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Double Joy for the Mok Siblings on Valentine’s Day at the Wings Cross-Country Championships

http://redsports.sg/2009/02/18/double-happiness-siblings/#comment-33266

Today

Story by REDintern Colin Tung. Pictures coming soon…

Bedok Reservoir, Saturday, 14 February 2009 - Siblings Mok Ying Ren and Mok Ying Rong, won in the Men’s Open and Women’s Under-17 categories at the Wings Cross-Country Championships here at the Bedok Reservoir Park, one week on from their starring roles at the SAA Road Relays for their teams.

Ying Rong, representing Raffles Girls’ School, won in a time of 16:45 min, with the next fastest runner - Clara from Methodist Girls’ School - some way behind in 17:35 min, staking a a strong claim to the Under-17 girls’ national inter-schools cross-country individual crown that is to be earned on 25 March on these same grounds.

As Ying Rong crossed the finish line to stamp her dominance in the Under-17 girls’ category, Ying Ren, representing Wings Athletics Club, was just getting warmed up for the start of the Men’s Open race and to replicate the feat of his younger sister, whom he also helps to coach.

Ying Ren, had no illusions about the difficulty of his task though as amongst the field of runners was RJC’s reigning ‘A’ Division cross-country champion Soh Ruiyong, who comes from the same lineage of runners as Ying Ren, under the tutelage of Mr Steven Quek who coaches the NUS, RJC, River Valley High and Singapore Sports School teams.

As the race got underway, Ying Ren and Soh headed the pack of runners and were soon lodged in a duel that the former was eager to extricate himself out of as early as possible.

That showed up in his tactics as he put in sporadic bursts of pace at frequent intervals in the first half of the race, hoping to shake off Soh. Undeterred, Soh kept up the pressure and was running off Ying Ren’s shoulder as they descended from the only hill on the course. With the descent came momentum that had Ying Ren seeking to lose Soh and the latter to close the gap on the former.

Ying Ren emerged the stronger of the two on this day as his greater years of conditioning and experience edged Soh by three seconds. Ying Ren winning in a time of 13:53 min on the approximately 4.5km long course.

Nevertheless, Soh, at 18, can be encouraged by the fact that he is one of the fastest Singaporeans at the moment over 5km and 10km and is a favourite to retain the individual title at the National Inter-Schools Cross-Country Championships. If he does so, he will join a rare breed of runners who have achieved the accolade of having been double champions at the ‘A’ division level. And despite all the similarities that they share as Rafflesians, athletes under Mr Steven Quek and winners of the national schools’ individual title in their freshman year, that would be something that Ying Ren would not be able to lay claim to as Ying Ren had been second in JC 2.

In other races, Anna Thompson led Dinah Chan and Elaine Lim to a Wings sweep of the podium in the Women’s Open in a winning time of 15:28 min. In the Under-14 Girls’ category, Sports School runner Nicole Lim edged out CHIJ (Toa Payoh)’s Charlene Oh with both of them finishing less than a second apart.

In the Under-17 Boys’ and Under-15 Boys’ categories, Zachary Devaraj of ACS(I) and Marc Amiruddin won in times of 15:22 min and 15:39 min respectively. 

The Wings Cross-Country Championships was a valuable opportunity for many schools to gain race experience at the Bedok Reservoir where the National Inter-Schools Championships will be held as well. For the few schools and their athletes who did well, the race is a confidence booster heading into the last month to race day. While for those who yielded less-than-desirable results, perhaps they can draw inspiration from Wings - those of an eagle’s, which is to wait upon and catch the winds that would allow them to… SOAR ON WINGS LIKE EAGLES!

Isaiah 40:30-31 - “Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they will walk and not faint.”

Results (top three only)

Individual
Men’s Open
1. Mok Ying Ren Wings A 13:53.10 
2. Soh Rui Yong RI Team 2 13:56.28
3. Sikhander Singh Wings A 14:27.02

Women’s Open
1. Anna Thompson Wings A 15:28.54
2. Dinah Chan Wings A 15:52.88
3. Elaine Lim Wings A 16:32.96

U-17 Boys
1. Zachary Ryan Devaraj ACS(I) Team B 15:22.20
2. Rodgrigo Eugene Cyril VS B1 15:27.19
3. Yeo Si Heng HCI (High School) 15:31.09

U-17  Girls
1. Mok Ying Rong RGS Trackers 16:45.46
2. Clara MGS Team B 17:35.40
3. Lian Xueli Berenice RGS Trackers 18:07.47

U-14 Boys
1. Marc Amiruddin Singapore Sports Sch 15:39.79
2. Marcus Ng Yu Pei VS C1 16:06.75
3. Yong Ren Wei Bryan VS C1 16:29.90

U-14 Girls
1. Nicole Lum Singapore Sports Sch Team 1 18:52.44
2. Charlene Oh CHIJ Sec School (Toa Payoh) 18:52.76
3. Hee Yu Ning River Valley High School Team A 18:54.14