Story by REDintern Chin Chi Hua. Photos by Marvin Lowe.
Vanessa Poo from RI gives a shout of joy after winning a crucial point. (Photo 1 © Marvin Lowe/Red Sports)
Jurong East Indoor Sports Hall, Tuesday, May 26, 2009 – Raffles Institution won their 13th championship title as the team defeated Jurong Junior College (JJC) 3-1 in the National Inter-Schools’ A Division Girls’ Badminton Championship.
In the first round of singles, Melissa Leong Hui Ting from RI, was up against Zhang Xiao Dan from JJC. Xiao Dan did not give Melissa an easy time and eventually triumphed 21-14, 21-16.
Despite a good start led by Xiao Dan, JJC lost the lead in the first doubles when their pair of Zhang Han and Du Yupei lost to Sheena Tan and Loke Yun Sheng of RI. Sheena and Yun Sheng had unparalleled teamwork and won 21-3, 21-12.
With the overall score at 1-1, the atmosphere on court became more tense. Next up was the second round of singles, which saw Vanessa Poo Jill from RI facing Lu Lingzhi from JJC. It was a tight showdown with two equally matched players.
Vanessa of RI took the first set 21-15 but Lingzhi came back to win the second set 13-21 to force a rubber. Vanessa eventually took it 21-13 with a display of confidence and skills to ensure RI led 2-1 overall.
The second doubles was now vital to both teams. Cherie Cheong and Macey Tan of RI took the first set 21-18 against Gao Xuru and Zeng Jielin of JJC. The JJC pair came back to win the second set 21-16.
The last set was close and they matched each other point-for-point. Tied at 18-18, they carried on to 21-21 with aggressive cross-court smashes and clever drop shots on display. The RI duo eventually took the third set 24-22 to wrap up the championship title and send cheers ringing through the spectators’ stand.
Sheena Tan, 18, captain of the RI girls team, expressed her immense exhilaration at the win and revealed her confidence in the last doubles pair, believing that they could do it.
One of the RI duo, Macey Tan, 18, shared her thoughts on the last set. “I told myself it was now or never and to give it all at the third set. I just had to be more aggressive to bring it down." It was indeed a superb achievement, as the RI girls won the title for the 13th consecutive year.
Melissa Leong from RI at full stretch trying to get to the dropped shot. (Photo 2 © Marvin Lowe/Red Sports)
Melissa Leong from RI arching backwards to hit the shuttle. (Photo 3 © Marvin Lowe/Red Sports)
Zhang Xiao Dan from JJC delivering one of her smash shots. (Photo 4 © Marvin Lowe/Red Sports)
Sheena from RI with a powerful smash. (Photo 5 © Marvin Lowe/Red Sports)
Sheena from RI sends the shuttle cross court. (Photo 6 © Marvin Lowe/Red Sports)
Sheena from RI with a smash shot. (Photo 7 © Marvin Lowe/Red Sports)
Sheena from RI with a backhand return shot. (Photo 8 © Marvin Lowe/Red Sports)
Lingzhi from JJC gets ready to smash. (Photo 9 © Marvin Lowe/Red Sports)
Vanessa from RI with a powerful smash. (Photo 10 © Marvin Lowe/Red Sports)
Lingzhi from JJC moving backward to hit. (Photo 11 © Marvin Lowe/Red Sports)
Vanessa from RI dives to retrieve a drop shot. (Photo 12 © Marvin Lowe/Red Sports)
Lingzhi from JJC delivers a powerful smash. (Photo 13 © Marvin Lowe/Red Sports)
Vanessa from RI smashing back. (Photo 14 © Marvin Lowe/Red Sports)
Lingzhi from JJC attacking the ball that dropped shot with a powerful backhand. (Photo 15 © Marvin Lowe/Red Sports)
Lingzhi shouts and celebrates after winning a point. (Photo 16 © Marvin Lowe/Red Sports)
Lingzhi from JJC looking to return. (Photo 17 © Marvin Lowe/Red Sports)
Vanessa from RI gives a celebratory shout after winning her grueling game. (Photo 1 8© Marvin Lowe/Red Sports)
Cherie from RI trying to stretch and reach for the shuttle. (Photo 19 © Marvin Lowe/Red Sports)
Macey from RI smashes a return. (Photo 20 © Marvin Lowe/Red Sports)
Cherie from RI moves in to hit. (Photo 21 © Marvin Lowe/Red Sports)
Macey stretching to hit with her backhand. (Photo 22 © Marvin Lowe/Red Sports)
Macey Tan gives team mate Cherie a hug after their marathon battle in the final set. (Photo 23 © Marvin Lowe/Red Sports)
REDpoll
Loading ...REDpoll
Loading ...
When you say “but I know that in Raffles Institution, we make the best of what we have”, I think you need to be corrected. You already have the best.
I think Sportmanship’s side of the gemstone analogy sums it up.
