IFG ROAD RELAY
SO…THE HAZE WONT STOP THE RACE!! (:
Despite the hazy weather conditions, IFG Road Relay 2015 still took place today (Saturday, 12 September) as our 8 representatives from Team Law as well as runners from the other NUS faculties and Yale-NUS College gathered (very, very) early in the morning (HAHA when I say “early”, it is really early — 7am) at NUS Utown.
Just some brief information on IFG Road Relay! Some of us (including myself) would think that Road Relay is somewhat like Track and Field where runners will run about 400m around the track during Sports Day. But in fact, for this IFG Road Relay, the running route consists of a 1.8km route (a rather long distance!) around NUS Utown that is covered 6 times by 3 males and 3 females from each faculty. As with all relays, the team with the fastest overall timing wins.
This year, representing law faculty for IFG Road Relay, we have 8 super, super fit and fast runners and they are: Yip Jian Yang (Y2, Captain, 2nd Runner), Theodore Ang (Y3, 1st Runner), Ryan Lai (Y1, Team Manager 1), Samuel Lee (Y1, 6th Runner), Hijazi (Y4, Team Manager 2), Jordy Kay (Y2, Male Reserve), Kong Qiu Ginj (Y1, 3rd Runner), Chiam Bi Xia Michelle (Y1, Female Reserve), Joy Lee (Y4, 4th Runner) and Nadene Law (Y2, Vice Captain, 5th Runner).
Here are some shots of our “fast and furious” Team Law!
The “all-ready” serious shot!
The calm and smiley shot!
And regarding the route for the road relay, as shown in the image below, runners have to run round the circumference of U-town. Whilst 1.8km may not sound very long, it is in fact really really tough sprinting this entire 1.8km! And indeed, our runners have been training and preparing hard for this sprint!
Route for the road relay!
According to the team captain Jian Yang, who is also the newly elected Sport Director for Law Club, the team had been training regularly at CCAB, usually completing interval trainings of various lengths (400m and/or 800m) as well as long distance runs. Occasionally, the team also runs at other locations such as the scenic Southern Ridges. Sometimes, the team even does high intensity sprint sets of 16 x 80 meter sprints, and not forgetting, static training!!
One really interesting fact about this team is that none of the members actually have running background – but nonetheless this doesn’t hamper the team! Upon training hard and preparing for the competition (training 3 times a week 3 weeks leading up to the race, though slightly hampered by the haze), their timings have improved significantly over the past few weeks! Kudos to the team!!(:
JUST BEFORE THE RACE BEGAN, it’s time for the team to boost the morale and encourage one another!!
Go law school!
Spot the two supporters who are here to support our friends for the race (they are coincidentally both in grey!).
Safety Briefing — PSI was below 100, so the race could proceed! (:
AND THE RACE BEGAN!!! Ah the team must be really anxious right now but nonetheless, nothing beats the confidence that the team actually has.
Check out Theodore’s (our 1st runner) confident and composed face with the baton!
1st Runners from different faculties all ready to start the Road Relay!
Shortly after, the race ended! TEAM LAW CAME IN 8TH PLACE, with the overall timing of 44 minutes and 14 seconds. The estimated individual timings of the runners from our team are as follows:
- 1st Runner (Theodore Ang): 6 minutes 45 seconds
- 2nd Runner (Jian Yang): 6 minutes 23 seconds
- 3rd Runner (Joy): 8 minutes 02 seconds
- 4th Runner (Qiu Ginj): 7 minutes 45 seconds
- 5th Runner (Nadene): 8 minutes 45 seconds
- 6th Runner (Samuel): 6 minutes 19 seconds
Though our placing out of the 10 faculties may not be the best, there was significant improvement in the timing clocked by the team as compared to the previous years and the team is really proud and relieved of their performance! (: It was a tough and close fight! Efforts placed into training and preparation really, really paid off!!
And lastly, here are some words from Team Captain Jian Yang:
“The team’s morale was quite low 3 months ago when we knew that could not field our best possible line-up due to unforeseen circumstances. However, we weren’t prepared to give up and trained really hard for this race. I reminded them the night before, “When you’re in pain, so is the guy next to you and the guy ahead of you. It comes down to which runners handle the pain best, and the winner is the one who wants it most.” We fought hard and beat our previous timing by 2 full minutes. It was a good race.”
Written by: Jesslyn (Y2) with inputs from Team Captain Jian Yang (Y2)
Photography by: Jesslyn (Y2)
