By REDintern Soh Rui Yong
Aldrich Lim in action during the 2009 POSB Run for Kids. (Photo © Les Tan/Red Sports file photo)
Bedok Reservoir, Saturday, January 23, 2010 – Aldrich Lim of Naval Base Secondary School defeated a strong field which included several top junior athletes to become Singapore's new Under-18 cross-country champion at the Singapore Athletic Association (SAA) Cross-Country Championships.
He clocked a time of 17:40.53 min over the 5km long route and in doing so, Aldrich established himself as a strong contender for the B Division National Schools Championships, which will be held on March 24th.
A year ago, Aldrich was a relative unknown on the local running scene. He first rose to prominence at the 2009 POSB Run for Kids event, where he won the Men's Open 8km road race in an impressive time of 29:12. Never looking back since, Aldrich continued to run well, putting together a string of impressive performances, notably finishing second in the 2009 REAL Run Junior 10km category (35:30) and finishing as the second Singaporean at the 2009 Singapore Marathon 10km Men's Open (35:35).
For all his good performances at long road races, Aldrich had never before been a contender at the national level at the shorter cross country races. Until Saturday, that is.
Starting fast and taking the lead from the gun, Aldrich never relinquished the lead, and bravely ran his opponents into the ground. With the U-18 boys being flagged off together with the U-20, Open and Veteran categories, he did not hesitate to challenge the older, more experienced athletes, and could be seen courageously fighting with the bigger boys all the way to the finish.
Established top juniors T Haarishankar of Singapore Sports School and Zachary Ryan Devaraj of Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) both put up a good fight, but ultimately finished fifth and third respectively.
Reigning National Schools C Division 1500m champion Marc Amiruddin of Singapore Sports School chased down Aldrich in the late stages of the race, and was a split second behind in 17:40.99.
With the emergence of a strong new challenger, the established order of top juniors will surely be spurred on to train even harder to cope with the new-found threat. The introduction of Aldrich into the already talent-saturated B Division will definitely spice things up even more, making the 2010 National Schools Cross-Country Championships an event not to be missed.
Individual Results (Position/Tag Number/Name/Team Name/Time)
Men's Under-16
1. 1424 MARCUS NG YU PEI, VICTORIA SCHOOL TEAM C – 18 minutes 10.51 seconds
2. 1421 VENURAAM S/O SELVAN, VICTORIA SCHOOL TEAM C – 18:45.87
3. 1380 JONATHAN TAN HOE EN, RAFFLES INSTITUTION (SECONDARY) TEAM 2 – 18:55.67
4. 1422 YONG REN WEI BRYAN, VICTORIA SCHOOL TEAM C – 19:03.41
5. 1406 WEE JIAN AN JOSIAH, SINGAPORE SPORTS SCHOOL TEAM 2 – 19:07.61
6. 1423 JOEL-DAVID WONG JUNJIE, VICTORIA SCHOOL TEAM C – 19:25.88
7. 1415 MAHESVARAN S/O SELVAN, VICTORIA SCHOOL TEAM A – 19:42.91
8. 1381 MUHD SYAMIR, RAFFLES INSTITUTION (SECONDARY) TEAM 2 – 19:47.26
9. 1425 TEO JIAN XIAN DION, VICTORIA SCHOOL TEAM D – 19:54.58
10. 1426 LIM XIANDA, VICTORIA SCHOOL TEAM D – 20:00.84
Men's Under-18
1. 1550 LIM JING HONG ALDRICH, SWIFT – 17:40.53
2. 1545 MARC AMIRUDDIN, SINGAPORE SPORTS SCHOOL TEAM 5 – 17:40.99
3. 1441 ZACHARY RYAN DEVARAJ, ANGLO-CHINESE SCHOOL (INDEPENDENT) 1 – 17:52.20
4. 1556 CHARLIE QUIN, UNITED WORLD COLLEGE (SOUTH EAST ASIA) TEAM 1 – 17:58.01
5. 1542 T HAARISHANKAR, SINGAPORE SPORTS SCHOOL TEAM 5 – 18:09.93
6. 1534 KARTHIC HARISH RAGUPATHY, ST. JOSEPH’S INSTITUTION TEAM A – 18:12.53
7. 1528 MOHD MAHDI MARICAN, RAFFLES INSTITUTION TEAM 2 – 18:22.18
