Story by REDintern Iman Hashim. Photos by Les Tan/Red Sports
Tan Chong Qi (RI #301) coming home first in 17:03. (Photo 1 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
Bedok Reservoir Park, Saturday, February 6, 2016 — Tan Chong Qi and Chester Lee made it a 1–2 finish for Raffles Institution (RI) in the under-20 category of the 65th Singapore Athletics Cross Country Championships. In the process, they also helped RI clinch the team title as well. Chong Qi finished the 5km race in 17 minutes 3 seconds while Chester clocked 17:30.
The closest finisher behind the duo was Sherman Lim of Victoria Junior College who clocked 18:03.
This championship is seen as one of the preparatory races leading up to the all-important National Inter-School Cross Country Championships in March.
In 2015, Chong Qi and Chester finished second and third respectively at the national schools cross country championships.
Chong Qi practically led this race from beginning to end, with Chester following behind. Without much competition from runners in their U20 category, they took the opportunity to chase down runners in the Open category as both categories were flagged off at the same time.
This race strategy of theirs worked a charm as they did not finish far off from some of the more established runners in the Men’s Open category, such as Jeevaneesh S/O Soundararajah of National University of Singapore (NUS), who represented Singapore in the 5000m event at SEA Games 2015.
The other runners from RI who chipped in for the team victory included Elisha Goh and Wong Kwok Ho, who finished in sixth and 13th place respectively.
On their preparation for the arduous season ahead, Chester commented, “I think we are doing quite okay. Our intervals are progressing well so we should be able to keep this up and do well for Wings.”
They will be running in the Wings Cross Country Championships on Saturday, February 20, which is seen as the final big race before the National Inter-School Cross Country Championships on March 23.
Chong Qi and Chester will also then take part in the National Inter-School Track and Field Championships which is slated to begin on April 13. Chong Qi is most likely to run the 3000m steeplechase and 5000m, while Chester should be contesting the 1500m and 5000m.
U20 Men – 5km (Top 10)
1st Tan Chong Qi (#301, Raffles Institution) — 17:03
2nd Chester Lee Zhong Kian (#302, Raffles Institution) — 17:30
3rd Sherman Lim (#343, Victoria Junior College) — 18:03
4th Teng Jian Ling (#340, Victoria Junior College) — 18:14
5th Azure Mohan (#339, Victoria Junior College) — 18:18
6th Goh Si Yuan, Elisha (#303, Raffles Institution) — 18:18
7th Zakir Hussein (#310, TeamFabian) — 18:18
8th Timothy Liau (#309, TeamFabian) — 18:19
9th Chia Zhi Yong (#317, Hwa Chong Institution) — 18:28
10th Brandon Quek (#341, Victoria Junior College) — 18:28
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