ACS(I) miss kayaking grand slam by a solitary point

Story and pictures contributed by reader Lam Chun See. Mr Lam’s nostalgia blog Good Morning Yesterday is a finalist in the OMY blog awards.

Abraham Lee and Cliff Lim of ACS(I) winning the gold of the B division 1000m K2 race ahead of Bukit Panjang Government High School and another boat from ACS(I). (Photo 1 © Lam Chun See)

Macritchie Reservoir, Friday, July 11 2008 – Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) almost made kayaking history at the finals of the National Inter-Schools Canoeing Championships at the MacRitchie Reservoir.

This year's competition was held over four days, starting with the heats on Tuesday. According to reliable sources, ACS (I) was quietly hopeful of achieving the Grand Slam of kayaking by winning all the A, B and C Division titles. Their main threat was expected to be the National Junior College's A division boys' team which had won the title for the previous six years without a break. As it turned out, they beat the NJC boys narrowly by 2 points in the A division – with only 8 rowers. They went on to win the B Division title by a comfortable margin. Alas, they lost unexpectedly to Saint Joseph's Institution in the C Division by one solitary point.

Other results: The A boys bronze went to Meridian Junior College. The girls' A, B and C Division titles went to NJC, Temasek Secondary School and Crescent Girls Schools respectively.

Below are some photos that I have taken. I must apologize that I only took those in the morning. I left shortly after watching the 500m A division K1 race. It was already past 1 pm and I was getting hungry; and I know that the afternoon is not a good time for photos at MacRitchie because the afternoon sun comes up behind the rowers as they approach the finishing line.

The B div Girls 1000m K2 gold went to this pair from Temasek Secondary School. (I am sorry, I do not have a copy of the fixtures and am solely relying on my memory. My apologies for any errors.) (Photo 2 © Lam Chun See)

This is the finals of the C div Girls' 1000m K2 event. I think in the 1st position was the boat from Crescent Girls School. (Photo 3 © Lam Chun See)

Sweet victory for the ACS(I) boys in the A division1000m K2 finals. Brian Khoo and Clifton Lee were the first to cross the finishing line ahead of teammates Lucas Teo and Lam Weng Ngai, hotly pursued by 2 boats from arch-rivals NJC.
(Photo 4 © Lam Chun See)

ACS(I)'s Lucas Tan and Zhang Zhihong winning the gold for the C division1000m K2 race ahead of SJI and Bukit Panjang Government High. (Photo 5 © Lam Chun See)

ACJC's Wei Guo and Fareed taking the gold for the A div 1000m C2 race. (Photo 6 © Lam Chun See)

This was probably the most hotly cheered event of the day – the A div 1000m K4 girls finals which was won by NJC. I saw supporters from NJC, SJI, ACJC and RJC wildly waving their school flags. (Photo 7 © Lam Chun See)

This is the A div 500m C1 race which was won by Jansen Her of NJC(Photo 8 © Lam Chun See)

Leon Chng of ACS(I) takes the gold for the B div 500m C1 race. (Photo 9 © Lam Chun See)

Ray Peh of ACS(I) takes the gold for the C div 500m C1 race. (Photo 10 © Lam Chun See)

Supporters from Crescent Girls School cheering their girls to the C division title for 2008. As usual, besides this parent and one ex-rower, ACS(I) had hardly any supporters. Who knows, with some fair ladies cheering the boys on, they just might have got that extra point eh? (Photo 11 © Lam Chun See)