Dear PANDAS
Your honorable piggy is going to retire from Judo already. Ever since last year when I inspired my team to the championship, it has been harder and harder for me to excel my previous achievement. I also do not have all the time to commit myself to training anymore. Ten years already. This year my aim was for both NUS teams to reach the finals and despite facing the toughest competition in the history of the Judo IVP, I am proud to say that we managed to fulfill our expectations! On the left hand side, NTU has the strongest team around bar NUS. They have this french regional champion, the senior female champion and intermediate group male champion, with the other two also top players!
NUS has the male light weight champion, me, the senior female runners up, a Vietnamese guy and senior female 2nd runners up. That is supposedly our strongest team and on the left hand side, our second team faced a very strong NYP team also. The NYP team was the runners up last year. ALso their 1st opponents were from SMU, the winners of the competition in 2005.
Each team comprises 3 guys and 2 girls with 1 male and 1 female reserves.
Only a win gives you a point while a loss or draw earns you none.
It was a dream final as we understand that it is going to take a colossal effort to edge past the 3 strong teams in the form of NTU, NYP and SMU.
Nonetheless we did it and everyone went crazy when the teams in the final were told to take up their positions. I must admit that my team were abit caught out by the second team, after our exertions against NTU and also our familiarity with the second team! So my team ended up with the silver medals while the other team headed by my vice captain made the gold medals theirs. The players in my team all played in the individuals categories while the other team's members had their first bouts in the team categories, so naturally we were tired. But I must stress that their team is really a wonderful team and their players are classy!
Despite this, I still feel the proudest I have ever been, because everyone worked with me to achieve our almost impossible and unheard of target!
I got an individual bronze medal, unable to get past that French guy who eventually won the final. I really love Judo and after 10 years in it, maybe it is time to call it a day. I have 3 individual golds, 1 team gold, 3 team silvers and 3 individual bronzes to my name after all these years. Not the most one can accumulate but not a bad record... I thought I will look back in regret if I do not get two golds this year but surprisingly I feel really peaceful, like a natural curtain has been drawn. Maybe at the end of the day, one can not always be in the limelight, sometimes it is rewarding just to be a part of a larger machinery.
The scores are as follow: NYP VS NTU 1:4
NUS1 VS RP 5:0
NUS2 Vs SMU 3:2
NYP Vs RP 4:1
Semi finals NUS1 Vs NTU 3:1
NUS2 Vs NYP 4:1
Finals NUS1 Vs NUS 2 1:4
If I do well for my promos then a treat is in store for you guys!
Pandies forever!


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