Match Report: X Country

Today, although the runners from the Hwa Chong Cross Country team may not have proven themselves to be the best in the nation yet, but they certainly showed they were the team with the most guts and with an unflagging fighting spirit.


At 9.40am, the A division girls started the race. 10 minutes later, the A division boys started too and the fight was on! Our runners were slightly slower off the blocks and logically so, as many obstacles peppered the race track, especially a killer slope right smack in the middle of the race course.





As such, the race developed into an overall picture where the Raffles runners took the lead and with our Hwa Chong runners conserving energy by staying roughly in the middle of the chasing pack. Upon finally making it past the slope, our runners sped up, invigorated by the energy saved at the earlier part of the race, and started to catch-up with the leading runners from Raffles. Inexorably, our runners shortened the gap between leaders and themselves but somehow, the leaders did not seem to be slowing down!

This continued until the final 300m, where the runners went out of the reservoir and into the stadium. Turning the corner, they were cheered and spurred on by a small but significant mass of supporters and then accelerated, putting in that final burst of energy and speed that carried them past the finish line! Alas, the efforts of our runners would come to naught, as the gap created at the start proved too much to overcome.

At the end of the race, the runners were down but their spirits stayed strong. The captain, Shijun said, “Although we might not have won, we have tried our very best and I think we’re happy”. In fact, they already have started planning their revenge as they look forward to the Track and Field Nationals. “I think we’re going to do better in Track and Field, I think we can beat them there!” And so with their spirits and heads held up high, they left the stadium knowing that they have that one chance to take revenge. The Track & Field season beckons...