By Crystal Chan

THEY did not execute their stunt as smoothly as they hoped.

But that did not stop Nanyang Technological University's 16-member Aces White team from walking away as champions.

They won yesterday's Cheerobics 2009 National Cheerleading Competition - their fourth consecutive victory.

Their stunts included the basket toss, in which their female teammates were thrown in the air and caught by other team members, as well as gymnastics and dance.

But, the team flubbed their human pyramid stunt during their 21/2 minute routine.

Due to an error in timing, one of their female teammates could not be hoisted in the human pyramid.

Unexpected win

Team president Lin Kaibin, 23, a third-year materials science and engineering undergraduate, said: 'We just let it go and moved on from there, because if we were too bothered by that, we wouldn't have been able to focus on the rest of our performance.'

The win was unexpected.

He added: 'It's just totally exhilarating. We never gave up hope of winning.'

The competition was held yesterday evening at Jiak Kim Street.

Fortunately, the NTU Aces White's other stunts were good enough to help them trounce eight other teams in the Open Division - Team Category.

This year, the champions walked away with a gold-plated trophy.

NTU's Aces Red came in second while KR Steppers, a team comprising undergraduates from the National University of Singapore, took third place.

Mr Lin added that he and his teammates, who are all NTU undergraduates, had been training for the competition since last September.

They focused on developing better body control, in the hope that they would be more flexible and agile.

He said: 'We trained four days a week, clocking in four hours per day. On weekends, we trained for six hours.

'With good time management, our training didn't affect our studies. Many of us have been doing this for two years, so the experience helps.'

Besides university students, there were even participants from primary and secondary schools as well as polytechnics.

Despite their tender age, the primary school students were really game on the event.

When asked how it felt to be the only male in an otherwise all-girls team, one boy said: 'I'm fine because I like cheerleading.'

Other teams were so excited that they continued rehearsing behind the stage while awaiting their turn.

This is the eighth year that Cheerobics, which is organised by the Cheerleading Association Singapore, is being held.

Yesterday's five-hour event saw about 300 participants from 44 teams taking part.

This article was first published in The New Paper.