Season Preview: Canoe

The Hwa Chong Canoeing team will be participating in the National Inter-School Canoeing Championships from 14 to 17 April.

The competition is divided into two categories, Canoe and Kayak. In the Kayak category, besides our Southeast Asian champions Ho Hin Yang and Samuel Chin contesting the K2 500m and K2 1000m events, we will also rely on talented paddlers like Ng Shu Ren for us to lay claim to the title this year.

Having debuted with a silver medal, hopes are high that he will continue to deliver. While Shu Ren’s associates are more familiar with his goofy grin and easy-going demeanour, like all talented paddlers, he transforms on water; to quote a phrase he often uses, he is… 'no more Mr. Nice Guy'. Shu Ren will partner team captain Shao Fei in the K2 1000m event and he looks set to dominate his individual K1 500m event as well.

Other K paddlers include distinguished J1s Oon Shui Kun, also the first runner-up in the recent annual cross-country meet, and Mervyn Toh, who has already bagged several medals in the past nationals. Last but not least, our K4 crew is made up of Tan Jun Hong, Timothy Tay, Kevin Ng and rising star Leo Bing Yeow.






























For the Canoe category, we have new paddlers Ong Wee Keat and Marcus Goh in the C2 500 and 1000m events, as well as veterans Cao Ze Hou and Daniel Soo, a gold medallist pair last year, in similar events. Our C1s comprise of Eric Huang and more notably Leroy Chan. Rather befitting of a highly adept canoeist, Leroy’s uses a tiger-print canoe, which is the subject of much envy. Many capsized boats are often seen in the wake of this speed demon.

Having trained earnestly for the past couple of months, the HC Canoe Team hopes to achieve our targets in this upcoming competition and attain some measure of success.