She not only became the first Singaporean swimmer to qualify for an Olympic swimming final -100m butterfly - but also finished fifth in the event. She also broke the national and Asian record for the event twice.

That’s not all – she also set a new national record for the 200m butterfly in her heat even though her time was not enough to see her into the semi-finals.

But I couldn’t help feeling sorry for the rest of our Singapore swimming contingent whose noteworthy achievements at Beijing were overshadowed by Tao Li’s.

Not surprisingly, they were hardly given a mention in all the newspaper reports today.

The super coverage that Tao Li received masks the fact that the rest of our other Singapore swimmers came home with three national records on their own, even though none of them went beyond their heats in Beijing.

And that was a refreshing change after the dismal results and underachievement by our swimmers in the previous three Olympics (No need to mention names –  do your own homework on the net and you can see who they are…)

So how did each of our swimmers do individually? Here’s a run-down:

Bryan Tay sliced an impressive two seconds off his national record of 1min 52.09sec when he finished his 200m freestyle heat in 1:50.41. He had set his previous record at the 2006 Asian Games, which goes to show that Bryan does thrive on the big stage. Well done!

I was also impressed with Quah Ting Wen, who, if you recall, had a tumultuous build-up to Beijing after national high performance coach Jack Simon quit on 25 June, 34 days before the Olympics.

Swimmers made of lesser material would have probably been emotionally and psychologically affected by the setback. Ting Wen, 16, on the other hand, rose above it.

She missed out narrowly on Joscelin Yeo’s national record of 56.05sec when she won her heat in 56.14sec. But she bounced back in the 400m individual medley a couple of days later to break the national record (also held by Joscelin).

Ting Wen clocked 4min 51.25sec to shave Joscelin’s mark of 4:51.25.

Lynette Lim also broke a national record – on her third attempt – after missing out in the 200m and 400m freestyle.

She clocked 2min 02.30sec in the 200m, below her own national mark of 2:02.16 set a couple of months earlier. Likewise, her time of 4min 17.67sec in the 400m free was about a second off her national mark of 4:16.42.

She finally made it in the 800m freestyle when she finished in 8min 45.56sec to slice an impressive three seconds off her national record of 8:48.46.

The only swimmer who didn’t do well at the Olympics was Nicolette Teo. She was surprisingly way off her personal best times in both her events – the 100m and 200m breaststroke.

She clocked 1min 12.87sec, two seconds off her national record of 1:10.15 which she set at last year’s SEA Games in Korat, Thailand. And she finished her 200m breaststroke heat in 2min 34.60sec, three seconds off her national mark of 2:31.96, also set at last year’s SEA Games.

But I’ve also read Nicolette’s searingly honest blog entry in The Straits Times on her performances at the Olympics, "Lessons from Beijing 2008, and I give her props for not coming up with any excuses. You can read her comments here.

So, take a bow, guys. All of you did well – and I really look forward to seeing you build on them and turning these performances into medal-winning swims at next year’s SEA Games and the 2008 Asian Games.

Yours in sport

Singapore Sports Fan

Related links:

8 July: Swim coach quit saga - why is SSA, and not Jack Simon getting the flak...?

15 July: Swim coach quit saga: the debate continues...

10 August: Newsflash: Tao Li qualifies for 100m butterfly final

11 August: Newsflash: Tao Li finishes fifth in Olympics final

12 August: Epilogue: Some interesting facts about Tao Li's 100m butterfly times

13 August: newsflash: Tao Li sets new 200m butterfly national record but does not qualify for semis

Bukan saja tanggalnya yang cantik, pembukaan olimpiade beijing beberapa hari lalu juga sungguh cantik :) Walau masih jauh untuk Indonesia, namun bangga juga bahwa negara Asia sudah bisa mempersembahkan pembukaan olimpiade yang mengundang decak kagum seluruh dunia.

