3/26/09 11:56 PMSoh Rui Yong achieves rare A Division double as six Raffles Institution boys finish in the top eightPage 3 of 15http://redsports.sg/2009/03/26/soh-rui-yong-cross-country/
While the A Division boys’ race saw a display in strength and depth of the Raffles Institution team, theB Division boys’ race proved just as exciting with a photo finish and an upset.Ruben Galen Demetrius of Kuo Chuan Presbyterian Secondary, after leading for most parts of the race,was caught unaware by Sumanthran Selvarajo of St. Joseph’s Institution in the last few metres of therace and lost the individual championship title by a hair’s breadth. Only six thousandths of a secondseparated the winner Selvarajo in a time of 15:43.85 from runner-up Demetrius in a time of 15:43.91.Rodrigo Eugene Cyril of Victoria School was third in 15:49.92.Sumanthran Selvarajo, who was the 2007 C Division boys’ champion, was evidently happy with theresult.“I trained for four years for this. I didn’t want to waste any of it.”On the flipside, Ruben Demetrius displayed obvious disappointment at coming so close to winning.“I didn’t know he was coming. I only pushed when I realised him closing down on me.”Demetrius gave an indication of the mistake he made when he said that he thought he ‘won the racealready’ though he knew Selvarajo’s ‘finishing kick is very strong’.The surprise of the B Division boys race came when Zachary Devaraj of Anglo-Chinese School(Independent) tripped up near the end of the race before the bridge that took them into the TemasekPolytechnic grounds.“I was in second place, just overtaking the first guy (at the time) - Ruben Demetrius of Kuo ChuanPresbyterian Secondary - when I tripped and stumbled,” said Zachary. “It disrupted my momentum and I just couldn’t recover.”Zachary Devaraj had been one of the favourites to win in the B Division with his victories in the lastmonth at the Wings Cross-Country Championships and the Akira-Swift Cross-Country Championships.Naturally, he was disappointed but conveyed a sense of optimism saying “there’s next year”. Zachary is15 and in Secondary Three this year.With the A and B Divisions, there is always a heightened sense of competitiveness amongst the runners.With the C division runners though, there is a greater sense of unadulterated fun and free-spiritedness.The top-two runners in the C Division, Karthic Ragupathy of St. Joseph’s Institution and VenuraamSelvan of Victoria School who finished first and second respectively, both shared that they are first-timers in the National Inter-School Cross-Country scene. Karthic and Venuraam finished in times of 16:30.24 and 16:30.80 respectively. The top-three finished less than a second apart as Heng Yu Jie of Catholic High School completed the trio in a time of 16:30.99.The winner, Karthic, showed his youthful exuberance as he eloquently articulated the feelings that wentthrough him as he approached the home-straight down the finish line.“I had wanted to stop before the track but a creature inside of me erupted and told me to go for it - forthe medal and beat the SJI guy. I didn’t expect myself to win. It is a surprise. My parents are also veryproud of me,” he said.In finishing second, Venuraam Selvan said that he was ‘overjoyed’.LTC Fred Cheong, guest-of-honour at the event and a wing commander at the Officer Cadet School(OCS) also could not help but let on that the ‘vibrant sound of youth’ that he heard ‘reminded (him) of
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