Raffles Institution end B Div boys table tennis drought with 3 2 victory over Hwa Chong Institution

SINGAPORE – Stepping onto the court at the Pasir Ris Sport Hall on April 9, Jaden Koh and Owen Lim were feeling the jitters as they carried the burden of ending Raffles Institution’s (RI) five-year drought in the boys’ B Division table tennis competition on their young shoulders.

With RI 2-1 up against Hwa Chong Institution (HCI) in the closely fought final, the doubles pair showed great focus to beat Koh Hong Jun and Rayner Young 3-0 for the winning point, much to the jubilation of their boisterous fans.

After taking the opening game 11-7, Jaden and Owen raced to a 5-2 lead in the next game, only for Hong Jun and Rayner to recover and snatch a 10-8 lead. But the RI duo dug deep to save two game points and win 12-10, before romping home 11-8 in the third game to seal their school’s first national table tennis crown in the division since 2019.

Jaden, 15, said: “We were definitely feeling a bit nervous, but we were confident in our abilities because we know that we’ve put in a lot of hard work and we have the ability to win. So thankfully, we managed to convert that and show it on court.”

“We were very prepared in the match. We just put aside our feelings of anxiety and played our best, just focus on the match at hand,” added fellow 15-year-old Owen. “We played our best for every point. Even if we made mistakes, we encouraged each other to play better.”

RI, who finished runners-up in the past two years, started strongly as Li Kaijie came from behind to beat Zhang Xin Ran 3-1 (9-11, 11-8, 11-7, 11-8),before their teammates Manyong Koh and Chong Phok Kai overcame Li Xiao Chang and John Ang 3-0 (11-8, 11-5, 11-7)