Seorang anak kecil saja, yang biasanya sibuk main nintendo DS (lantaran hanya boleh main selama weekend) dan selalu cuek kalau ibu dan bapaknya mengajak bicara saat ia asik main... hari itu meninggalkan sebentar Mario Bros-nya, karena tertarik melihat kedahsyatan pembukaan yang konon menelan biaya sebesar 90 Juta US Dollar (Total 180 Juta US Dollar untuk opening dan closing ceremony)

Yup, pasti banyak yang bilang terang saja kalau biaya segitu saya juga bisa... namun menurut saya tidak segampang itu. Semuanya melalui proses, China terlebih dulu sukses menggelar Asian Games di tahun 1990 (Info saja, Indonesia terakhir menjadi host Asian Games di tahun 1962). Sementara untuk Asian Games terakhir tahun 2006 lalu di Doha (Qatar) konon biaya opening dan closing ceremony-nya serupa dengan biaya yang ditetapkan oleh Organizing Committee Olympic Beijing. Hasilnya? Semakin spektakuler. Jadi hasil spektakuler tidak melulu harus dengan biaya 'double' atau biaya lebih tinggi. Belajarlah dari opening ceremony Beijing 8.8.8

Persiapan yang panjang (tanpa mental 'nanti-nanti aja toh masih lama') membuat panitia Olimpiade 2012 London harus berpikir keras mempersiapkan opening ceremony yang tak kalah spektakulernya. Dari berbagai sumber yang saya baca, penggunaan multi media agak sulit untuk ditandingi karena waktu yang tersisa. Namun saya percaya, selama kita kreatif opening ceremony London 2012 tidak melulu harus prioritas ke multimedia.

Di luar kemegahan pesta olahraga yang menghabiskan dana yang besar, sebenarnya bila dikelola dengan benar. Pesta Olahraga adalah investasi sebuah negara. Semua biaya yang keluar dimuka adalah investasi yang akan menjadi keuntungan dengan suksesnya penyelenggaraan pesta olahraga tersebut. Selain langsung balik modal dari penerimaan pajak hotel, restaurant, souvenir, public transportation, tempat wisata, tiket masuk olimpiade, pendapatan para pekerja freelance dan lain sebagainya - di kemudian hari Beijing khususnya dan China secara umum akan semakin menarik orang dari seluruh penjuru dunia untuk dikunjungi.

Saya yang kebetulan ke Beijing dan Shanghai 3 tahun lalu, sudah merasakan bagaimana siapnya Beijing menyongsong acara yang masih 3 tahun lagi. Mereka mempersiapkan olimpiade ini dari jauh-jauh hari (sejak sekitar tahun 2000an kalau tidak salah). Semua sektor mereka perbaiki termasuk persiapan bahasa. Dibanding beberapa tahun sebelumnya, penggunaan bahasa Inggris para penduduk yang terkait dengan wisatawan meningkat pesat. Pemerintah memberikan kursus Inggris gratis bagi mereka yang memerlukan.

Untuk Indonesia, pesta olahraga sudah selayaknya dipersiapkan lebih matang sehingga semua pihak untung. Mulai dari kota yang menjadi host hingga pemerintah pusat melalui pencapaian pajaknya. PON Palembang sebenarnya sudah mulai membuahkan hasil, like it or not Palembang dengan ikon Jembatan Ampera yang membelah sungai Musi - kini menjadi ikon pulau Sumatera (ingat iklan indomie terbaru ;-)) Apalagi setelah PON 2004, kota Palembang menjadi bagus, menang Adipura 2 tahun berturut-turut [2007-2008] dan ikut mendampingi kota Jakarta untuk bertanding di lomba Adipura Asean.

Pesta olahraga adalah investasi ekonomi yang menguntungkan. Domino effectnya juga long term. Tebak dimana Asian Games tahun 2010? Beijing ;-) Toh mereka sudah siap dengan segala fasilitas olahraga dan wisata.

Kembali ke Indonesia, di depan mata adalah SEA Games 2011 dimana Jakarta akan menjadi tuan rumah. Persiapannya sudah sampai mana ya? sekitar 3 tahun lagi nih ;-)

TODAY reported on the contrasting fortunes of rising young sprinters Shahrir Mohd Anuar and Habibah Najihahbi in their respective 100m finals at the 11th Thailand Sports School Games. Shahrir was pipped to the gold in the Boys U-16 final in a controversial photo finish. He finished in 11.11secs, 0.01sec behind the Thai victor. Habibah, on the other hand, took the Girls U-14 title after staging a great come-from-behind surge to beat her rival at the tape. She clocked 13.09sec. You can check out the report here.

My thoughts:

Apart from Calvin Kang, Amanda Choo and Balpreet Kaur, there are three other junior sprinters I've been keeping tabs on: Shahrir Mohd Anuar, Liang Wei and Habibah Najihahbi.

The progress that the trio - all from the Singapore Sports School - have made in the past six months has really been a joy to behold.

Although he is still only 15, Shahrir has already conquered the 11-second barrier. His personal best is currently 10.88sec, which he clocked at the recent International Children's Games en route to winning the U-15 100m final (see report here).

