Story by Cara Wong/Red Sports. Photos by Eileen Chew/Red Sports and Stefanus Ian/Red Sports. Additional reporting by Erwin Wong/Red Sports.

Dave Tung (#1043, on the right) of Hwa Chong Institution came in second with a timing of 16:46 in the A Division Boys. (Photo 1 © Eileen Chew/Red Sports)

Dave Tung (#1043, on the right) of Hwa Chong Institution came in second with a timing of 16:46 in the A Division Boys. (Photo 1 © Eileen Chew/Red Sports)

Bedok Reservoir Park, Wednesday, March 21, 2018 — Hwa Chong Institution claimed its first A Division Boys team title in seven years and its first B Division Boys team title since 2003 at this year’s National Schools Cross Country Championships, contributing to a clean sweep of the four divisions that the school competed in.

Four Hwa Chong boys finished in the individual top 10 in the A Div competition, led by Dave Tung, who finished second in 16 minutes 46 seconds. Fang Yiyang and Ethan Yan were third and fourth, respectively, one and two seconds behind Dave. They were no match though for Anderson Junior College’s Ruben Loganathan, who emerged individual champion with 16:28.

“We ran well,” said Yiyang. “After the slope, we were all running together and we made the effort to stay as a pack to just push each other on.”

Hwa Chong’s first B Boys team title in 15 years came after Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) had agonisingly pipped the school to the title last year on a tiebreaker after both schools earned 34 points. ACS(I)’s fourth-fastest runner had finished ahead of Hwa Chong’s.

“They really pushed very hard because they had this aspiration to want to win,” said Lim Teck Huat, the teacher-in-charge of Hwa Chong’s cross country team. “Their coach (Steven Quek) played a very big part in helping them realise that if you challenge yourself and if you have that aspiration, you can do it.”

Quek coached Raffles Institution to a similar sweep of A, B, and C boys team titles, along with the A girls championship in 2014, while the Victoria School and Victoria Junior College earned back-to-back quadruples in 1996 and 1997.

Hwa Chong’s Joshua Rajendran finished second, nine seconds behind Raffles Institution’s Chai Jiacheng who won gold in the B boys’ race with 16:29. Joshua’s two other Hwa Chong teammates Chew Yue Bin and Aeron Young also finished in the top 10, in sixth and eighth respectively.

“Even though there’s only six of us running, all eight members of the team worked equally hard — we all made a team effort to win the overall title,” said Ethan Yan, who competed in the A Boys for Hwa Chong this year and was part of the school’s B Boys team last year.

G Shyam Naidu of Victoria School claimed the C Boys individual title with 13:47 after finishing 10th last year.

“When I heard people shouting at the 200, 300-metres mark, I felt encouraged and felt that it was possible to push further, so I went for it,” said Shyam. Hwa Chong beat Shyam’s Victoria School to retain the C Boys team title, while also claiming the A Girls team title.

A Boys Individual
4.75km
1st Ruben s/o Loganathan (Anderson Junior College, #1001) – 16:28
2nd Tung Kin Pang Dave (Hwa Chong Institution,#1043) – 16:46
3rd Fang Yiyang (Hwa Chong Institution, #1037) – 16:47
4th Ethan Yikai Yan (Hwa Chong Institution, #1041) – 16:49
5th Armand Dhilawala Mohan (Raffles Institution, #1085) – 16:55
6th Syed Hussein B Syed Negaib A (Victoria Junior College, #1131) – 17:00s
7th Joshua Yong Zhi Hao (Raffles Institution, #1082) – 17:01
8th Lai Ziqing George (Hwa Chong Institution, #1042) – 17:10
9th Timothy Liau Ke Qin (Victoria Junior College, #1130) – 17:17
10th Darren Tan Chong Ming (Yishun Junior College, #1141) -17:18

A Boys Team
1st Hwa Chong Institution – 17 points
2nd Tung Kin Pang Dave (#1043) – 16:46
3rd Fang Yiyang (#1037) – 16:47
4th Ethan Yikai Yan (#1041) – 16:49
8th Lai Ziqing George (#1042) – 17:10

