Raffles Institution ended a 27-year wait by winning the A Division girls' hockey title on May 18, 2026, defeating Victoria Junior College in a penalty shoot-out [1, 2, 3]. The shoot-out score was 2-0 when RI captain Danica Goh, sidelined all season due to ankle injury, scored a crucial penalty. Goh said, "I was completely elated and relieved but at the same time, I was really scared because I knew I was going to do the shoot-out and I didn’t want to let the team down" [1]. She added that her motivation came from thinking about her teammates' hard work, including "the amount of blood, sweat and tears they’ve put into getting us here today" [1]. Goalkeeper Tanya Khandelwal also played a commanding role in securing the shoot-out win [1, 2, 3]. Victoria Junior College suffered their third consecutive loss in the A Division girls' hockey final, continuing a run of near misses [1, 2, 3]. Goh was scheduled to undergo surgery for her ankle the day after the final [1, 2, 3].
The following day, May 19, Raffles Institution continued their dominance by securing the boys' A Division table tennis title for the third consecutive year. They narrowly defeated Dunman High School 3-2 in the best-of-five final. Li Kaijie won the decisive match and expressed pure joy, saying, "I just went for it. The moment the ball dropped onto the floor, I looked at my team and said, ‘Come here, we did it!’ That was really just joy that cannot be described" [4, 5, 6]. Dunman captain Wang Yirong expressed disappointment and guilt, noting mental lapses and apologizing to his teammates after a hard-fought final. He said, "It’s still very disappointing that we didn’t manage to become the champions because we trained very hard for it, but I guess it’s just not our day" [4].
Raffles Institution's girls' table tennis team reclaimed the A Division title on the same day with a commanding 5-0 win over defending champions Hwa Chong Institution [4, 5, 6]. The double victory in table tennis combined with the historic girls' hockey title marks a strong season for Raffles Institution across multiple sports disciplines.
Raffles Institution players and staff will now turn their focus to upcoming events in the school sports calendar later this year as they build on their recent successes.