Prior to that, he had clocked 10.90sec in the Boys U-17 100m final at the 34th Singapore Junior Athletics Championships.

Now those are pretty impressive timings, especially when you consider that Calvin Kang was 16 when he clocked 10.88sec at the 2006 National Junior Championships.

It is going to be really interesting to track Shahrir's development over the next 12 months to see if he can emerge as Calvin's strongest rival in the century sprint. And I can only see good coming out of this for Calvin as the SEA Games comes around next year because he is definitely going to need someone constantly snapping at his heels and breathing down his neck if he is to become a real medal contender for the 100m.

Shahrir's progress will also spell good news for the national 4x100m relay squad as they attempt to qualify for the SEA Games.   

Another Secondary Three student to look out for is 15-year-old Liang Wei who currently holds the national U-15 record of 12.74sec.

Making her debut in the Girls U-17 100ms, she clocked 12.83sec in the heats before going on to win the final in 12.89sec. A month later, she posted a set of eyebrow-raising times at the ICG. 

After clocking a new personal best of 12.86sec in the preliminaries, she then did a stunning 12.58sec to advance into the semis.

The 15-year-old then showed that the timing was no fluke in her next two races as she first did 12.63sec in the semi-finals before registering a new PB of 12.56sec in the final (she finished a creditable third by the way).

Liang Wei not only took the bronze with that timing, her 12.56sec also makes her Singapore's fifth fastest woman this season behind national record holder Amanda Choo (12.12sec), national junior record holder Balpreet Kaur (12.23sec), Wong Ze Teng and Ann Siao Mei (the latter two clocked 12.52sec and 12.53sec respectively at the Malaysian Amateur Athletic Union's Pre-Olympic meet early last month).   

If this spunky teenager continues to make good progress next year, she's not only going to become a useful addition to the national women's 4x100m squad as it prepares to qualify for the SEA Games but also a strong contender for one of the four actual relay spots.

Finally, keep a watch on young Habibah Najihahbi, who, at the tender age of 14, is already clocking times that belie her age.

Habibah first served notice of her promise at the Singapore Juniors when she broke the 13-second barrier in the Girls U-15 100m heats. She clocked 12.96sec - a time that was faster than most of the bulk of the sprinters competing in the U-20 category.

But it was at the ICG which she really gave a glimpse of the exciting future that lies before her. She first did a PB of 12.92sec in the heats before recording a stunning 12.75sec in the quarter-finals.

Habibah then clocked 13.04sec in the semis and the final. She finished last incidentally but really, there's no shame in that at all when you look at her timings.

It's going to be fun to watch what sort of progress she will be making over the next 12 months.

Yours in sport

Singapore Sports Fan

Related links:

13 June - Newsflash: Calvin rewrites national junior 100m mark

6 July - And Balpreet makes it 15 (pity that two others slipped away though)

Singapore ended its Optimist World Sailing Championships campaign in Turkey yesterday with two silvers as 14-year-old Rachel Lee finished second in the Girls Division yesterday.

The Singapore Sports School student who won the bronze in the same event at last year's World Championships, went a rung higher this time as she finished with 176 points, behind Japan's Tomoyo Wakabayashi who won the crown with 128 points. China's Lu Yu Ying was third (192 points).

The silver is Rachel's second of the Championships.

The 2007 South-east Asia Games girls champion and teammates Russell Kan, Luke Tan and Darren Choy narrowly missed out on a silver in the Team Racing event last Sunday when they lost 1-2 to Puerto Rico in the final.

Russell was Singapore's best finisher in the overall standings. He was 10th.

Rachel was 11th overall while Luke was 65th. Darren was 129th and Andrew Tang finished 154th.

Puerto Rico's Raul Rios won the overall title with 38 points.

The results were an improvement on last year's medal haul. Singapore won a silver (team-racing) and a bronze (Girls Division) at the World Championships in Italy last year. 

The Singapore Sports Fan congratulates our young sailors on a job well done. 

Yours in Sport

Singapore Sports Fan    

Related links:

21 July: Singapore settle for silver

The Straits Times carried a feature today ( "Piriyah breaches the 58sec barrier" ) on Singapore Sports School runner T. Piriyah who was, undoubtedly one of the stars of this year's National Schools Track and Field Championships .

The 16-year-old not only broke the schools 400m and 400m hurdles records but also set a new national U-17 400m record, the only one to do so at this Championships. The report also talked about how Piriyah is the first 400m runner in 24 years to time 57secs.

