52nd National Schools Cross Country Championships 2011 — Girls preview

A Division Girls — Raffles aim for hat-trick but face strong challenge from Victoria JC

The Raffles girls will be targeting their third cross-country title in a row, and are odds-on favourites to achieve it. Their 2010 championship-winning team were made up largely of first-year Junior College runners, which means that they have retained the nucleus of the team which convincing saw off Victoria Junior College (VJC) to win last year’s team championship.

Mok Ying Rong, Berenice Lian, Wan Zahrah Bte Ahmad Alif Lim and Melinda Chan are all survivors from last year’s champion team, finishing first, fifth, sixth and 22nd respectively in last year’s race. The new additions of Asian Youth Games 400m representative Clara Poon and Seow Yun Yun, both formerly from Cedar Girls Secondary School, have also bolstered the squad, ensuring that there will be sufficient back-up for the four leading runners.

Ying Rong will be aiming to win her second individual A Division Cross Country title. The last athlete to win two such girls’ titles consecutively was Loh Yanni, also a former Raffles Athlete, who won in 2005 and 2006.

While Raffles have maintained their squad from last year, VJC have significantly improved on theirs. Romaine Soh, formerly of Cedar Girls’ and a silver medallist in both the B Division 1500m and 3000m last year, has joined Victoria, and together with Youth Olympic Games (YOG) triathlon representative Clara Wong, will lead Victoria’s charge.

After having a poor race at the SAA meet, Romaine recovered to finish in fifth position at Wings in the Women’s Open category, beating every A Division competitor apart from Ying Rong. The rest of the Victorian team consists of:

Chua Yi Lei, JC2, a former Cedar Girls’ basketball player who took up running in VJC
Melissa Tsang, JC2, a VJC footballer who also trains with the Cross Country team
Jasmine Sim, JC2, a former school cheerleader who only switched to Cross Country when the school closed down their cheerleading Co-Curricular Activity late last year

Perhaps what is remarkable about this team is the background of their team members. Apart from Romaine, the rest of VJC’s runners are either part-time or new runners who have picked up the sport a year ago, at most. Yet, they have managed to become a force to be reckoned with nonetheless.

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