“That one giant, we’re the dwarfs!” – a competitor on defending water polo champions NUS

Story by Yvonne Yap/Red Sports. Pictures by Koh Yizhe/Red Sports.

National University Singapore Sports and Recreation Complex, Tuesday, January 5, 2010 – The National University of Singapore (NUS) romped to a 24-4 win over Singapore Institute of Management in their defence of the NUS-Great Eastern Water Polo Challenge title.

Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP), Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) also went home with opening game victories as well. The teams rounded up the top four in 2009, and certainly performed up to expectations at the start of the 2010 Challenge.

This year’s competition promises some exciting action, with five national players representing their various schools in the competition. Lin Diyang, Lin Diyan and Nigel Tay will be among the key players for NUS while Kelvin Ong and Lim Yao Xiang anchor the NTU team. These five national players are still fresh from the recent 2009 South East Asian Games, where Singapore won her 23rd gold medal in a row.

In addition, this is the first time the ladies get a slice of the action in water. There wil be four women’s teams competing in the tournament. Kenneth Foo, an organiser from NUS, said, “This is a feat that we have pulled off across the unis as we managed to push for the formation of ladies Water Polo teams in the unis.”

In the men’s competition, 2009 1st runners-up NP will be looking to better their performance this tournament. “We’re definitely aiming for the top,” NP Captain Jason Tan, 19, shared. The team clinched the Polytechnic-Institute of Technical Education (POL-ITE) Men’s Water Polo title in 2009.

The young NP team will give the other teams a run for their money, with year 1 and 2 players making up the team. Their fitness levels will put the older players to test as the NP team has been training three times a week after the POL-ITE Games last year. The players are predominantly from the Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road) water polo team which won the 2007 and 2008 B Division Water Polo Championships.

“We focus a lot on every single player, not only one. We are strong as a whole… We don’t rely on star players, every one of our player is important to us,” continued Jason, emphasizing the importance of teamwork within the NP team.

The main powerhouse for the Water Polo Challenge will undoubtedly be NUS, as the team boasts three national players and have the success of 2009 to build on. As summed up by NYP’s Zachery Mathews, NUS are the “giant” and the rest of the teams are “dwarfs”.

NUS Captain Bryon Teo responded to that comment, acknowledging that even though they have several strong players and three national players to add to their team’s depth, the field of competitors will put up a good fight in the upcoming games.

“If we look at teams like NTU, they also have two national players and if we look at the poly teams, they have a lot of young players who are training to make the national team.”

“So maybe on paper, people recognise all the national players and go ‘wah, NUS is strong’… But I do believe that all the teams out there are also pretty strong.”