after training today, a group of j2s were talking about how we would fare in the nationals this year. would it be a third, as expected? or perhaps we'd claw our places up into second place?

keith said something that struck me. "this year, if we get gold, we would become legends, and our story immortalised forever".

now, isnt that a goal worth fighting for? worth sweating for? worth putting your best in every burst, fighting to pull ahead in every 2km? worth getting out of bed at 630 everyday even when its the holidays, to come down to training?

if we are going to dream, let us dream big. i remember a conversation with kane in which he mentioned that he noticed rafflesians tend to give up in the crunch, when they come to an excruciatingly tough part of the competition, when they are in pain, when they aren't assured of victory. Let's not be like that. Let's fight hard. I believe that the feeling of regret when you look back and think, "i didnt give my best, i had more in me just now" is the most terrible feeling there can be.

getting first is not some delusional dream. there are 126 points up for grabs(maybe less if we manage to DQ some T2s) , we just need to get about 40 of them. Hwachong and NJC might have ownage Ks, but there are sufficient talented people in random JCs (like MJC or TPJC) to deny them complete ownage of the K arena. Should our Ts perform (1-2 finish) and our Ks exceed expectations (yiliang 3rd, ky and zhiwei 4/5th, jquek 3rd, guoren/shawn 4/5th), i think that we would have enough points to get first. remember that the large pie of K1s and K2s are split amongst many other JCs, we just have to get a decent share of that, while holding on to our trump card of Ts. we'd get the title.

to those not competing this year, i really hope that you guys will continue to work hard, because next year we are going to need every one of you guys, and god knows next year is probably going to be one of the toughest years RJCanoe is going to go through. yes, we dont have enough boats and u guys tend have to wait on shore. but i hope u guys won't mind and keep coming anyway.

theres truly a lot of raw talent that i see. our batch is strong, fit, and water talented. i believe that strongly. we just aren't shining yet because we haven't had enough water time, just like how a rough diamond looks unimpressive until it undergoes cutting (read: pain, sweat, grit) till it becomes something valuable, beautiful, with nothing like it.

guys, lets be the batch that.... turned the tide. remember, pain is temporary, but glory is eternal. go raffles!