I had filed a Sunday Times report on the new women's national 100m hurdles record set by Dipna Lim-Prasad at the Malaysia Open.

Dipna Lim-Prasad, 18, in training. ST PHOTO: Desmond Wee

The 18-year-old Singapore Sports School graduate had clocked 14.72sec in the final to break Eileen Chai's record of 14.81 which was set in 2005.

But that was not what caught my colleague's attention. "You mean she broke the record even though she finished last?" he asked.

And that, in a nutshell, is why Dipna's milestone was a bittersweet moment for me.

Obviously, it was bitter because despite being a new national mark, it was still far behind the times of eventual winner Dedeh Erawati of Indonesia (13.34sec) and runner-up Sheena Antilano of the Philippines (13.99sec).

And I am not sure if Dedeh, the 2007 South-east Asia Games champion, and Antilano are even near their peak yet for this year’s SEA Games.

Sadly, Dipna's new record is a reflection of how far Singapore athletic standards have plummeted since the glory days of the 1970s, the main highlight of which was Chee Swee Lee's capture of the 400m gold at the 1974 Asian Games.

Why is Singapore athletics in such a state? That's for the Singapore Athletic Association and the local athletics community to answer.

But here's why Dipna's feat was also a sweet moment for me, and why I had particularly enjoyed writing about it — it marks a significant breakthrough in her development as an athlete.

You see, I've known Dipna since 2004. She was one of the 138 kids who  joined the Sports School as its pioneer batch of students when it opened that year. I was the school's communications manager at the time.

During my four years there, I watched her develop from a thin-as-a-rake 12-year-old into a promising runner. Yet, I always had a nagging feeling that Dipna didn't quite have that extra bit to be more than second-best in the 400m and 400m hurdles.

She spent her first three years at the School in the shadow of Valerie Pereira, who was the best in the 200m and 400m at age-group level.

Such was the gap between them: Two years ago, Dipna, then 16, clocked 58.68sec in the 400m at the National Schools Championships to set a B Division record. But that was still 0.65sec slower than Valerie’s national U-17 mark of 58.03, set in 2005 when she was just 15.

Last year, when it seemed Dipna was catching up with Valerie, and was also showing some promise in the 400m hurdles, along came a hurricane called T. Piriyah who blew everyone away to become the nation's new 400m and 400m hurdles queen.

The 15-year-old Sports School student caused jaws to drop at last year's National Schools Championships with her times of 57.11sec in the 400m and 63.86sec in the 400m hurdles. The former shattered Valerie's national U-17 mark. The latter obliterated Dipna's schools B Division record of 66.99sec.

All this left me wondering whether Dipna would ever become a national athlete to watch in her own right, or whether she would end up playing second fiddle to the Piriyahs and the Valeries, a strong relay runner at best.

Then came her breakthrough this year, thanks to a shrewd Georgian called Viatchelsav Vassiliev.

The Sports School sprints and hurdles coach, a former Soviet Union athlete, decided that her lanky 1.75m-tall frame and base speed of 12.6sec in the 100m (which compares favourably to Chee Swee Lee's 12.5sec at her peak) made her more suitable for the 100m hurdles.

So he switched her. It was a masterstroke.

Since clocking 15.8sec at the start of the year, Dipna has gone on to break the national junior record four times. And now she's the new owner of the 100m hurdles national record.

But Vassiliev thinks Dipna can go even faster. In fact, he has set her the target of meeting the qualifying mark of 14.14secs for next year's IAAF World Junior Championships.

Wow, it's enough to make you giddy with excitement.

However, this was the sweetest twist in the tale for me: Dipna wasn't even supposed to go to the Malaysian Open in the first place.

According to my sources, the SAA had originally picked her in for the meet. However it dropped her later after deciding to send only SEA Games-bound athletes.

Dipna was devastated. In the end, the Sports School told the SAA that it would pay for her trip to Kuala Lumpur and participation in the meet. And Dipna went on to repay the School's faith in her in the best way possible.

I know I will enjoy tracking Dipna's progress from now on and I do hope she qualifies for the World Juniors next year. For that would, in turn, make her one of the top hurdlers in our region and a possible medalist at the 2011 SEA Games.

Most of all, I am just happy that she has finally found her niche event, which has now enabled her to emerge as an exciting prospect to watch.

Bittersweet moment? Definitely more sweet than bitter, I say.