Republic Canoeing Medal Sweep at Canoeing Championships

On 29^th November 2008, RepubliCanoe competed for the Polytechnic Championship Cup at MacRitchie Reservoir. The team took the race by storm, winning the Gold, Silver and the Bronze medals. In fact, the team managed to secure a medal in every category.

The Girls team secured the Championship Cup with a hefty 50 points, winning the Gold, Silver and Bronze medals. K2 pairs Zhang Zhenyu/Beverly Kim and Neo Sihong/Joanne Gao stole the limelight in the 1000m race by winning the Gold and Silver medals respectively. They shook the scene with another victorious round by sealing the deal with an impressive Silver and Bronze in the 500m race, edging out Nanyang Polytechnic and Singapore Polytechnic in a spectacular race.

T1 paddlers Tan Qifang and Adeline Yuen did well in the 500m race, securing fourth placing and Silver respectively, giving a huge lead in the point standings. It was a respectable performance for the Year 1 T2 pairing of Wee Yu Ting/ Gan Sheau Jun, who only went through a few months of training. Despite being their debut race, they clocked an impressive finalist position, earning points and respect from fellow teammates and competitors.

It was a spectacular performance by Lavender Ong in the Womens K1 category, as she dominated the 500m race with a huge lead to win the Gold. Furthermore, she doubled that with an impressive 1000m race to steal the Silver medal, earning herself as one of the powerhouses. Adeline Yuen furthered the point gap with an impressive Bronze medal finish in the 1000m along with Lavender Ong, placing Republic Polytechnic (RP) in the lead.

Catherine Teo silenced all critics by winning the Bronze medal in the 500m Womens K1. Despite being in her first few months of competitive paddling, she went all the way to secure the medal. It was indeed an impressive debut for her.

It was another blistering performance by the double K2 pair Muhd Hairul/Ng Yong Ann and Benjamin Chew/Teo Choun Meng, as they won the 500m Silver medal and 1000m Bronze medal respectively, outperforming more experienced paddlers from other polytechnics. Year 1 pair Kenneth Ng/Dominic Ong fought hard and made it to the semi’s and did well to earn the respect of the team. They did well to make their presence felt in the highly competitive K2 scene, despite this being their debut race.

Chai Way Keat clocked impressive timings and managed to get into the finals for the extremely tough Mens K1 category. Liang Hanting shook the canoeing scene by topping in both 1000m and 500m by winning Gold in both events by a huge gap. The K1 races were extremely intense, and Team RP showed that our K1 knights were to be feared.

The Mens T events were not spared by the RepubliCanoeists either, with Teo Choun Meng stealing the Bronze in the Mens T1 500m. Nicholas Chong gave it his best to get into the semi-finals. Despite being his debut race, he secured an impressive finish in the semi-finals. The T2s were not left out as well with the pairing of Benjamin Chew/Darryl Sng winning the Bronze in a tough fight with Nanyang Polytechnic, while Year 1 pairing of Tan Xu Yao/ Lee Lie Zhen fought hard to clock a respectable timing of 2m24s in the semi-finals.

C1 boys from RP sealed the deal with an impressive Gold Medal from Wahyudi, in an astonishing 3-boatlength lead and an impressive race from Melvin Zheng which shot the point standings higher. In the last spectacular race, RP secured Silver and Bronze in the Mens K4 in a race with Singapore Polytechnic. Despite the crew having only weeks of training on the K4, the Year 1s did the team proud by stealing the 2 medals in the race.

According to the points system, the Republic Polytechnic Canoeing team emerged top among the other polytechnics, as the polytechnic powerhouse in the canoeing scene. Team Republic has indeed made its mark!

Here are the Final Results:

Men

Women

For RP Staff and Students, please click here for more pictures.

Words by Muhammad Hairul Bin Yahya (2nd Year SEG)