Story by REDintern Carissa Tan. Photos by Lim Yong Teck, Jerald Ang and Clara Yuan/Red Sports
Elaine Quah (#4241) of Raffles Girls’ School in action. The 2014 C Division champion clocked a timing of 14:25.4 to top the girls’ B Division field. (Photo 1 © Lim Yong Teck/Red Sports)
Bedok Reservoir Park, Wednesday, March 25, 2015 — Elaine Quah of Raffles Girls’ School clinched the B Division individual gold with a timing of 14 minutes and 25.4 seconds at the 56th National Schools Cross Country Championships.
Saranniya Rajendran of Guangyang Secondary clocked a 14:38.6 to emerge second, while Joyceleen Yap from Cedar Girls’ Secondary was close behind with a timing of 14:44.3.
With the exception of the first 500m, Elaine led throughout the 3.6km race. Elaine kept her pace for the first 500m and waited for the leaders to slow down before overtaking them. She was able to establish a comfortable lead subsequently.
Elaine credited her coach for this strategy. “My coach asked me try to get away from everybody right from the start, which worked for my previous races. So, I just kept the same race strategy.” she said.
“I am actually quite pleased with my performance because it’s the second year in the row that I won cross country. I put in a lot of effort during training and I trained very hard with my team so I’m happy to be able to make the school proud again,” replied Elaine when she was asked for her opinion of her own performance.
This is Elaine’s first B Division title. She was the C Division champion last year. In addition, she also bested her own timing of 14:55.5 set last year.
Cedar Girls’ Joyceleen, who finished third, said, “The effort I put in preparing for the race was enough. I think the most exciting part was the last one-kilometer mark, where I was on par with Saranniya, while I tried to overtake her. I tried to catch up but I couldn’t.”
Although Joyceleen thought that she could have chased down Saranniya, she was still satisfied with her performance.
In the team category, Raffles Girls’ emerged champions. They were third last year.
B Division Girls – 3.6km (Top 20)
1st Quah Li Ying Elaine (#4241, Raffles Girls’ School) — 14:25.4
2nd Saranniya K Rajendran (#4200, Guangyang Secondary School) — 14:38.6
3rd Joyceleen Yap Yin Xiu (#4007, Cedar Girls’ Secondary School) — 14:44.3
4th Tan Mariviv (#4201, Guangyang Secondary School) — 14:45.5
5th Zhong Yi (#4013, Cedar Girls’ Secondary School) — 14:45.9
6th Phoebe Kee (#4144, Singapore Chinese Girls’) — 14:48.7
7th Chung Kai Xin, Noelle (#4306, Nanyang Girls’ High School) — 14:50.4
8th Wong Si Min Levyn (#4025, Dunman High School) — 14:51.6
9th Arissa Rashid (#4303, Nanyang Girls’ High School) — 14:55.1
10th Khin Yadanar Oo (#4238, Raffles Girls’ School) — 14:55.1
11th Alexandra Louise Wee Rei-Min (#4170, CHIJ Secondary (Toa Payoh)) — 14:59.1
12th Alicia Tung Rui Ling (#4182, Crescent Girls’ School) — 15:00.4
13th Felyn Toh Le Chun (#4236, Raffles Girls’ School) — 15:02.5
14th Lok Qi Ying Amanda (#4239, Raffles Girls’ School) — 15:03.3
15th Sushita Gurung (#4164, Bartley Secondary School) — 15:05.1
16th Pearlyn Low Ai Hui (#4314, River Valley High School) — 15:06.3
17th Corrie Jireh Teo (#4290, Methodist Girls’ School (Secondary)) — 15:13.2
18th Ouyang Shuilin Shirlyn (#4010, Cedar Girls’ Secondary School) — 15:13.3
19th Wu Jia Yi, Elise (#4085, CHIJ St Nicholas Girls’ School) — 15:14.9
20th Ng Shi Lin (#4083, CHIJ St Nicholas Girls’ School) — 15:16.7
More photos next page
[…] so good. Today’s race was a close one but Joyceleen did well.” Elaine was the B Division champion at the recent 56th National Schools Cross Country […]