Scholars enhance UWC life - United World College of South East Asia

Dunia, April 2010
18
SEASAC Badminton
In March, the SEASAC Badminton Tournament
was hosted and organised by the
Canadian International School of Hong
Kong (CDNIS). The girls team started
their pool games with a comfortable win
over the Alice Smith School (KLASS)
beating them 7-0. They then played two
difficult games against the New International
School of Thailand (NIST) and CD-
NIS, who were the SEASAC champions
from the previous year. The girls played
some wonderful badminton to beat their
opponents 6-1 and 5-2 respectively.
Their camaraderie and work ethic was
impressive. They also beat the British
International School of Jakarta 7-0. On
day two of the tournament they won their
final pool game 7-0 against Surabaya
International School to finish top in their
division. As a result they qualified for the
semi-finals in which they played Garden
International School (GIS). This proved
to be a difficult match, which really tested
the skills and fitness of both teams. The
match was tied at 3-3 going into the final
game. Tracy Nang, who played seed
one, had a fantastic game against her opponent
to not only win the semi-final and
a well deserved place in the final but also
to clinch the Seed One Champion title.
The level of badminton really was outstanding.
The girls played Ruamrudee International
School (RIS) in the final, who
were formidable opponents since they
had won the championship seven times
in the last ten years. Our players were
confident and enthusiastic and certainly
rose to the challenge. They won their two
doubles games and then Ashima Sabhlok
pulled off a 2-1 win in her singles game,
tying the score at 3-3 with the final game
to play. Yet again the match depended
on the final singles seed one game. Tracy
held her composure in a high pressure
game and defeated her opponent with
inch perfect shots. UWCSEA had won the
SEASAC Badminton Tournament for the
first time ever. Congratulations to Tracy
Nang, Jumana Hashim, Aditi Sabhlok,
Ashima Sabhlok and Vanya Saxena, our
captain.
Apart from losing to CDNIS, who had an
incredibly strong team, the boys had a
very successful first day. They won their
pool matches against NIST, KLASS and
Mont Kiara International School with relative
ease.
On the second day, the team continued
to build on their previous day’s performance
and beat the International School
of Yangoon (ISY) 7-0 in their last pool
game, putting them in second position in
their division. As a result, the boys qualified
for the semi-finals and were scheduled
to play RIS who had been SEASAC
champions for the previous seven years.
The boys were focused and positive
going into the match and although the
boys played exceedingly well in their
doubles games, RIS proved too strong
in the singles and beat us by a margin of
three games. The boys then played GIS
in the third/fourth playoff and being full
of confidence and highly motivated, they
went out with all cylinders firing to beat
GIS, 5-2 and finish in a well-deserved 3 rd
place.
Another very pleasing result! Well done
to Sean Ng, Greg Tan, Rakesh Prabhakaran,
Henry Maw and our captain,
Nguyen Vo.
Mandy Neil
U14 Cricketers sweep all
before them
The UWCSEA U14 cricket team enjoyed
a 100% winning streak this year. The first
game was against GIIS when the boys
chased down 144 runs. Captain Kathik
Suresh led the way with 56 not out.
This was followed by a comfortable win
against OFS.
The highlights of the league season were
the tense run chase against Tanglin
Tigers where the boys knocked off 165
runs with three balls to spare. A massive
opening partnership between Jamie Hunt
and Luke Hambly broke the back of the
chase and some lusty blows by the middle
order completed the chase. The next
day the team went even better posting an
imposing 184 vs Tanglin Lions.
In the semi-final the team took on OFS
and things were looking bleak as OFS
posted 134 and UWCSEA slumped from
31 for 1 to 47 for 6 but the team rallied,
as it has all season, and some mature
batting from Amartyo Sen, Harsh Bakshi
and Raam Chandrasekharen eventually
led the team to victory and a place in the
final vs GIIS. This is team with resolve
and they were able to force the victory,
the 100% record and the Championship.
The overriding strength of the squad was
that individuals were always ready and
willing to step up for the team. There
were many impressive individual performances:
the batting of Luke Hambly
and Ishaan Srivastava, the bowling of
Amartyo Sen and Ismaeel Aurangzeb
and the all round performances of Atulya
Ravishankar, Halcyon Price, Jamie Hunt
and Karthik Suresh. Overall, this was
a real team performance and all squad
members can be proud of their achievements.
Simon Bignell