Story by REDintern Ryan Lim. Photos by Clara Yuan/Red Sports
Gabriel Ng of ACSI clocked a timing of 12:58.66 to claim the title. (Photo 1 © Clara Yuan/Red Sports)
Bedok Reservoir Park, Saturday, February 20, 2016 — Runners from Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) claimed the individual and team gold medals in the Under-14 boys category at the 15th Wings Cross Country Championships.
ACS(I) secured a 1-2 finish with Gabriel Ng clocking 12 minutes 58.66 seconds to come in first, and teammate Joshua Loo (13:46.19, ACSI), second. In third positon was Nur Muhammad (13:50.68, VS).
Travis Tan Gene of Raffles Institution, who was the U-14 champion at the Singapore Athletics Cross Country Championships two weeks ago, finished the race in fourth with a time of 14:00.76.
ACS(I) also clinched the team title, with all their four runners making the top 10. Harpreet Singh (14:16.54, ACSI) finished seventh and Ong Ee Howe (14:18.93, ACSI) was 10th.
The morning started with a light drizzle, setting the race up to be a cooling and damp one.
The start of the race saw only a few athletes break away from the horde of runners, with the rest being boxed in. Joshua was one of the runners who endured a slow start to the race after getting blocked off by other competitors. Joshua ended up being more than 30m behind the leading pack in the opening minute of the race.
In contrast, Gabriel and Nur Muhammad made strong starts by distancing themselves from the others early in the race. However, Joshua soon caught up with the duo, and Nur Muhammad bided his time pacing behind Joshua.
Gabriel soon took off and extended his lead. Nur Muhammad could not keep up with Joshua as he sprinted towards the finish line in the closing stages of the race.
Gabriel commented after the race, ”I have been training for the Championships for six months now. I paced myself really well for this race.”
Joshua added, “I was not fast enough last year, so I decided that I needed to train harder. I managed to clinch second position this year but it was all through hard work.”
The ACS(I) duo are hoping to obtain a similar 1-2 finish at the upcoming National Inter-School Cross Country Championships.
Added Gabriel: “I am aiming for the first position in the National Schools Championships. We also hope to come in first for the team event, but we must not get complacent after today’s victory.”
U14 Boys – 3.65km (Top 10)
1st Gabriel Ng Yu Jie (#14126, ACSI) — 12:58.66
2nd Joshua Loo Jing Yang (#14128, ACSI)— 13:46.19
3rd Nur Muhammad S/O Mohammad Faroud (#14246, VS) — 13:50.68
4th Tan Gene Travis (#14222, RI) — 14:00.76
5th Ethan Tan (#14183, Hwa Chong) — 14:07.53
6th Yeo Ke-Gan (#14202, Maris Stella) — 14:13.00
7th Valentin van Wersch (#14298, JS Athletics) — 14:14.33
8th Harpreet Singh (#14129, ACSI) — 14:16.54
9th Yeo Zhi Yan (#14181, Hwa Chong) — 14:17.66
10th Christoffer Eilertsen (#14223, RI) — 14:18.17
More photos next page
Hi Ryan Lim,
You missed out a runner in 6th position from Maris Stella High.
Wings XC organizer had since corrected it with a list of the correct positioning.
Hi Jeffrey, thank you for spotting the mistake. The initial results were actually obtained on the race day itself. I understand that Wings have updated the rankings. As such, the article has been amended accordingly.