James leads ACJC as golfers reclaim lost titles

After losing both their Schools' National Golf Championships A Division boys' and girls' crowns last year, Anglo-Chinese Junior College (ACJC) fought back yesterday to reclaim both titles, repeating their 2012 double triumph.

The school's James Leow led the way by finishing with 149 to take the boys' individual title, beating Tampines Junior College's Saifred Sim Jun Zhong by eight strokes.

He teamed up with Jovan Lai to win the boys' team title with 158, eight strokes ahead of runners-up Hwa Chong Institution.

James said: "We're representing the school, and it's nice to show that we can study and do well in sports as well."

ACJC girls Ariel Lee and Wong Yen Ting, who came in second and third respectively in the individual category, made up for their individual disappointments by lifting the girls' team title.

They finished with a total of 151, 21 strokes ahead of Victoria Junior College (VJC).

The team victory was especially sweet for Ariel, whose 161 was not enough to pip VJC's Dion Lim (159) to take the girls' individual title.

"I don't really take much notice of how others are doing, and focus on my own game," said Ariel, 18, on facing Dion again in the team event.

Last year, ACJC surrendered the girls' team title to VJC and the boys' title to arch-rivals Anglo Chinese School (Independent).

Methodist Girls' School also completed a double, clinching the B and C Division girls' team championships, despite Raffles Girls' School's Sarah Tan and Vanessa Khoo winning the individual titles in the respective divisions.

Sarah, 16, who came fourth last year, said: "I learnt a lot from my competitions last year, and I did quite well at the HSBC Youth Golf Challenge in March, so I had a bit more confidence to win an individual medal coming into this year's tournament."

The B and C Division boys' titles were won by St Gabriel's Secondary School and Singapore Sports School respectively.

yuntingc@sph.com.sg

This article was published on April 10 in The Straits Times.

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