Story by Clement Tan/Red Sports, with additional reporting by Erwin Wong. Photos by Stefanus Ian and Cheah Wenqi/Red Sports

National Cross Country A Division Boys starting their race. (Photo 1 © Cheah Wenqi/Red Sports)

Bedok Reservoir Park, Wednesday, March 22, 2017 — Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) fended off Hwa Chong Institution in a tie-breaker to win the National Schools Cross Country B Division team title after an unprecedented tie in points. It came down to each school’s fourth-fastest B Division runner – ACS(I) had Joshua Loo in 11th, while HCI’s George Lai was 15th.

Raffles Institution’s Armand Dhilawala Mohan won the B boys individual title, finishing the 4.75km route in 16 minutes 49 seconds, with HCI’s Joshua Rajendran and Ethan Yan second and fourth, respectively. St Andrew’s Secondary School’s Jerrell Lim was third.

“The B boys performed much better than expected,” said Zorndrix Dass, ACS(I) team coach. “It was a close fight in the end. If anybody had done a little less, we would have lost.”

By comparison, ACS(I) retained its A boys’ team title they won last year, though pre-race favourite Victoria Junior College’s Syed Hussein Aljunied dethroned defending individual champion Isaac Tan, finishing just two seconds faster at 16:29 over 4.75km.

“Retaining my title was going to be more difficult this year because of the stronger competition,” said ACS(I)’s Isaac. “In other races, I would typically finish almost a minute behind Syed so I’m quite happy with my run today.”

This was also Syed’s second-straight individual cross country title after topping the B Division for Pasir Ris Secondary last year, but this year’s experience was still different from him.

“It feels different now training in a team in school, motivating each other along,” said Syed, who will have another shot next year at helping VJC earn its first A boys team title since 2000.

HCI were comfortable team winners in the C Division, led by Aeron Young and Chew Yue Bin, who placed third and fourth in the individual race. Raffles Institution’s Sean Tay was the individual C boys champion, with Nan Hua High School’s Lim Yu Zhe second.

A Boys Individual
4.75km
1st Syed Hussein Aljunied (Victoria Junior College, #1122) – 16:29
2nd Isaac Tan (Anglo-Chinese School (Independent), #1009) – 16:31
3rd Vignesh Ravi Baskar (Raffles Institution, #1084) – 16:57
4th Er Wen Han (Hwa Chong Institution, #1036) – 17:01
5th Timothy Liau (Victoria Junior College, #1123) – 17:04
6th Fang Yiyang (Hwa Chong Institution, #1043) – 17:08
7th Chadalawada Abhijit (Raffles Institution, #1087) – 17:19
8th Charles Kwong (Anglo-Chinese School (Independent), #1011) – 17:20
9th Thiruben Thana Rajan (National Junior College, #1072) – 17:22
10th Gideon Phong (Anglo-Chinese School (Independent), #1015) – 17:23

A Boys Team
1st Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) – 31 points
2nd Isaac Tan (#1009) – 16:31
8th Charles Kwong (#1011) – 17:20
10th Gideon Phong (#1015) – 17:23
11th Daniel Yap (#1012) – 17:24

2nd Hwa Chong Institution – 41 points
4th Er Wen Han (#1036) – 17:01
6th Fang Yiyang (#1043) – 17:08
15th Song Ivan (#1042) – 17:49
16th Tang Wei Feng (#1037) – 17:51

3rd Raffles Institution – 42 points
3rd Vignesh Ravi Baskar (#1084) – 16:57
7th Chadalawada Abhijit (#1087) – 17:19
13th Mohammad Shafiq Anshad (#1083) – 17:39
19th Jeremy Yeo (#1085) – 18:17

B Boys Individual
4.75km
1st Armand Dhilawala Mohan (Raffles Institution, #3275) – 16:49
2nd Joshua Rajendran (Hwa Chong Institution, #3166) – 17:01
3rd Jerrell Lim (St Andrew’s Secondary School, #3315) – 17:03
4th Ethan Yan (Hwa Chong Institution, #3171) – 17:13
5th Dave Tung (St Joseph’s Institution, #3322) – 17:17
6th Rajesh Muthu Ramanathan (Anglo-Chinese School (Independent), #3021) – 17:18
7th Gabriel Ng (Anglo-Chinese School (Independent), #3020) – 17:23
8th Tan Jian Wei (Victoria School, #3355) – 17:26
9th Zheng Yong Shen (Dunman High School, #3110) – 17:34
10th Harpreet Singh (Anglo-Chinese School (Independent), #3022) – 17:36

B Boys Team
1st Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) – 34 points (won in tiebreaker on 4th fastest runner)
6th Rajesh Muthu Ramanathan (#3021) – 17:18
7th Gabriel Ng (#3020) – 17:23
10th Harpreet Singh (#3022) – 17:36
11th Joshua Loo (#3024) – 17:37

2nd Hwa Chong Institution – 34 points
2nd Joshua Rajendran (#3166) – 17:01
4th Ethan Yan (#3171) – 17:13
13th Chua Jia Wei (#3170) – 17:39
15th George Lai (#3169) – 17:41

3rd Raffles Institution – 73 points
1st Armand Dhilawala Mohan (#3275) – 16:49
21st Travis Tan (#3276) – 17:49
23rd Joshua Yong (#3274) – 18:05
29th Nedunchezian Selvageethan (#3273) – 18:18

C Boys Individual
3.8km
1st Sean Tay (Raffles Institution, #5231) – 13:40
2nd Lim Yu Zhe (Nan Hua High School, #5182) – 13:43
3rd Aeron Young (Hwa Chong Institution, #5143) – 13:54
4th Chew Yue Bin (Hwa Chong Institution, #5140) – 13:55
5th Chai Jiacheng (Raffles Institution, #5232) – 14:24
6th Daniel Ho (Victoria School, #5304) – 14:27
7th Aneish Jose Sawney (Raffles Institution, #5236) – 14:28
8th Joshua Khoo (Catholic High School, #5064) – 14:38
9th Arian Zaw (St Joseph’s Institution, #5266) – 14:39
10th G Shyam Naidu (Victoria School, #5306) – 14:45

C Boys Team
1st Hwa Chong Institution – 33 points
3rd Aeron Young (#5143) – 13:54
4th Chew Yue Bin (#5140) – 13:55
12th Ernest Low (#5139) – 14:48
14th Jonathan Yeong (#5144) – 14:53

2nd Victoria School – 46 points
6th Daniel Ho (#5304) – 14:27
10th G Shyam Naidu (#5306) – 14:45
11th CT Mani Lakshmanan (#5308) – 14:47
20th Reuben Lui (#5309) – 14:57

3rd Raffles Institution – 51 points
1st Sean Tay (#5231) – 13:40
5th Chai Jiacheng (#5232) – 14:24
7th Aneish Jose Sawney (#5236) – 14:28
38th Regan Ng (#5235) – 15:46

Photo gallery of 2017 National Schools Boys Cross Country Championships
More photos next page