By Romaine Soh/Red Sports
The Sports School finished as B Division boys’ champions for the first time in their nine-year history and ended Hwa Chong’s 22-year winning streak. (Photo © Les Tan/Red Sports)
Choa Chu Kang Stadium, Wednesday, April 17, 2013 — The Singapore Sports School created history today when they won the overall B Division boys’ title for the first time at the 54th National Schools Track and Field Championships. Their win also ended Hwa Chong Institution’s 22-year winning streak in the division.
In fact, so dominant have Hwa Chong Institution (HCI) been in the B Division, that in the 30 years since 1983, they have won 29 B division titles in all, with Raffles Institution (RI) breaking that dominance in 1990. HCI was known as The Chinese High School up until 2004.
As the track and field championships unfolded over the nine days, it soon became clear that Sports School, which opened its doors to student-athletes in 2004, were in with a chance to break Hwa Chong’s decades-long streak. Heading into the final day of competition today, Hwa Chong, with a 102-point total, had a slim six-point lead over Sports School and RI who were both tied on 96.
By the end of this afternoon’s finals which included the sprints and relays, disciplines that the Sports School athletes are strong in, the Woodlands-based school eventually got their hands on the B Division trophy with 133 points, nine points clear of Hwa Chong’s 124-point total. RI finished third with 110 points.
“I’m very happy with this achievement!” said an ecstatic Ralf Iwan, the head coach of Singapore Sports School.
He highlighted the new disciplines introduced in the Track & Field academy for this win. “In recent years, we have decided to branch out into the field events, such as the jumps and the pole vault, to create more opportunities for the athletes to represent the school.”
The students are taking advantage of these opportunities laid out for them. “There are more avenues for us to represent the school now,” said Dylan Huan, the vice-captain of Sports School who won the B Division pole vault gold.
“Next year, with most of the B Division still around, and a strong batch of C Division people moving up, we’ll do our best and hope we can retain the title!”
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