Celebrating Sporting Excellence: RC4 off to a blistering start at the ICG
RC4 Dodgeball team after the finals on 16 Jan 2026 (Pic: Julian Tham / RC4)
Celebrating Sporting Excellence: RC4 off to a blistering start at the ICG
Written by Don Han
Overall champions in the 2025 Inter-College Games (ICG), the RC4 team are back this year, hungry for more. With over 200 residents proudly donning the RC4 Jerseys, we are in for a busy 5-week period where 30 different sports, e-sports and mind sports will be competed between the 5 Residential Colleges and NUS College
On Day 2 of the new semester, good news came rolling in as we’ve earned our first Gold Medal in the Table Tennis competition. It was a discipline which we always had a stronghold, entering the event as two-time defending champions.
This year, the team had numerous fresh faces with our female players all in their freshmen years. The changing of guard did not faze the Interest Group head, Oscar Tan (Year 2, Business Administration).
“Despite the lack of competition experience, our captain, Lauren, had a good understanding of everyone’s strengths, and our strategic matchups were definitely one of the deciding factors of this outcome!”
The finals concluded with a thrilling 3-2 win against RVRC, as the tie was ultimately decided by the narrowest margins in the Mixed Doubles clash. Cavan Teo (Y4, Data Science and Analytics) partnered Janece Yong (Y1, Pharmacy), recovering from a 0-2 deficit and turned the tables to seal the decisive win.
“Surprisingly, I did not feel much pressure being a Year 4 senior,” Cavan claimed. He was the player of highest seniority in the team, having competed in numerous iterations of
ICG. “I relied on my past experiences to remind myself to focus on the next point and point by point we crawled back to ultimately win the game.”
Janece was determined to let their team’s effort prove worthwhile, overcoming disappointment and nerves to prevail. “I think my past experiences of training and playing table tennis in National School Games helped me maintain my composure and confidence on the court as I knew endurance was the key to winning this long and nerve-wrecking match.”
Down 0-2, their focus turned to tackling the match point-by-point. Before they realized it, they won the final point of the match.
Three-peat: RC4 Table Tennis team after the finals on 16 Jan (Pic: RC4 Table Tennis)
This continued into theend of Week 1, when our RC4 Dodgeball team bagged both gold and bronze medals after an electrifying three days of action.
For the third consecutive year, both RC4 teams successfully met in the semifinals, ensuring that we have a chance to vie for two separate medals. This reflected the depth of our dodgeball team, led by Paturi Karthik (Y4, Computer Engineering) and Darren Sng (Y2, Computer Science).
Karthik expressed his gratitude to the alumni for coming down to support, “We are very grateful for our RC4 Dodgeball alumni who came back after work to support both teams, as well as give guidance and advice for crucial games. Their experience, expertise and encouragement cannot be matched, and we really appreciate what they have done for us!” Tight-knitted like a family, the alumni often return to train together with the team and offer guidance, which was key to their victory.
They went on to prevail in their respective medal matches, bringing home the gold medal to RC4 after losing it by the narrowest of margins last year.
It was a bittersweet moment for both RC4 teams, as it meant that only one could enter the final. “We took it as an opportunity to put on a show for our residents and other members of the dodgeball community by playing fearless dodgeball, coupled with many tricks and antics on court.” Certainly, it brought great entertainment value as the moments on the court reflected how results were secondary to the fun and love for the sport.
Our RC4 Women’s Basketball team also brought back great news, as the injection of new faces into the team pumped energy and motivation to do even better on the court. Having exited the Round Robin stages last year, they entered the competition with no expectations.
“I’m grateful for the IHG experience as most of us got to meet each other and understand each other’s play styles through competing.” Team captain Lee Yi Ning (Y1, Material Science and Engineering) shared how a collaborative team effort made this victory possible. “Everyone on the team had different experiences and brought different skills to the table. The ideas everyone shared through observing the opponents and each other also helped us adapt better during the games.”
The odds were not in their favour, having to face the defending champions CAPT in the semifinals before a showdown with NUSC in a match they had lost in the Round Robin. With resilience and tenacity, the team prevailed 16-12 in a hard-fought final where neither side refused to concede defeat.
Three-peat: RC4 Women’s Basketball team overcame adversity to bring home the gold medal (Pic: RC4 Women’s Basketball)
Added motivation came after Yi Ning heard her seniors’ stories about how they had never managed to win the gold medal for women’s basketball. “The group chat names for the past 3 years have been “ICG Gold” but they never managed to win it, but this year (despite our group chat being named ICG Women Bball) we managed to finally nag that gold!” She wanted to earn them the victory to rewrite the narrative and was deeply appreciative and proud of the team for pulling it off.
Among the sports which have concluded, the RC4 contingent also brought back Gold Medals in Overcooked, Captain’s Ball, winning Silver Medals in Tchoukball, Contract Bridge, Smash Bros and a Bronze Medal in Volleyball.
