.
28th Feb 2011
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