2nd Raffles Institution – 42 points
5th Armand Dhilawala Mohan (#1085) – 16:55
7th Joshua Yong Zhi Hao (#1082) – 17:01
12th Nedunchezian Selvageethan (#1083) – 17:21
18th Chadalavada Abhijit ( #1086) – 17:45

3rd Anglo-Chinese School Independent – 56 points
11th Rajesh Muthu SO Ramanathan (#1013) 17:19
13th Tan Jen Ray (#1009) – 17:24
15th Jonathan Low Yi Wei (# 1012) – 17:29
17th Wong Meng Ern Phillip (#1011) – 17:42

B Boys Individual
4.75km
1st Chai Jia Cheng (Raffles Institution, #3275) – 16:29
2nd Joshua Rajendran (Hwa Chong Institution, #3158) – 16:38
3rd Gabriel Ng Yu Jie ( Anglo-Chinese School Independent, #3023) – 16:44
4th Vellaichamy Karnan Tharun (Hua Yi Secondary School, #3153) – 17:08
5th Abu Bakar B Mohd Rafique (Victoria School, #3349) – 17:14
6th Chew Yue Bin (Hwa Chong Institution, #3161) – 17: 21
7th Zechariah Low (Gan Eng Seng School, #3120) – 17:28
8th Aeron Young Liren (Hwa Chong Institution, #3160) – 17:29
9th Sean Tongvanikkul (Jurong Secondary School, #3171) – 17:30
10th Chua Yi Ethan (Anglo-Chinese School Independent, #3027) – 17:32

B Boys Team
1st Hwa Chong Institution – 28 points
2nd Joshua Rajendran (#3158) – 16:38
6th Chew Yue Bin (#3161) – 17:21
8th Aeron Young Liren (#3160) – 17:29
12th Yeo Zhi Yan (#3159) – 17:39

2nd Anglo-Chinese School Independent – 57 points
3rd Gabriel Ng Yu Jie (#3023) -16:44
10th Chua Yi Ethan (#3027) – 17:32
21st Joshua Loo Jing Yang (#3021) – 18:08
23rd Harpreet Singh (#3024) – 18:14

3rd Victoria School – 59 points
5th Abu Bakar B Mohd Rafique (# 3349) – 17:14
11th Thaddeus Ng (#3350) – 17:38
13th Lee Kang Zheng Russell (#3352) – 17:41
29th Nur Muhammad s/o Mohammad Faroud (#3355) – 18:33

C Boys Individual
3.8km
1st G Shyam Naidu (Victoria School, #5326) – 13:47
2nd Hiren Koban (Raffles Institution, #5257) – 13:52
3rd Kai Eugene Liljequist (St. Joseph’s Institution International, #5990) – 13:53
4th Lim Wei Feng (Nan Hua High School, #5195) – 14:09
5th Yu Zhenning (Hwa Chong Institution, #5139) – 14:13
6th Harshen Koban (Victoria School, #5327) – 14:15
7th Bhuvan Anantham (Raffles Institution, #5253) – 14:16
8th Ku Zi Ming (St. Joseph’s Institution, #5286) – 14:19
9th Low Jit Yong Ernest (Hwa Chong Institution, #5140) – 14:20
10th Jacob Tan (Hwa Chong Institution, #5142) – 14:30

C Boys Team
1st – Hwa Chong Institution – 41 points
5th Yu Zhenning (#5139) – 14:13
9th Low Jit Yong Ernest ( #5140) – 14:20
10th Jacob Tan (Hwa Chong Institution, #5142) – 14:30
17th Dai Hexuan (Hwa Chong Institution, #5143) – 14:57

2nd – Victoria School – 47 points
1st G Shyam Naidu (#5326) – 13:47
6th Harshen Koban ( #5327) – 14:15
16th Joshua David Neo Jia En (#5328) – 14:54
24th Ephraim Tan Yu Xi (#5329) – 15:12

3rd – Raffles Institution – 49 points
2nd Hiren Koban (#5257) – 13:52
7th Bhuvan Anantham (#5253) – 14:16
14th Yang Zhunzhun (#5254) – 14:50
26th Koo Yu Tang (#5255) – 15:17

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