! ☎ ✏ ✈

swift competition.
second & final day;

it was baking hot, as i would later find out when my sunburn becomes apparant. no cloud cover, no wind, no shade. in short, it was your typical tropical singapore afternoon.

on this day that could have roasted my butt, i was at gombak stadium for one purpose: jump my best and hope for the best too. if i got my first white flag of the season, i would already be contented.

jade, my awesome fellow jumper, had arrived slightly later than me. she packed tons of food and when i saw her, i was in awe at how she could wear double layered clothing and not feel absolutely scorching. i was wearing my jersey and was sweating bullets in it. maybe jade takes lessons from coach about fashion wear...

we had proceeded to check out the jump pit before the actual event started. to our (slight) dismay, the organisers decided to use the red pit instead of our more familiar green pit. thank god the men's event before ours had already killed any caterpillar who thought of breeding on the runup.

step, step, CATERPILLAR, stomp, splat.

anyways, warmup was short and slightly lethargic (my fault). the heat was highly uncomfortable. after the slow warmup (yes yes my fault), we got our markings ready and did trial jumps.

5mins later, the long jump u-17 started.

it was a long stay at the jump pit. out of 14, 7 competitors showed up for u-17 while 5 (i think?) reported for the women's open. still, with each jumper having 6jumps, time passed slowly as jumper after jumper ran and sailed through the air.

my first 2 jumps were both red. (red flags means the jump is not to be measured as the person had overstepped) the third was white but the distance was pathetic. on the fourth jump, i remembered what coach had taught us. the 2parts runup (starting comfortably then switching to full sprinting speed); the straight leg; the explode (HAAAA!) on the board; the swing of the hips; bringing the arms forward.

suddenly, i had this urge to turn and glance at the grandstand. i think i saw someone, and i guess i kinda owe the jump to him. either it was because of the thinking process i had went through, the glance at the grandstand or sheer dumb luck, that fourth jump turned out to be my personal best. ever.

"4.54m."

i heard the official say it, but i was rejecting the thought of it being remotely true. how could i, someone who has only cleared 4m once in training, be able to jump that kind of distance? i didnt know and i didnt believe. jade told me to have faith in myself and i tried. but my mind just kept rejecting the words.

jade had been fab in her jumps. i could see the joy on her face when she got her first white flag. the smile on her face, the bright twinkle in her eyes, her rosy cheeks (ok maybe this was cause of the sun). i could understand how she felt. i think she got her pb too (:

time passes sluggishly but the jumps were finally done. picking up our stuffs, the two rv jumpers were about to leave when the ah pek official came.

"1121?"
i blinked, totally blur. "yar?"
official thrusts board at cm. "you're third, ok?"
i just blink even more. i look at the board, then at the official and then at jade. "huh? what?"
offcial ah pek laughs. "you're third in your age group, you don't know?" ah pek chuckles and walks away.

in that very moment, my mind was a blank. my brain was too stupid to comprehend what the ah pek had just said.

"jade, what did he say?"
jade smiles, gentle yet happy. "you got third!"

i didn't realise it, but tears were streaming down my cheek.

the next few mins were a blur. jade dashed to tell coach, who couldn't believe it also. she ran, shouted it to the sec1s and dashed back ahead of me to the grandstand. she told it to wk, then to the others.

they congratulated me but inside i felt hollow. i didn't feel the excitement they were feeling. i didn't know why. jingjie said i was the cool kind so i didn't make a big deal out of it. (thanks jj! :) when i sat down and pondered, i realised why.

jade should have been standing up there with me when i went to collect the trophy.

she should have been on the podium too. mine was a total fluke. she deserved to be up there more than me.

her hard work, determination and pure love for the event. there was no way i could compare to her in these aspects. her enthusiam was what landed me in long jump in the first place. all in all, it was she who helped me the most along the way of getting that trophy.

she deserves a much better prize than just having a personal best.

she deserves to be standing up there, on the winner's podium, with the best in the event itself, holding a trophy or medal of her own.

and i totally believe that you can do it (: jade, i trust and believe in you.

next time, both of us are gonna be up there.

both of us.

HAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!