By Keng Yi, Nicole (25S03S), Meryl Lim (25S05A), Teo Hui Sian (25S06C)
On Thursday afternoon, 18th April 2024, the Water Polo Boys’ NSG Finals Match can conclude in one of only two ways.
The first? RI loses. Their fervent rivals, Hwa Chong, take back the crown that slipped from their grasp after HCI narrowly lost the finals 7-5 last year. The 13 players from RI will have 13 losses, 13 defeats and 13 servings of disappointment. It’ll be red, yellow and gold in the water once again.
The other? RI wins. The team in green, black and white solidifies their status as reigning champions after clinching their first A Division NSG championship in 5 years in 2023. 13 wins, 13 celebrations, and perhaps, 13 bald heads. (Rumour has it that the team made a pact to buzz their hair off should they win.)
Each team lines up in front of the pool before the match commences. Spectators settle in, cheering as each player is introduced by name and number. It’s systematic formalities like these that make it even more distinctly clear—it’s a dogfight for gold.
Players from both teams line up before the match, with RI’s team standing on the right. Photo credit: Yeo Xin Yi (25S03A), Raffles Photographic Society
Restful waters reflect the players’ silhouettes. The stage is clean, clear-cut, calm. That’s about to change.
We hear the whistle. The match begins.
4 quarters, 7 minutes each. 30 seconds without a goal, and the team has to give up possession of the ball to the other. This is a game of coordination, reaction, and precious seconds. There’s no time to think, and even less time to care.
RI scores the first goal at 5:23. 1-0.
HCI matches it soon after: 1-1. They top it off with another to take the lead: 1-2.
Pressure rises.
It’s a mere 12 seconds before the entire playing field has hauled themselves from HCI’s goalpost to RI’s. It’s 8 seconds between HCI’s goal attempt at 2:56 and #9 Kong Fan Xun’s (24S06B) goal at 2.48. That ties the score to 2-2.
#3 Mikel Bhandari (24S03Q) doubles that number, sending one goal into the post, followed by the next within some 35 seconds of the first: 4-2.
Not to be outdone, and with 15 seconds left to spare, HCI scores the next goal.
Just as quickly as it started, the first quarter ends, and the scoreboard looks favourable: 4-3. There’s certainly reason for the Rafflesians in the stands to be optimistic. But leading in the first of 4 quarters is barely indicative of any outcome. Pessimists could argue, this match would simply be a stinging repeat of RI’s loss of 8-9 to HCI in the semi-finals.
Later, after the match, Mikel Bhandari (24S03Q), the captain of the Water Polo team, would tell us that RI’s prior loss to HCI in the semi-finals was ultimately “inconsequential” to the team. “Whether we won or lost, we were already in the finals. So, we had our confidence coming into the finals, because we knew our capabilities and our abilities.”
Inconsequential? We’ll take his word for it. Notwithstanding, there was at least one takeaway from that semi-final match. Ho Ming Yan (24S06F), the vice-captain, sums it up: “We saw that Hwa Chong really wanted (the win) as well, so we had to match their passion and go above them….
… We had to make sure that we wanted it more than Hwa Chong. ”
– Ho Ming Yan, Vice-Captain (24S06F)
The prize giving table—royal blue tablecloth, trophies, medals and all—sits on the side of the pool as the game plays on. Both teams want that crown, that glory—will it be enough?
The prize giving table at the side of the pool as the match continues. Photo credit: Yeo Xin Yi (25S03A), Raffles Photographic Society
The 2nd quarter commences.
Once again, the game accelerates into action. The score rises marginally, with each team scoring alternating goals.
A point to RI, HCI, and RI again.
The commotion seemingly diminishes; 3 goals in the first 3 minutes, and in the next 3, there will be none. Valiant attempts at a goal from both teams are futile. The ball bounces off the post, flies clear above it, skids over the water on either side of the goalpost—but it fails to introduce itself to the back of the net. The players grow impatient, desperate, almost, as the scoreboard rests at a weary stalemate of 6-4.
1:01 minutes left, and HCI has got it, at last. Their 30 seconds are almost over. In fact, they have exactly a second left to make a goal as the player from HCI propels up and out from the water, arm raised and perpendicular to the waves, ball in hand.
The ball lands in the net—while the buzzer sounds. HCI’s supporters cheer, but it’s still ambiguous if it was too late a goal to break the deadlock.
