We're Always Looking Out For One Another (It's True)

6th June 2010

Interschool Archery Championship

Yesterday could have been described as exciting, tumultuous, tiring, fun, depressing, awesome, and, actually, a whole lot of other things too. All of them would be right. Just, so many things happened yesterday.

Interschools this year was a lot different as compared to last year. For one, RI was not the most represented school. This year it was probably MJC, who's pioneer batch of archers sent down more competitors than we did last year. PJC and YJC were also much better represented than in last year's competition. In short, we faced much more competition than last year.

Of course that has something to do with how we did last year as well. With very little actual competition, Raffles swept the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th placings for guys and girls. We also got the 6th place for guys but lost the 6th girls' spot by 1 point.

This year it was more of something like this. My bow's the one you see above centre, with all the funky attachments that make me more stable and less prone to fits of madness. Most of our competitors used wooden bows, like those above right and above left.

Of course, equipment is not the only, nor is it the best measure of ability. Equipment and Ability are usually closely correlated, but some outliers exist. Experience and Time spent training are other factors that come into consideration.

And, compared to most of our competitors, we'd had a year more of training and at least 3 competitions worth of experience. I started to feel bad when the two dudes on my board started to miss the board and get worried about losing arrows. And when we started scoring they were so impressed with my score, and said stuff like, "whooaaaa, imbaaaaaa..." over and over again.

Then again I do not laugh at them because I did that last year, too. Hehe.

Zuriel: Huh? You got second? Then who got first?
Me: Lee Tze Yang, my friend! You, know, that guy I was walking with?

Zuriel: HUH?! That guy wearing the Winnie The Pooh hat!?

Final score for 2 rounds, 654 out of 720. Tze Yang scored 656, so yes, I lost by 2 points. It helps that I lost to a good friend, and it also helps that there is no way I would have shot anything remotely close to 654 without Tze Yang's continual support/encouragement. So, TY, ILY, and you totally deserve the tallest trophy of the day. (Plus, I was cheating cause I was on steroids. Little orange pills that contained a secret ingredient known to boost athletic performance. For serious.)

Jimmy Tang came out of nowhere to take 3rd place, pipping our dear captain by a pretty close margin. Which means we got all the trophies on the guys' side.

Sufen, Waiian and Tiffany did well to sweep the girls' competition, taking the top three spots as well.

So it was pretty clear, I guess, that we were the top school because we were also the only one to send down J2s. Which is where the controversy develops.

A certain team (let's call them Team X) decides that they need to bring back trophies, even though this is their first ever competition. Granted, everyone wants to succeed, but this team, having failed to achieve this by legitimate means, and having no Values, decides that they need to employ underhanded methods. On the grounds that the RJ girls' team has more experience, they request that we be disqualified.

Taken from the official championship documentation:

Standard Class Recurve Category: ...As a rule of thumb, this category is strictly meant for novice or first time competitive archers. Coaches please take note, advanced and experienced archers are encouraged to shoot in the Unlimited Category.

Needless to say, this is pretty ambiguous, because of the word encouraged.

Team X manages to convince the panel of judges that, because the girls' team are not "novice or first time competitive archers", they should be disqualified from Standard Class and shoot in the Unlimited Class instead.

This means that Sufen, Waiian, and Tiffany's scores were immediately invalidated, they were deprived of the chance to participate in the team event which they would obviously have won.

Without the top 3 shooters, one girl from Team X managed to get one silver trophy. In the team event, without the top team, Team X had a bronze. RJ team 2 (Magesh, Weiling and Si Hui) took the gold.

I'm actually majorly upset with the fact that they only wanted one team out, and that they were adamant about it only because it was the only way they would have been able to win anything at all.

In any case,

STANDARD CLASS RECURVE

GIRLS' INDIVIDUAL RANKING

LEE SI HUI 3RD

BOYS' INDIVIDUAL RANKING

LEE TZE YANG 1ST

NIGEL CHUA 2ND

JIMMY TANG 3RD

GIRLS' TEAM EVENT

RJ 1 - GOLD

BOYS' TEAM EVENT

RJ 2 - GOLD

RJ 1 - SILVER

UNLIMITED CLASS RECURVE

GIRLS' INDIVIDUAL RANKING

GOH SUFEN 1ST

CHEANG WAI IAN 2ND

TIFFANY LUM 3RD

So, I suppose we swept it all again... Last year we won all but 1 award, this year we won all but 3, but those are rightfully ours and we know that.

Well done RJ archery. Here's to future glory.