By Red Sports Reader Gordon Choo
Commencing this week is the annual National C Division Squash Championship, which will see traditional powerhouses like Singapore Chinese Girls’ School (SCGS), Raffles Girls’ School (RGS), Methodist Girls’ School (MGS), Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) (ACSI), Raffles Institution (RI) and St Joseph’s Institution (SJI) wrestling for the coveted National title.
Out of all the C Division girls’ teams, defending champions SCGS remain the favourites to win the title again with top national juniors Aun Yong Wai Yann and Steffi Chan in the squad. The present team comprises of mainly experienced year two players.
Meanwhile, while RGS has a dynamic trio with good players Christabelle, Elena and Berynce in the national age group squad, they are unlikely to upset the top SCGS players.
As for MGS, much will depend on their year two players given that they have not been able to attract good squash players via the Direct School Admission (DSA) scheme for the last two years. As such, they rely on players groomed by their internal coaches.
In the C Division boys’ group, defending champions Fairfield Methodist School’s quest to retain the title for the third time will be extremely difficult with title contenders from ACSI, RI and SJI.
ACSI have rebuilt a strong team in hopes of reclaiming their past glories. ACSI had dominated squash for several years in C Division until the emergence of FMSS. Their current team, comprising of good national age group players Joshua Chew, Keegan Wong, Ong Li Jun, and Nicholas Lee, are to be reckoned with.
While ACSI are strong challengers, RI is the team to beat this year. RI were finalists in the last two years, losing to Fairfield 2–3 in both years. Perhaps determined not to be third time unlucky, RI will be fielding a very formidable team which could very well be their winning squad this year. The squad includes top national age group juniors Tan Ijoe, Kevin Tong, Clement Hung and Anders Ong. With Tan Ijoe and Kevin Tong almost certain to win all their matches, RI only need to clinch one more point through Anders Ong or Clement Hung.
RI may be bent on winning the title that has eluded them for the past 13 years but nonetheless, but SJI could possibly spring a surprise in the C Division title challenge too. Though not much is said about the team, the team is led by Bryan Tan, a leading national junior player. SJI’s team consists of seasoned year one and two players who have been recruited via the DSA scheme and exposed to local competitions respectively.
The tournament will begin this week and an intense competition should be expected.
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