8. 1543 IVAN TAN QING YU, SINGAPORE SPORTS SCHOOL TEAM 5 – 18:27.27
9. 1527 WILBERT HO, RAFFLES INSTITUTION TEAM 2 – 18:30.65
10. 1559 LEO GEOFFEREY WESTERHOUT MORRIS, VICTORIAN – 18:36.37
Men's Under-20
1. 1617 SOH RUI YONG, RAFFLES INSTITUTION OLD BOYS – 16:53.10
2. 1593 ALEXIS ASSELIN LAUZON, INDIVIDUAL – 17:13.64
3. 1621 KEVIN GOH, RAFFLES INSTITUTION TEAM 1 – 17:22.63
4. 1585 JEEVANEESH, HWA CHONG INSTITUTION COLLEGE TEAM 1 – 17:33.69
5. 1618 JOHNATHAN WONG, RAFFLES INSTITUTION TEAM 1 – 17:59.41
6. 1582 YEO SI HENG, HWA CHONG INSTITUTION COLLEGE TEAM 1 – 18:02.06
7. 1576 BENJAMIN QUEK WEI JIAN, VICTORIA JUNIOR COLLEGE BLAZE – 18:07.81
8. 1577 EUGENE RODRIGO, VICTORIA JUNIOR COLLEGE BLAZE – 18:08.03
9. 1570 ZORNDRIX DASS, ANGLO-CHINESE JUNIOR COLLEGE ZOOM – 18:13.37
10. 1620 LIM ZHI MING, RAFFLES INSTITUTION TEAM 1 – 18:23.65
Men's Open
1. 1228 JASON LAWRENCE, MACRITCHIE RUNNERS 25 – 16:20.98
2. 1258 AARON MENG, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE TEAM 1 – 16:58.28
3. 1257 GIRIDER SWAMINATHAN, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE TEAM 1 – 17:01.02
4. 1226 JAMES COPINGER, MACRITCHIE RUNNERS 25 – 17:08.33
5. 1229 ANG CHEE YONG, MACRITCHIE RUNNERS 25 – 17:20.02
6. 1227 CHEONG PENG TAT, MACRITCHIE RUNNERS 25 – 17:23.43
7. 1256 CHUA EE GHIM, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE TEAM 1 – 17:31.99
8. 1278 CHUA CHIN YANG, SWIFT 2 – 17:45.04
9. 1270 MUHAMMAD ILYAS, SINGAPORE POLY TEAM 1 – 17:48.19
10. 1250 COLIN TUNG, NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY BLUE – 17:52.23
Men's Veterans
1. 1633 MICHAEL CRAIG, INDIVIDUAL – 18:04.25
2. 1629 KEK HONG LENG, INDIVIDUAL – 18:18.30
3. 1628 TONY SEAKINS, INDIVIDUAL – 18:23.28
4. 1634 GERARD CRAIG, INDIVIDUAL – 18:26.16
5. 1626 TADHG MEANEY, INDIVIDUAL – 19:00.21
6. 1632 TREVOR SEAMAN, INDIVIDUAL – 19:08.88
7. 1631 MARK FORGERON, INDIVIDUAL – 19:15.76
8. 1636 ROBSON PHAN, INDIVIDUAL – 19:20.18
9. 1630 IAN COPPELL, INDIVIDUAL – 19:24.88
10. 1627 ANDREW HARRIS, INDIVIDUAL – 20:52.50
Team Results (lowest score wins in cross-country)
Men's Under-16
1. VICTORIA SCHOOL TEAM C – 7 points
2. RAFFLES INSTITUTION (SECONDARY) TEAM 2 – 41
3. VICTORIA SCHOOL TEAM A – 42
Men's Under-18
1. SINGAPORE SPORTS SCHOOL TEAM 5 – 15
2. RAFFLES INSTITUTION TEAM 2 – 27
3. ST. JOSEPH’S INSTITUTION TEAM A – 31
Men's Under-20
1. RAFFLES INSTITUTION TEAM 1 – 18
2. VICTORIA JUNIOR COLLEGE BLAZE – 26
3. HWA CHONG INSTITUTION COLLEGE TEAM 1 – 27
Men's Open
1. MACRITCHIE RUNNERS 25 – 10
2. NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE TEAM 1 – 12
3. NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY BLUE – 35
For full results, refer to the Singapore Athletics Association website.
brilliant reporting by Soh Ruiyong
Great first couple of articles, Ruiyong! And congrats to you and Colin too(:
There seem to be a lot of races coming up in Sg too – i guess cos track season is earlier now that natl schools has been brought forward?
Track season’s getting into full swing down here as well, some races tomorrow night. They should trial night races down there too, might help with the heat a bit? Gets to 34 deg in the day here now, but by 7/8pm its perfect for distance races.
Perhaps the new SAA might do something different 🙂
Thank you, Uncle Les =).
We have two Red Crew who can RUN. Awesome.
Congrats on winning the U-20, Rui Yong:
1. 1617 SOH RUI YONG, RAFFLES INSTITUTION OLD BOYS – 16:53.10
So fast. I would just be passing the 2km mark at that point in time lol
Congrats to Colin Tung too:
Men’s Open
10. 1250 COLIN TUNG, NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY BLUE – 17:52.23