Wings Cross Country Championships: a race reflection by Soh Rui Yong

Story by Soh Rui Yong

Bedok Reservoir Park, Saturday, February 18, 2012 — Still riding on the joy of winning the Singapore Athletic Association (SAA) National Cross Country Championships, I soon found myself facing the second race of my 2012 season — the Wings Cross Country Championships, organised by Wings Athletic Club.

I was the defending Men’s Open champion going into the race, so expectations were slightly higher this time. Memories of the 2011 edition of the race, where I outsprinted Jeevaneesh Soundararajah of Hwa Chong Institution (HCI) in the final 600m of the race to win by four seconds, were still fresh in my head as I prepared my race attire.

Making things more exciting this year was the participation of Brad Johnson, an Australian runner with personal bests of 15min 40sec and 32min 30sec for the 5000m and 10000m respectively. Brad had been posted to Singapore for two weeks to work on a project for his company, IBM, and had requested to participate in the Wings Cross Country Championships during his short stay here.

Together with many of my training partners, we represented Wings Athletic Club as a team in the race. It was my third year representing the club and, after we were narrowly beaten to the gold in 2010 and 2011 by Raffles Institution, I was itching to help Wings to win their first ever team championship. Having a strong athlete like Brad on the team was a huge boost to us and, personally, I was relishing the rare opportunity to test myself against foreign competition.

Despite straining a gluteus muscle two days before the race while working as a relief physical education (PE) teacher, I went into the race high on confidence as I had been training consistently well since returning from a holiday in December. Feeling calm and assured, I kept my mind off the race, and had a good sleep the night before.

Rising from bed at 6am, I showered, had breakfast, and reached Bedok Reservoir by 7.30am. My race was not due to start till 9.40am, but I was there earlier to help my juniors from Raffles Institution with their race preparations. Once my juniors made their way to the start line, I joined my Wings Athletics Club teammates and we proceeded to warm up. We went to the start line 15 minutes before the scheduled start of the race.

Despite anticipating a tough battle to retain my title, with Brad and other top local runners such as Karthic Harish Ragupathy of Hwa Chong Institution (HCI) in the field, I managed to be in good control of my emotions, and was still calm as I toed the start line. I did not have a race strategy, and planned to play it as the race unfolded.

At 9.40am, the Men’s Open field was introduced to Guest-of-Honour Mr Lim Teck Yin, Chief Executive Officer of the Singapore Sports Council, who did us the honour of flagging off the Men’s Open category. After a short briefing by Wings official, Mr Melvin Tan, Mr Lim sounded the air-horn, and the race was underway.

I started quickly for the first few metres to establish a good position before easing off and allowing myself to settle down into a comfortable pace. Sean Lim of Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) (ACSI) had got off to a good start and was the early leader of the race, with myself and teammates Brad Johnson and Yong Shi Kai just behind as we trampled across the grassy field.

At the end of the grass stretch of the race, a runner from National Junior College (NJC) surged into the lead, and I allowed myself to be dragged along with him. Not long after, Aldrich Lim of Catholic Junior College (CJC) took his turn at the front, with Brad Johnson moving into second position, and me close behind in third.

This order was maintained until the 1km mark, when Brad eased into the lead though there was no drastic change to the pace. Following suit, I moved past Aldrich into second place, and sensed that my move was being covered. Stealing a look behind, I discovered that I had a troupe of runners which included Karthic, Sean, Zachary Ryan Devaraj of ACSI and my training partners Bryan Yong of RI and Soh Hua Qun of Wings on my tail. It was a tight race, and things were about to get exciting.

Suddenly, Brad threw in a surge of pace. Reacting quickly, I increased my pace and covered the move, determined not to let a gap open up. Karthic did likewise, but the rest of the pack fell back, and it was now a three-horse race. As we approached the only hill on the course, I took the lead and pushed the pace, in a bid to use the hill to break away from the rest of the field.

However, Brad and Karthic matched my efforts stride for stride, and we descended the hill in the same order as we went up. Hua Qun had put in a big surge of his own down the hill, and was closing us down quickly. Unable to shake off my competitors, I relaxed and began to plan my next move, but before I could figure out what to do, Brad moved into the lead again and picked up the pace significantly. Karthic passed me for the first time in the race and moved into second place, while I was content to follow behind for the time being.

The pace was quick, and I was trying to keep as relaxed as possible, saving some energy for the finishing kick that I anticipated to be just round the corner. True enough, as we entered the last kilometre of the race, Karthic made a big move, going past Brad decisively and executing a sharp injection of pace. The final sprint had begun. Brad did not respond to Karthic’s move, so I too moved past him and began to shadow Karthic, trying my best to match his elegant stride step for step. Karthic was setting an unrelenting pace, but the nearer we got to the finish line, the greater my confidence soared. I had belief in my finishing ability.

With 600 metres to go, I took a leap of faith, sprinting into the lead and pushing on hard. Karthic did not respond, and with the finish line in sight, I had a winning lead. The race was mine to lose. Holding my form well, I extended my lead over the final stretch and crossed the line in delight. I had successfully defended my title. Close behind, Brad had managed to overhaul Karthic for second place, while Hua Qun finished in fourth. Su Yen Bing from Wings finished in 12th place to secure the title for our team for the first time ever in the competition’s history.

The 2012 Wings Cross Country Championships was a joyful experience for me, allowing me to re-unite with many of my ex-teammates and race together with them again, and also allowing me the opportunity to make new friends such as Brad, a foreign athlete who I would otherwise never have the chance to know. Winning medals and team championships are what athletes like myself train for year round but, truth be told, memories shared with my friends and running buddies are what I treasure the most in the sport of distance running.