By REDintern Romaine Soh
Leroi Lee (#1261) of Nan Hua High came in first in the U-18 category with a time of 14:11, winning his third cross-country gold this season. (Photo 1 © Joseph Lee/Red Sports)
Bedok Reservoir, Saturday, March 9, 2013 – Leroi Lee of Nan Hua High added a third cross country gold to his collection when he finished first in the Under-18 category at the Wings Cross Country Championships. Leroi had topped the category also in the Swift and SAA Cross Country Championships, signalling him as the runner to watch in the ultimate showdown, the National Inter-School Cross Country Championships at the end of this month.
Leroi stopped the clock for the 4.3km route at 14 minutes 11 seconds, with Shohib Marican of Raffles Institution (RI) second in 14:35. Mohamed Imran, also of RI, took home the bronze in 14:43. Fellow RI teammates Tan Chong Qi and Willy Lim finished within the top 11 to bag the team title, placing RI well ahead of the second-placed team, St Joseph’s Institution (SJI), by 34 points.
Team results are calculated by the positions of the top four runners in a team.
From the start, Leroi had been running with the RI duo, along with Abdul Riyaz of St Andrew’s Secondary, and Thineshwaran Krishnakumar of Bendemeer Secondary. The pack disbanded halfway through the race, with Leroi stepping up the pace in an attempt to pull away from the rest. Shohib stayed close to Leroi, but Leroi was able to put in a strong finish at the final bend, dashing any hopes of breaking his winning streak.
Leroi recounted: “There was a pack of 4 to 5 runners until the pump house, where my coach then encouraged me to pull away. I never looked back then.”
In the Under-15 category, Isaac Tan from Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) (ACS(I)) clocked 13:27 for the 3.6km route to finish 10 seconds ahead of the silver medallist, Muhd Raushan of Singapore Sports School. Isaac had put in a last-minute sprint finish to devastate the pack of runners who had stuck with him until the final 800m.
“I was rather confident of my sprint finish, so I stuck with Raushan till the final stretch,” Isaac recalled with a smile.
Along with teammates Hezekiah Tan and Neal Neal, who finished within the top 16, ACS(I) beat their rivals soundly, clinching the team gold by a whopping 38 points.
Isaac’s teammate, Gideon Phong, was ecstatic at the team’s win.
“We managed to hold off our main rivals, RI and Hwa Chong, thus granting us confidence for Nationals!”
The National Inter-School Cross Country Championships is scheduled for March 27th, the Wednesday after the March holidays, at Bedok Reservoir. The first race will flag off at 9am.
U-18 Boys Individual Results (4.3km)
1st Leroi Lee (Nan Hua High, #1261) — 14:11mins
2nd Shohib Marican (Raffles Institution, #1293) — 14:35mins
3rd Mohamed Imran (Raffles Institution, #1290) — 14:43mins
4th Thinsehwaran Krishnakumar (Bendemeer, #1200) — 14:48mins
5th Abdul Riyaz (Swift, #1180) — 14:50mins
6th Lee Zhen Yu Edward (St Josephs Institution, #5583) — 14:51mins
7th Rahul Jayaprabha (Raffles Institution, #1171) — 14:51mins
8th Tan Chong Qi (Raffles Institution, #1294) — 14:55mins
9th Dhashman Thangavelu (ThangaRunningProject, #1181) — 14:58mins
10th Ivan Hong (Bendemeer, #1199) — 15:03mins
U-18 Boys Team Results
1st Raffles Institution U18 — 24 pts
Shohib Marican (2nd), Mohamed Imran (3rd), Tan Chong Qi (8th), Willy Lim (11th)
2nd St Joseph U17 Boys — 58 pts
Edward Lee (6th), Aloysius Leong (13th), Glen Brian Palmer (17th), Paxton Hong (22nd)
3rd Victoria School B Team 1 — 81 pts
Mandip Rai (14th), Justin Thong (20th), Derek Terrance Lee (21st), Dominic Choo (26th)
U-15 Boys Individual results (3.6km)
1st Isaac Tan (Anglo-Chinese School (Independent), #1037) — 13:27mins
2nd Muhd Raushan (Singapore Sports School, #1137) — 13:37mins
3rd Hu Huaxin (Hwa Chong Institution, #1083) — 13:40mins
4th Gideon Phong (Anglo-Chinese School (Independent), #1034) — 13:45mins
5th Aaron Shane Tan (Singapore Sports School, #1138) — 13:47mins
6th Brandon Quek (Commonwealth Secondary School, #1082) — 13:49.57mins
7th Aaron Chan (Raffles Institution, #1130) — 13:49.71mins
8th Isaiah Boh (Catholic High School, #1071) — 13:57mins
9th Ayden Mohan (St Joseph’s Institution, #5593) — 14:04mins
10th Hezekiah Tan (Anglo-Chinese School (Independent), #1036) — 14:11mins
U-15 Boys Team Results
1st ACSI C Boys Team 1 — 31 pts
Isaac Tan (1st), Gideon Phong (4th), Hezekiah Tan (10th), Neal Neal (16th)
2nd Raffles Institution U15 — 69 pts
Aaron Chan (7th), Cheong Wei Soon (19th), Jacques Liao (20th), Ryton Teo (23rd)
3rd CHS 1 — 72 pts
Isaiah Boh (8th), Ezra Goh (12th), Dylan Tay (25th), Vincent Chua (27th)
2013 Wings Cross Country Championship — full results
More photos next page
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