Written by: Jared Lim
Edited by: Chen Kexin and Lydia Ong
Photos by: SMC Publicity
Introducing our brand new cannon-arm tanks freshies from the handball team, are Rishika and Nikki Than Win!
Foreign to the sport, Rishika picked up handball in Eusoff with the same reason as the majority of the boys in the male team, so she could “stare at Shy (handball captain) because she damn chio bu, pretty, and hot”. But in all seriousness, the real reason why she joined the sport was because she watched a movie about Kang Jae-Won , the South Korean who won the World Handball Player of the Year medal in 1989, which inspired her to strive to be the very best and to be like him.
Being a Netballer for the past 11 years made Rishika itch for a challenge as she claims she got to a point where the sport was simply “muscle memory”. Having hit the skill cap and since handball was also a sport that had something to do with balls, she thought it would be a great idea to pull a Naruto’s Kage Bunshin no Jutsu and join both sports at once in hopes of gaining some transferable skills for her main sport.
“In terms of footwork, handball is very different from netball because of the rules that bound the respective games. However, the kind of footwork that handball players use to cut through to reach the 6m line can actually be used when we want to get rid of defenders in netball. I have yet to actually transfer the skill and try it out in a netball match/drill but when I do, I’ll let my fans know okay! “
Being a Netball coach herself (she coaches young kids!), she admires her Handball coaches for being so dedicated to coaching the team. She wants to one day be like Coach Aaron, who can go at “only 50-percent” and make Theng Xuan fly off the court.
The relationships she formed with her coaches and her teammates during tough trainings are what she enjoys about the sport and why she can’t help but to continually attend training week after week... also so that Coach Aaron will stop telling her that her “timing sucks”.
When asked what she benefited from the sport, she has only one thing to say. “The handball glue is so stubborn that half of my dri-fits have glue stains that will never come off.”
This is a testament to how good our freshie is – even the glue sticks to her so they can witness her greatness.
To end off, Rishika provided me with one of the most big brain quotes of all time,
“If it doesn’t happen at training, it won’t happen during the match”
– Rishika 2020
With how long and hard Rishika trains, everything and anything that could happen probably already happened in trainings, so there’s nothing left to worry. Nevertheless, let’s look forward to seeing Rishika play this season!
Next up, I found out Nikki was a guy. Eh juz?
Nikaloodeon first started playing handball in J1 for 3 months because he saw some guy making a shot and he thought that it was cool. He joined the sport expecting to become cool, but all it did was expose his flaws and weaknesses, so he quit the sport.
Fast forward 4 years later, Nikki joined the sport again in Eusoff because he wanted to increase his confidence and get another shot at looking cool. This time, he succeeded, evidently from the number of secret admirers he now has in Eusoff.
“Got keeper doesn’t mean cannot score”, an apt quote that summarises Nikki’s adventures not only in Handball but also in life. In Handball, Nikki plays aggressive, strong and with dominance. He makes use of his overwhelming size to gain an advantage over the other players, allowing him to make exceptional plays unmatched among others. In life, his huge size also gains him an advantage ... albeit in a different way ;)
Nikki the man, the legend. Juggling between multiple commitments – CS, Handball, Volleyball, Frisbee, he is one who prioritises what’s important. With his life revolving around these commitments, his daily routine often consists solely of studying and working out in his room (if you happen to walk past his room and hear creaking noises, you’ll know he’s hard at work!).
Nikki hopes that more people will live by the quote shared earlier, where we should all approach our challenges with confidence despite the circumstances. Just because there is a keeper, it does not mean that the goal is out of sight, neither does it mean that we should simply give up. Learn from Nikki and witness him on the court this IHG!
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