There were no surprises at the Bedok Sports Hall on Wednesday as the defending champions successfully retained their titles in the A Division Schools National Badminton Championships.

Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) defeated Raffles Institution (RI) 3-1 in the boys' category to take their fourth title in five years while the RI girls beat River Valley High School (RVHS) 3-1 to hold on to a throne they had held since 1997 - The school's 18th consecutive title.

In the boys' final, RI won their first set when Nigel Siew saw of ACS(I)'s Akihiro Tan 21-12, 21-14, but the holders came back strongly in the first doubles and second singles match to turn the tables, winning 2-0 in both matches.

The fourth match proved to be a much closer affair, with the ACS(I) pair of Edwin Lim and Peck Ern-Wei doing just enough to overcome the challenge of RI pair Donovan Mui and Jackie Tan 21-19, 24-22.

It was an emotional victory for Edwin, who broke down in tears at the end of the match. Choking with emotion, the 18-year old said: "There was a lot of pressure on my part throughout the season, and one of the coaches along with the Year Six players were in their last year with us, so when we won, all the pressure was gone."

In the girls' final, RI raced to a 2-0 lead. The decisive point also came from the second doubles match, where Raffles' Joy Teo and Chiu Jing Wen defeated Jessica Boediman and Zhang Yuran 22-20, 21-16, before Susan Guo took a consolation point for RVHS in the second singles match against Marissa Ng.