To get better you need to play against all kinds of people, so we can’t just stay and play within in our Singapore bubble.
And I’m pretty sure that the foreigners put in a lot of effort, and if we drove ourselves enough, we’d be in the school teams too.
On a lighter note, I think I see Ling Zhi exerting her ‘chi’ in photo 13!
After reading most of the comments, some comments support and while others reject the idea of foreign talent. i shall not comment on some minor details, first look at the big picture. This is a competition, there will definitely be a winner and loser. RI has won the match, JJC lost. this shows that the foreign talent or our local player lost in terms of techniques, speed etc, definitely not because of their nationality. think of it, if we lost doesn’t mean that we are weak or where are we from but just didn’t work hard enough to beat your opponent. i believe in hard-work pays off.
So what if RI players just win this minor competition ? There are lots of better player around the world. Are players going stop seeking improvement to achieve better results ? Are they going to stuck in this small island and to be contented that they won ‘A’ divison ? Are we going to have the similar comment or article during any international or regional sports event ?
We should discriminate any foreign people, neither do we like to be discriminated.
http://www.asiaone.com/News/Education/Story/A1Story20090604-146101.html
check this out. The intern Han Yongming had a sudden change of opinion of foreign talent on today’s Newpaper.
I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to Sportsmanship for being so open-minded. I can only hope that the rest be as open-minded, so that the foreigners in my school would feel better encouraged and less discriminated. I’m actually glad for them that they’re in JJ whereby everyone’s supportive of them, and not in RI or AC, or i’d wonder how long they can put up with the discrimination there, as you can see from the way they argue about the foreign talent right here on this page.
To Seetow,
I like your argument but must say that it is obviously skewed towards a Rafflesian’s perspective, which is not wrong in the first place because I am not entirely neutral anyway and it is always good to discuss and see different viewpoints. I encourage JJC supporters, who are unhappy, to understand what seetow has put across to avoid spinning into a vicious cycle of animosity which has no value for future sports in Singapore schools.
I am a neutral spectator from neither JJC nor RJC side during the finals. Using your analogy, I am fascinated to see new gemstones after seeing the usual yellow and blue stones or the green, black and white ones for many years. Not that they are no longer beautiful and stunning, but as you yourself said the new ones are more beautiful! So of course anybody can understand why collectors AC and RI are unhappy, but these 2 collectors may not understand why other collectors such as JJ, IJ, MI, MJ, NY, PJ, SA, TP, YJ etc have been frustrated for many years. Not that they do not know where in Singapore to find beautiful and stunning gemstones, but it is a known fact that good ones belong to the top collectors.
Perhaps specific examples can illustrate my point better. I applaud Raffles Institution for making the best of what you have, and always strive to do the best with what you have…. The cases of your canoeing and volleyball teams are good examples because the secondary school section of RI does not organise CCA trainings for those two sports. However that is not the case for badminton, as far as I know, the RI team did not start the competition on level playing ground because being an elite school, he attracts top players from primary schools. I can hear some Rafflesians shouting “what’s wrong with that!”. Truly other schools can only be quietly upset for many years, not with the elite schools but with the fact that no matter how hard they train, they will never earn the ultimate recognition because, I reiterate, their opponents do not start the competition on level playing ground. What infuriated some of them further, are cases I heard and many can verify, such as RI coach trying to poach a P6 national champion, who is due to follow his primary school coach, who trained him with blood and sweat before he started achieving results, to enter SJI. There are many other similar examples heard even in other sports. JJCians already expressed that they did not outsource to talents from other countries and did nothing else to prepare for the competition. They, after leveling the playing field, also dig in their heels and strive to self-improve (locals together with foreign players), holding on to the spirit of the underdog (for many years), and learning lessons of defeat (all the time!).
So I hope AC and RI gemstone collectors can learn to appreciate the new gemstones, strive even harder to find and polish theirs and let the competition decides who the best is. In my opinion, who is the best in school competitions is trivial; the rigor of the competition raising the standard of sports in Singapore is more significant. Who is the best internationally is still not the most precious; the process of becoming the best is priceless.
I understand your POV, but I feel that it is essential to consider the current scene in the A lvl badminton championships. To tell the truth, it is not easy for schools that do not have a niche in a sport to gain a foothold easily. While the secondary school section of RI may or may not have CCA trainings for their badminton players, it is well known that any good player would put RJC, ACJC etc as one of their top choices for badminton. These schools regularly receive national players, well trained secondary team members from schools that excel in badminton. I daresay they would have built up a very strong and solid base of players which is even more attractive for others to join. Do you think any other player would want to join other JCs that aren’t as good if not for the fact that it may be due to personal, acadamic or sporting problems?
I am not any of the decision makers from JJC’s policies, but the way I see it, what the school hopes is that people who are willing to learn and are looking for a good team will consider making JJC as one of their choices in the future in the area of badminton, and this way they are able to recruit skilled players.