Right on time, it seems. The score shifts, 6-5.
But then the scene changes—time is on RI’s side now. With 15 seconds left, RI’s captain makes a penalty shot, the ball finding the back of the net with ease. The 2nd quarter ends with a 7-5.
As the third quarter opens, RI scores 3 goals easily, comfortably bringing the score to a double once again. This time, 10-5. The HCI players are now battle-weary, shooting tired glances to the stands where HCI and RI spectators alike cheer – encouragement on one side and congratulations on the other.
The HCI coach calls a timeout; cuts them free. There’s a brief lull as HCI’s coach tries to rally his players for the remainder of the game. It proves unsuccessful, and HC’s momentum is halted before it even begins. The next goal isn’t theirs for the taking—RI is granted a penalty and scores: 11-5.
This paradigm continues. The HCI players push aggressively to scrape out a comeback, but their desperation proves futile. RI meets them at every turn. Hardly letting up their offensive either, RI scores yet another goal with 3 seconds left on the clock.
By the time the quarter ends, RI has widened its lead to a staggering 16-5.
Intermission is a welcome respite for both teams, but now’s the time for the final sprint. Players on both sides grip at the walls of the pool as they brace for the finishing fight.
And what a fight it is: HCI pushes back valiantly to bring their score to 10 with 46 seconds left on the clock. The voices of supporters —donning red and yellow—in the stands amplify gradually as something resembling hope starts to emerge.
But it’s too little, too late. RI scores only 3 more goals to HCI’s 6, but it’s simple maths to tally the scores.
The lead never falls out of RI’s hands.
19-11. The whistle sounds—and all hell breaks loose.
The scoreboard showing the final score of the match: 11-19, to RI. Photo credit: Yeo Xin Yi (25S03A), Raffles Photographic Society
It’s the release of a plethora gruelling trainings, untold presences behind the scenes, and rows of spectators holding their breath.
Cheers sound throughout the arena—this time from the players themselves. In the water the players streak towards their teammates to offer congratulations, and in a show of sportsmanship, their opponents as well.
RI’s team celebrating the win with their coach in the water. Photo credit: Yeo Xin Yi (25S03A), Raffles Photographic Society
Despite the reactions, the win is bittersweet. The conclusion of this match marks also the end of an era — among the team are old friends in the form of Mikel Bhandari (24S03Q), Mirza Osman (24S07B), and Xie Yifa, Robin (25S06R), who had played together both in secondary school and in the national team. This game would mark their last year playing together in RI.
“It’s sad, but we won … I guess after six years of hard work, the results will show.”
– Mikel Bhandari (24S03Q)
Here’s the thing: sport is an art of repetition. Athletes will know this better than anybody—fear not the man who has practised a thousand kicks one time, but the man who has practised one kick a thousand. The same workouts and training and rituals. Repeat until it’s as easy as breathing, until it’s second nature.
Today, that repetition ends. Something shifts; the cycle comes to a close. For RI’s Water Polo Boys team, this win represents far more than the simple sport binary of win or lose. They’ve worked their way to the top—countless drills and exercises, training thrice a week, an overseas training trip to China in 2023. All the blood, sweat and tears clouds the water. The team has bonded with time, circumstance and necessity.
Consistency makes it all too easy to forget your firsts and lasts until you get there. And on a Thursday afternoon, things are wrapping up.
But maybe this isn’t the ending that we all expected. With 13 gold medals comes 13 blank slates—clean shaves, if you will. Maybe it’s the buzz of a fresh start. Maybe this is just a new beginning.
Unfortunately, Raffles Press was unable to attain pictures of the boys’ Water Polo team with their new hair – or lack thereof.
List of Players
#3 – Mikel Bhandari (24S03Q) – Captain
#8 – Ho Ming Yan (24S06F) – Vice-Captain
#1 – Jacob Oh Wee Wenn (25S06O)
#2 – Xie Yifa, Robin (25S06R)
#4 – Dapson Lau Jia Le (25S06E)
#5 – Jerry Chew (25S03R)
#6 – Timothy Lin (24S07C)
#7 – Lim Guan Yu Cayden (25S06G)
#9 – Kong Fan Xun (24S06B)
#10 – Sean Lee (24S06B)
#11 – Mirza Osman (24S07B)
#12 – Triston Ng Jun Kai (25S06C)
#13 – Johnavan Seah (25S03M)