Switch from hockey to judo yields gold for Raffles Institution’s Phun Kai Xiang

SINGAPORE – After recovering from a fractured finger suffered during the school team’s hockey training, Raffles Institution’s Phun Kai Xiang decided to join an interest programme in June 2025 where students could try out different sports.

He saw a teacher conducting a grappling class and was immediately hooked.

The teenager, a regular starter in the school’s C Division hockey team who had won a silver medal in 2024, then decided to switch to judo.

It was a decision he did not regret, as he picked up his first National School Games (NSG) gold medal on April 16, after beating teammate Elvyn Ee by an ippon – the highest possible score in judo – in the B Division boys’ Under-60kg final at the OCBC Arena.

Recalling his switch in sports, the 15-year-old said: “I remember vividly when I changed, my coach was a bit taken aback, because he didn’t expect it and I was actually quite committed to hockey.

“So he asked, ‘Why are you joining judo? Are you even going to play in the team? If you stay in hockey, you know you’ll be guaranteed a spot (in the B Division team) next year’.

“At that point I didn’t know if I would make the judo team… I haven’t even started a single training session, but I think I made the right choice.”

Unlike a hockey game, a judo fight can end in five seconds if one is not careful. Hence, Kai Xiang noted the importance of preparing his body for the fight.

While he is familiar with Elvyn’s fighting style as they often spar against each other during training, he admitted he was a bit worried going into the final as Elvyn is more experienced.

“But my mentality was: I had to do my best, give it all for every single match that I played,” said Kai Xiang.

In B Division boys’ U-73kg final, Hwa Chong Institution (HCI) captain Tiger Fu also clinched his first NSG gold after a roaring finish, scoring an ippon against St Gabriel’s Secondary’s Nathan Senthil.

Tiger was a losing finalist in C Division when he was in Secondary 1 and 2. He did not reach the B Division final in 2025.

“After those many hardships, obviously I felt like giving up. I felt like skipping training, slacking at training,” the 15-year-old said.

“But in the end, this is one of the places I find that I can really give my 100 per cent and can still feel satisfied after training and fool around and have fun with my batch mates.

“Last year wasn’t a great year for me, but they were there for me when I was down. I had dreamt of making it to the national team and most of my peers made it before me.

“But I knew that this year would be my last in B Div and I wanted to end it on a high note, and managed to clinch this gold.”

Also competing in his final B Division campaign was RI’s Ng Yong Rui, who redeemed himself after clinching gold in the boys’ U-66kg category by beating HCI’s Nigel Chua.

Yong Rui had won a C Division gold in 2024, but was knocked out in the first round during his B Division debut in 2025.

The 16-year-old said: “Maybe I was overconfident last year… I think I went into the competition with a mentality of not doing the very best, because I was Sec 3 and I anyhow train, anyhow eat.

“Before the competition I was overweight by a lot (3kg)... I just went into the fight with a losing mentality. I think that really affected me.

“But this year I really wanted to prove to myself, especially since I’m in Sec 4, last chance at B Div, so I really didn’t want to let this chance slip… This sport is a very unforgiving one and in 20 seconds, four years of your hard work can just go out the window.”