Team U Sports clinched the mixed relay title in a time of 1:20:43. From left to right: Khen Kee Wei, Kim Tham and Alvin Tham. (Photo 1 © Steve Choo)
East Coast Park, Saturday, September 28, 2013 – In the name of good fun, three colleagues decided to come together to participate in this year’s Cold Storage Singapore International Triathlon. Fun turned into celebration as Team U Sports from NTUC Club – comprising Kim Tham, Alvin Tham and Khen Kee Wei – finished with the quickest combined time of 1:20:43 to win the sprint mixed relay of 750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run. This was almost four minutes faster than the times clocked by the first and second runners-up, Hashirokai (1:24:27) and Team O-ways+ (1:24:35).
“I thought they are very good in what they are doing, so I thought we should go and join something together for fun!” said Kim, explaining the reason for teaming up with Alvin and Kee Wei. Kim took on the swim leg, while Alvin and Kee Wei rode and ran in the other two disciplines respectively.
In fact, all three are sports enthusiasts. Besides working for NTUC Club’s U Sports Department, where Kim is a senior manager and Alvin and Kee Wei are both executives, each of them also participates in a variety of sports. A former school team swimmer who now swims for leisure, Kim runs as well and is training for her first full marathon at the end of the year.
Alvin had taken part in basketball, soccer and triathlon when he was younger, before switching his focus to cycling. As for Kee Wei, he used to be in his school’s track and field middle distance team and currently plays soccer in addition to running in races once every few months.
In spite of their sporting backgrounds, the team’s victory came as a surprise as it was the first time that Kim, Alvin and Kee Wei had taken part in a triathlon relay together. Going up against 33 other teams, they were also competing in what was the largest field in the sprint relay classification, the others being the Open Men (25 teams) and Open Women (13 teams) categories.
“Honestly we didn’t expect to be champions,” Kee Wei said. “We planned to be top 10, so we exceeded our expectations in that way.”
It was definitely a win to savour for the three colleagues, who have known one another for about a year. As Alvin and Kee Wei shared, they really treasure their team’s result and the special moment when they stood on the podium. The trio’s camaraderie was also evident in the way they bantered with one another during the post-race interview. Clearly they have enjoyed their debut in the triathlon sprint relay.
“I think it’s the fact that we took part together and displayed great teamwork throughout the race,” said Kim. “How we had motivated each other to train before that and (how we) cheered each other one before and during the race, that was what I enjoyed the most personally.”
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