NTU wins big at IVP games

Posted On 10 Feb 2016

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by Nicole Chia, Sports Editor

The men’s floorball team dethroned defending champions Temasek Polytechnic 5-2 on 27 Jan. PHOTO: ZHENG JUNCEN

NTU emerged as the best performing team at the recently concluded Institute-Varsity-Polytechnic (IVP) Games after winning six golds, tripling its haul from last year.

The university’s netball and women’s basketball teams successfully defended their titles, while the women’s badminton, women’s volleyball, men’s floorball and men’s table tennis teams pulled off surprise wins.

“We are very proud of our athletes’ performance,” said Mr Chia Chin Yeh, 36, Assistant Manager at NTU Sports and Recreation Centre (SRC). “There has been a marked improvement from last year, and we hope this will continue inspiring our athletes to do well.”

The games took place from 9 Jan to 1 Feb. National University of Singapore (NUS), last year’s top performer, clinched four gold medals while Republic Polytechnic took home three.

NTU women’s badminton team’s 3-1 victory over rivals NUS was a feat that captain Lee Cheng Ling, 22, did not expect.

The team lost to NUS at the Singapore University Games (SUniG) last September and had only eight players rostered this year. A typical badminton team in the IVP Games consists of 10 to 12 players.

“We were at a disadvantage, because NUS had much stronger players,” said Lee, a final-year Nanyang Business School student.

“Since the competition format is a best-of-five, we were strategic and focused on three key matches (in the finals) to maximise our chances of victory.”

The last time NTU won an IVP gold for women’s badminton was in 2013, when Lee was still a freshman.

“Now I’m in my final year, and we did it again, so I’m very happy,” Lee said.

The men’s table tennis team, who beat Singapore Polytechnic 3-1 to win the championship, also entered the season “without expectations”, said doubles player Leonard Leong, 25.

The paddlers finished only fourth in last year’s IVP. There was also little to suggest any improvements in their ill fortunes as recently as last September, when they came in third at SUniG.

The successive series of losses sent another blow to their morale, Leong added.

“Our captain did a good job of boosting our spirits after SUniG by emphasising the importance of teamwork,” said Leong, a final- year student under the Renaissance Engineering Programme.

The women’s volleyball and men’s floorball teams also improved on their finishing this year.

The men trounced defending floorball champion Temasek Polytechnic (TP) 5-2, ending a two-year gold medal drought.

The women’s volleyball team, who were kicked out in the first round of the competition last year, beat Singapore Institute of Management 3-1 to take the gold.

But there was no fairytale finish for NTU’s footballers this time. The team, which also secured a hard-fought berth in the finals, eventually lost 5-4 on penalties after a goalless draw to three-time defending champion TP.

Despite the loss, captain Tan Yong Geng, 25, is pleased with his team’s performance.

“We are not as technically sound as the other schools, but we made every training session count,” said Tan, a final-year National Institute of Education student.

“I will be graduating after this, but my team has lots of potential. If we can keep up our good work, we’ll come back even stronger next year.”