SINGAPORE - Cupping her mouth in disbelief as she crossed the finish line, Alexis Teo took a moment to soak in her A Division girls’ 400m victory at the National Schools Games (NSG) track and field championships on April 8.

Competing at the Home of Athletics at Kallang, the 17-year-old Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) (ACS(I) student stormed home in 59.12sec to clinch gold. Her triumph also marked the school’s third gold in girls’ track and field history at the NSG.

Dunman High School’s Caelyn Chew was second in 1min 1.67sec, while Kyra Seow (1:01.82) of Raffles Institution finished third.

For Alexis, the win was unexpected, as she had only returned to action two weeks before the race after pulling her hamstring in another meet. 

“I was a bit unsure if I was able to perform well… I got injured less than a month ago, so I was a bit scared that I wouldn’t win,” she said.

The teenager, who won the B Division title in 2024, was determined to prove herself on the track this season, after narrowly losing the A Division gold to Victoria Junior College’s Emily Anne Choi a year ago.

She added: “After losing the gold medal last year, I really wanted to get it back.

“Last year I panicked. I went too fast the first 350m and then got hacked down the last 60m. So this year for me was more of, ‘don’t panic, keep my pace’.

“The last 100m, I couldn’t hear any footsteps behind me, and I was like, ‘okay, this is it. I have to go all out’.”

It was also a fruitful morning for teammate Matthew Chalissery, who claimed his first-ever gold in the B Division boys’ 400m in 51.74sec, ahead of Jurong Secondary School’s Binedell Jacob Trevor (51.93) and the Singapore Sports School’s Thamir Khairan Faduli (51.94).

He said: “Having come many years from a silver (in Secondary 2) to a gold (in Secondary 4), I think all the ...