‘Relax' pair clinches bronze in tough adventure race

Story contributed by Roger Ng and Sarah Carlos

They called their team ´Tas Lepak', which means ´relax' in Malay, but Ngee Ann Polytechnic pair Tiong Jia Hui, 18, and Ryuta Teo, 19, sure did not have an easy time clinching the third place in the Youth Mixed Category in one of the toughest adventure races held in Singapore in the middle of January - the SAFRA AVventura, Rough Ramble.

Members of their school's adventure club, The Adventure Seekers, they participated in several marathons and cross-country events in the past year such as the New Balance X-terrain, a 15km off-road cross-country run, the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon and the Human Race 10K.

The pair also participated in a smaller scale adventure race, The Pinnacle, organised by Ngee Ann Polytechnic in mid-June 2008 where Jia Hui and her teammate emerged champions for the women's category. However, according to Jia Hui, the race was nothing compared to the SAFRA AVventura, Rough Ramble.

Both Jia Hui and Ryuta agreed that the most challenging aspect of the Rough Ramble was the navigation segment.

Jia Hui recalled: "Before the race, we discussed on whom should lead on the particular segments of the race. For instance, I led the biking segment first and Ryuta was to lead the kayak segment, while he tried to keep up with my not-so-fast pace."

"However, I regretted not using the compass earlier. Because of that, we spent one whole hour figuring out the race route and lost a lot of time."

"This shows that we really need more experience," added Ryuta.

During the race, Ryuta also experienced a bad cramp in his right leg when the pair reached the sport climbing segment. The race was indeed very long, covering a distance of some 40km for the Youth Category. Ryuta recalled that by the time they reached the last few stations, he was already very tired.

Yet their perseverance paid off. The pair successfully cleared all stations and completed the race with a timing of 5:22:35.

Jia Hui said jokingly: "For our first real adventure race at such a large scale, we are very satisfied with winning Bronze. Even my mom was surprised when I told her the good news as I am not known for being athletic."

"Finishing the race also gave me a great sense of accomplishment," she added with a big smile on her face. "And the most important thing is that two of us managed to finish the race together without any bad injuries."

Looking back, the ´relax' pair had come a long way. Before entering polytechnic and joining the school's adventure club, both were not even interested in sports during their secondary school days.

Ryuta was part of a Taekwondo club, but recalled that he wasn't even enthusiastic about it. Only in the last two years did he join his friends for running and cycling, and through that, fell in love with sports.

As for Jia Hui, she recalled taking up running as a means to lose weight but began to love running soon after. From there, she decided to explore other sports such as biking and swimming.

The pair, who are currently classmates majoring in Horticulture and Landscape Management, found out about SAFRA AVventura, Rough Ramble, through a senior of their adventure club. Despite being tied up with school projects with little time to train, they decided to sign up and represent their school.

Well, their passion sure paid off. When asked whether they will participate in the next SAFRA AVventura, they nodded in agreement and answered, "Definitely!"