Written By: Czaraim Carreon Edited By: Valerie Chua & Jolene Wong Photographs By: EusoffWorks
It was the perfect weather to have the race — pleasantly cooling with a fresh breeze. Meanwhile, a sea of yellow gathered, spread across an arduous 1.8km circuit to show their support to our Road Relay team.
The race begins at a carpark outside Raffles Hall and continues past the University Cultural Centre before making a left along Clementi Road. The racers then apprehensively make another left turn into Kent Ridge Crescent, where the toughest part of the race awaits.
Bracing themselves, racers lean forward to conquer what they have dubbed as “The Slope”, which begins along the School of Design and Environment, and gradually inclines as they approach the School of Engineering. Here, they continue to meander through a narrow road until the terrain flattens along Yusof Ishak House. From there, it’s a downward, final sprint to the finish line.
At the dimly lit start point, our racers prepared for the race as they paced back and forth, arms akimbo, looking down on the gravel as they shook the anxiety away.
The energy was high and representatives from every hall came to show their support.
7:40 PM, the horn sounds and the race flags off. The event began with the female team off to a strong start. First runner, Yujia, sets the pace as she establishes a strong lead in front of the other halls, gaining momentum along the way as she approached the slope. Even then, Yujia showed no signs of slowing down as she paces herself, slowly but surely.
The team’s second racer, Rena, continues strong. She widens the gap and maintains Eusoff’s position in first place, with a significant distance ahead of the following racer. Brenda, Eusoff’s third racer, and more affectionately known by her friends and supporters as “Bread”, continues to maintain the lead.
With every racer passing by, the gap only continues to widen. By the time Stacia was in the race, as the team’s captain and fourth racer, she was an impressive 40 seconds ahead of Kent Ridge’s Vanessa. Leading by example, she had a smile on her face as she trudged up the slope.
The race was almost coming to an end with Eusoff significantly ahead of the other hall’s racers. Christy, the fifth racer, continued to widen the gap even further as she blazes through the crowd — a full 43 seconds ahead of Kent Ridge.
Still maintaining first place, the team’s final racer, Hui Xin, emerges from the foot of the slope to be greeted by an echoing cheer, as she pushes forward. She fires through as supporters promptly shift their attention to see who’s following closely behind. A minute later, still no one in sight. Hui Xin had not only continued to maintain the team’s position but had stunningly done so with a 1 minute and 35 seconds lead all the way to the finish line. The crowd at Raffles cheered as she crossed the finish line, bringing home a well-deserved win for Eusoff!
The energy along the circuit was at its peak, hyped by the performance the female teams displayed in their race. The male team was up next, and pressure mounted as they congratulated their female counterparts for their glorious win. They gathered in circles for a final boost of motivation and they were off.
Starting the race was Jon, who sprints from the finish line with a strong start. He jostled his way past his fellow racers in a bid to gain a solid footing. But the other racers proved to be tough, he maintained his position in second place, neck and neck with Temasek’s racer up until the bus stop opposite Central Library, when King Edward’s runner took the lead into first place. Eusoff was in third place for the first round — but it was still anyone’s race.
The second racer, Jun Yang, narrows the gap as he emerged in second place just 20 seconds behind Temasek. It was a brilliant recovery by the team as he tried to maintain his distance up the slope, hoping to catch up as the terrain flattens in front of him. Joel follows as the team’s third runner to maintain Eusoff’s position in the race. Making his way up, he had his eyes fixed forward, torso pulled back, almost oblivious to the crowd cheering him on. He followed closely behind, hoping to provide the next runner with enough to make a comeback.
Fourth in line was Zijing, who had narrowed the gap further to only 14 seconds behind first place, providing supporters with the hope that there’s still a chance to catch up to first place.
As the crowd waited for the lead racer to appear, they were greeted by an unbelievably fast runner from Temasek who conquered the slope without a sweat. The crowd murmured in disbelief, as they propped their heads to see how far behind Eusoff’s fifth racer, Wei Shien, was. With a sigh of relief, he trailed closely behind, an impressive feat given the former’s speed. Wei Shien had his eyebrows furrowed, with a steely resolve to take this one home for Eusoff.
As the tense race came close to the end, last racer, Zac appears and whizzes through a sea of yellow, through deafening cheers and signboards waving violently to maintain Eusoff’s position. He goes all the way and proudly clinches first runner’s up for Eusoff.
It was a proud achievement for the Road Relay team — having put in hours after hours into gruelling training. For the spectators, it was a long evening cheering for the team at the top of their lungs. But Eusoffians take pride in making sure that those who ran got the much-needed push toward the finish, and it was in full view this evening.
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