Story by REDintern Ryan Lim. Photos by Clara Yuan/Red Sports
Tan Chong Qi of RI took home gold with a timing of 16:08.74. (Photo 1 © Clara Yuan/Red Sports)
Bedok Reservoir Park, Saturday, February 20, 2016 — Raffles Institution (RI) dominated the final standings in the Under-20 Men category at the 15th Wings Cross Country Championships. With three runners in the top four, RI won the team title by a comfortable margin.
Chong Qi (16:08.74, RI) finished the race in first position once again, after his previous win at the Singapore Athletics Cross Country Championships.
Another superb performance saw him cross the finishing line nine seconds ahead of second place Isaac Tan (16:17.35, ACSI). Chester Lee (16:22.25, RI) coming in third.
A full podium finish was on the cards for RI, but Isaac managed to break apart the RI trio. However, Isaac was surprised by how well the race went given that it was his first race of the cross country season and that he was still nursing an injury.
The top finishers were mainly from RI, ACSI and VJC with each school occupying three places in the top 10.
Upon flagging off, the main contenders established the front pack with Chong Qi at the tip.
Chong Qi’s pace was unrivalled by his peers throughout the race. At one point he was even punching above his weight, pacing the NUS runners competing in the Men’s Open category.
Isaac spent most parts of the race behind Chester. Chester showed signs of fatigue towards the end of the race after a premature sprint left him with heavy legs. Isaac took this opportunity to overtake Chester after pacing him for the duration of the race.
With the finishing line only a few hundred metres away, Isaac finished the race strongly with Chester five seconds behind.
In a post-race interview, Chong Qi commented: “It was not a very good race, but the results were decent. So on the whole, it was not too bad.”
RI teammate Chester remarked, ”I wanted to stay in front and use the kick to distance myself from Isaac and the rest, but I sprinted too early as I did not know where exactly the finishing line was and Isaac caught up.”
When quizzed on their aspirations for the National Inter-school Championships, the RI duo commented: “We are aiming for 1-2 finish individually, and hoping to take the team title for RI once again.”
RI won the National Inter-school Championships A Division team title in 2015, with Chong Qi and Chester part of that team. Chong Qi clinched second place in that race with Chester coming in third, and will look to improve on their standings this year.
U20 Boys – 4.6km (Top 10)
1st Tan Chong Qi (#20104, RI) — 16:08.74
2nd Tan Wei Long Isaac (#20055, ACSI)— 16:17.35
3rd Lee Zhong Kian Chester (#20105, RI) — 16:22.25
4th Chirag Gupta (#20109, RI) — 16:26.49
5th Leroi (#20126, Unattached) — 16:37.64
6th Teng Jian Ling (#20145, VJC) — 16:43.13
7th Brandon Quek (#20131, VJC) — 16:48.73
8th Sherman Lim Jun Hong (#20127, VJC) — 16:51.19
9th Yap Sae Hwa Daniel (#20058, ACSI) — 16:53.05
10th Kwong Wei Tat Charles (#20054, ACSI) — 17:01.78
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