"You haven't won the race, if in winning the race you have lost the respect of your competitors..."

First of all, congratulations to all the sailors who had taken part in the National Interschool Sailing Championship 2011. I was there for most part of the Division C races - it was not easy to win out there for those 2 days. Winning is a combination of skills, nature elements and making some good choices on the water!!!... win or lose - the credit goes solely to you, the sailor!!!

Last week was really exciting for me... our girls went into the National Interschool Sailing Championship 2011 as the pioneer sailing team from Nanyang Girls High School. Our objective was to get a medal for the school... of course, secretly we (as parents... maybe some teachers too) wished for more!

"Just 4 sailors (2 Opti and 2 Byte)... I don't think they can do any better than bronze"... a comment that I heard while I was minding my business in the Male Toilet. I could guess whose voice I heard but I would not go to speculate in this note. So, I did not think many were looking at a small sailing team having much impact in the Division C. I could not blame many people for overlooking NYGH's team because the reigning champion for both 2009 & 2010, TKGS had 4 sailors in Opti and 6 sailors in Byte... a large team! 2009/2010's Silver Medal winning team, RGS had 3 in Opti and 2 in Byte... a smaller team but had sailors whose national rankings were highest in both Opti & Byte for the Division C girls.

The NYGH girls knew what they had to do - start well, sail fast, fight for every position and watch the competitors. With that, they finished with 47 points and a SILVER Cup to bring back to school after 2 days of hard sailing... just 6 points behind the 2011 Team Champion RGS but 7 points in front of the Champion for 2009/2010 TKGS. To top it all, Li Ting beated everyone in the Byte Class in Division C Girls to collect an individual GOLD - Champion for the Division C Girls!

Looking at the scores more carefully... Gillian, Mildred, Li Ting and Chloe beated sailors with significant higher national ranking - no easy task!!!

Speaking to one of the NSC coaches, this one pointed out that our Sec 1 girls had enough points (42) to take home SILVER... interesting observation but I was quite quick to let this one know that this team of 4 sailors had won it together... Personally, I watched most of the Byte races and a few Opti ones over the 2 days and realised that there seemed to be some team play on the water. It was really too far for me to deadly sure but I saw a few familiar sail numbers tagging around the NYGH sailors (it seemed more apparent on the 2nd day). If we had only 3 sailors instead of 4, the dynamics of the team play would be different and I believed it would have been so much easier for the other teams to tackle our sailors on the water and possibly spoiling their chances in coming up with good finishes. So while that observation was true from just looking at the points, all 4 NYGH sailors played a critical part to secure the SILVER for the school.

Anyhow, I learnt a lot during these few days. When Chloe was in KCP and winning came quite easy for KCP because KCP had the best sailors, I did not know about these new things that I have learnt in the past week. Check out my new knowledge list:

1. I had always thought team play on the water was not allowed... maybe it is still not allowed but I thought I saw some on the water in the past week.




2. I had always thought that if you had gotten FIRST in your class, that meant you have won. However, I was taught that FIRST in Opti Class was FIRST but FIRST in Byte Class was really SIX... knock yourself out trying to figure out this one!!! :-D




3. High Point Scoring System favours schools with large sailing teams. Like some schools, you just dumped as many sailors in a particular Class when you deemed that your school's sailors have the best chances to top that Class... I think this one is worked out by the coaches. Since NYGH does not have one, I think our strategy is just pure competition for now... this one is a clue for Point 2.




4. SSF Level 1 Proficiency Certificate is a requirement in the NOR (I suspect for safety) but it is not needed in reality last week. Interestingly, I was TOLD that there were sailors competiting in the regatta without it. That is really strange in a Singapore environment where you cannot U-Turn without the U-Turn signage at that part of the road or parking in a place without a marked parking lot is considered illegal. So I assume some illegal thing must have happened last week at NSC. The organizers should have audited the forms submitted by the school teachers, the teachers-in-charge should have asked to sight the required certificates and the sailors with this certification should have volunteered such information... So, I concluded that it must have been a "Honest Mistake"!!!... and perhaps only the sailors will get hit eventually if a remedy is enforced.
   

So back to the title, I would ask any sailor to think carefully about what Paul Elvstrom said - "You haven't won the race, if in winning the race you have lost the respect of your competitors..." This year, I think the NYGH girls can hold their heads up high and tell everyone that they did not lose anyone's respect in winning the Team Silver or the Individual Gold medals. Congratulations on a real win!!!... :-)