2006 Inter-school Canoe National Championships was indeed a memorable experience as many put it. To put it straight, I know that many, myself included, were disappointed that we scored a third, if not happy that we didn't lose that title (not that we were close to losing it anyway).

I know this is going to sound very blunt, especially since the more morally correct post i should be blogging about now is that of encouraging words to spur us on to train for next year's competition. But I think many of us here have already painted that colourful picture of "bronze is not so bad" and "lets go for Gold next year", so much so that it has nearly become cliche. Someone, the bad guy, has to spell out the actual facts.

What I want to say is we were indeed aiming for the best, if not 2nd best, and the hurtful truth remains is that we failed. We did not claim silver as we had wanted, and I know that for that, deep down inside, many of us are hurting. There's nothing wrong with feeling the pain of disappointment, but, let me ask, why are you feeling so? Are you disgruntled that the hard work you put in was all for naught? That all the time you spent telling yourself to "work harder" was all wasted?

We lost to National Junior College Canoeing, and not just in the competition, but also in terms of devotion, commitment, discipline. I'm not denying that we have indeed worked ourselves extremely hard, sometimes to the extent that we feel like breaking down. However, the question remains: have we really pushed our limits? Coming from river valley high, most of whose students make their way to NJC, i have no doubt encountered some familiar faces during our water trainings. It wouldn't surprise you to know that the T1 champion for girls, Lee Suling, was a former cross-country from rvhs with that had no connections with our water sport. And she's J1 this year, meaning that she started canoeing roughly around the same time that our school's J1 T1 girls champion Yang Yang did.

Though she and Yang2 never really competed, and though i hate myself for pointing this out, but i think we know who would probably win had both entered in the same T1 race. Our Yang is good, and so are the rest of our girls, but SL (not Shenglin) is the real unbeatable on the water. But what made all the difference these 6 and a half months? Maybe technique, but I daresay it can't just be the mechanics that win you the battle. Those "legends" of training 5/6 times per week every week, eating only certain kinds of food, giving up the "life" you want to live for the "life" that makes a canoeist champion, is not just that. It's real. After seeing what NJC did right after Nationals' Finals, who can really doubt it anymore? It really kills me to see that someone who started canoeing at the same time as I did to have improve so much more than i have. Yet, here in this sport, there are so many of such people.

And these are whom we are contending with on the water. What is the point of telling ourselves "we'll do better" if we don't actually do anything about it? Why are we disappointed with ourselves when we know, deep inside, that we couldn't have denied how much more effort NJC had put in?


If we really want to stand a chance at wresting that coveted title from NJC's hands, then words alone will not be enough. Neither will our current standard of effort. If we want to win, then "all" isn't just a word anymore. It becomes that very thing which we put into each push-up, each pull-up, each step we take on the track, and each stroke we make on the water.







I'm sorry to those who would take the time to read my long post, and I'm sorry for being such an @$$hole for saying all this, but each word typed here rises from the bottom of my heart, and i hope that before you all start hating me, at least give a little more time to consider what i have just written, so i would not have wasted my time typing all these out.