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The first ever Inter-Polytechnic Invitational Canoeing
Competition was hosted by Republic Polytechnic at Lower Seletar reservoir on 24
Oct 2007. Republic Polytechnic is proud to be the host of this event and we
invited all our Polytechnic paddling peers to take part in this inaugural
affair.
Both Republic.Canoe Senior and Junior teams
turned up in full force to support the event. This was a highly-anticipated
event since it would be the first time that RP competed neck-to-neck with her
Polytechnic counterparts. With the RP flags flying high, we managed to provide
strong competition against the other Polytechnics.
The race progressed without a glitch and the weather was favourable.
After a half day of intense competition, Republic.Canoe managed to
produce 14 finalists out of the 16 who participated. It was a glorious start
for our team.
After an hour‘s rest following lunch, the finalists were called to gear
up for their events. Republic.Canoe was determined to put up a
good show, especially since they had fought hard for a place in the finals.
THE RESULTS
Our senior women teams put their best foot forward with a great display
of strength and skill, securing a splendid finish and leaving their opponents
trailing far behind. Tan Qifang finished tops for the Women T1 event
while Lavender Ong triumphed in the K1 Women event. In addition,
Qifang and Lavender cooperated to secure yet another gold medal for
RP in the K2 Women event.
Although there was strong competition from the other Polytechnics’
senior men teams, Republic.Canoe still managed to dominate the
competition with narrow victories over strong opponents.
Kenneth Neo finished just 3 seconds ahead of NYP’s finalist to
secure a gold medal for RP in the T1 Men event. Liang Hanting hauled back
a silver medal for RP in the K1 Men event, putting up a tough fight against
national paddler Ryan Chew from SP.
For most of the junior men and women paddlers, this event was their
first race. Even without much prior experience, our juniors displayed
commendable courage and determination in their races and yielded astonishing
results.
Neo Shi Hong fought hard to qualify for the finals of the K1
Women event, eventually securing a 4th placing. This achievement is
commendable considering that Shi Hong is only into her first year of
competitive canoeing; she is well on her way to racing at professional
standards.
Similar good performances were observed from Beverly Kim and
Chang Zhen Yu: they secured 4th placings in the K2 Women event.
Ng Yong Ann was ranked 5th in the T1 Men event while M.
Faizal, Melvin Lim, Benedict Mah and Yap Cheng Xun
rounded up the 5th and 6th placings for the T2 Men event.
The overall result? An outstanding tally of 4 Gold,
1 Silver and 1 Bronze medals were secured from the 8 events which
Republic.Canoe took part in. All the team members worked hard for
the races to achieve these admirable results. Everyone in the RP team emerged
from this event more experienced. We also left this competition knowing that
Republic.Canoe is capable of being one of the strongest canoeing
teams amongst all the polytechnics in Singapore, in terms of the determination,
strength and unity of the team.
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