The story ended by noting the emergence of strong 400m runners like Valerie Pereira, Dipna Lim Prasad and Shalom See. However, said the report, Singapore still has a long way to go in meeting regional standards. Last year's women's 4x400m bronze-medal winning time at the SEA Games was 3min 43.90 - which means that every relay runner has to run below 56sec to stand a chance of bagging a medal.  

My thoughts:

Here's a funny story about Piriyah at the National Schools Track and Field Championships. I've dramatised it a little but it's more or less what happened.

According to my sources, the 16-year-old Singapore Sports School student found herself getting a scolding from her coach, Viatcheslav Vassiliev, after her Girls B Division 400m heats and semi-finals.

After Piriyah won her heat in 59.16sec on 4 July, coach Viatcheslav scolded her for running too fast. He was afraid that she was going all out too early in the Championships. Her time was also almost a second faster than the 59.72sec she had clocked at the 34th Singapore Junior Athletics Championships.

Piriyah protested that she wasn't running fast or going all out at all.

Five days later, Piriyah clocked 58.98sec to win her semi-final and qualify for the final. Again, she got a earful from Viatcheslav for going too fast. Again, she protested indignantly that she hadn't gone all out.

Then came the 400m final on 11 July. The starter's gun went off and Piriyah took off like a gazelle racing away from a pursuing lionness. Coach Viatcheslav watched with dropped jaws from the terraces. "That mad girl, she is going to run out of steam!" he thought angrily.

But Piriyah didn't run out of steam. In fact, she blazed the Choa Chu Kang Stadium track at such a frightening pace that she ended up breasting the tape at 57.11sec.  It was not only a National Schools record. It also shattered Valerie Pereira's national U-17 mark of 58.03sec.

Coach Viatcheslav rested his hands on his head. He stayed silent for a while.

Then he turned to his Sports School colleagues and said sheepishly: "Oh... now I know what she meant when she said she wasn't running fast in the heats and semis."

On a more serious note, I felt that the last three paragraphs of the report in The Straits Times were a tad harsh. Yes, based on their current times, the likes of Piriyah, Valerie, Dipna and Shalom will not have a sniff of a chance at a SEA Games 4x400m relay medal.

But I think this is missing the forest for the trees.

Hasn't it occured to anyone that

a) Singapore finally has a group of promising 400m runners emerging together for the first time in more than 30 years?

b) That these bunch of girls are just in their teens and that they have many years of improvement and development ahead? And that if they are clocking sub-58sec times now, that they surely must have the potential to bring their PBs down to  sub-57secs in the near future?

The last time we had one great and three very good 400m runners was back in the early 70s. There was Asian Games gold medallist and Singapore running legend Chee Swee Lee and her support group of Maimoon Azian, Lee Tai Jong and Glory Barnabas.

Together, they set the national women's 4x400m record of 3min 43.85sec, a national milestone which has remained unsurpassed since 1974.

Singapore has had a couple of good 400m runners since but never four or five talented athletes of similar calibre emerging at the same time. 

Now we do. In fact, we have more than just four 400m talents. We have potentially six to seven good runners.

Piriyah, Valerie (personal best: 58.05sec), Dipna (PB: 58.68sec) and Shalom (PB: 58.65sec) aside, there's also Lim Shan Ru of Hwa Chong Institution (PB: 58.88sec), Fiona Ng of St Nicholas Girls (PB: 60.39sec) and the very promising Clara Poon of Cedar Girls who, at age 14, is already clocking 60.48sec.

The Singapore Athletics Association seriously needs to come up with a plan to groom these girls indiviudally and as a relay squad. These girls need to be given opportunities for overseas training and competition so as to help them realise their full potential.

If the SAA can do that, then these girls will not only have a great chance at cracking Singapore's third oldest athletics record but also at winning a SEA Games medal in the near future. 

Currently, the time to beat is 3min 43.90sec - that's the bronze-medal winning time by Vietnam at the 2007 SEA Games. That means that each runner would have to clock about 56sec in order to meet that time.

Now honestly, looking at the times of these junior runners, do you actually think that is impossible?

If Piriyah can become a future Chee Swee Lee, clocking sub-55sec timings, and if the rest (ie Dipna, Valerie, Shalom, Shanru, Fiona and Clara) can bring their times down to sub-57secs over the next couple of years, don't you think they will have more than just a fighting chance of doing so? 

Will the SAA seize this once-in-a-lifetime chance?

We can only hope and keep our fingers crossed...

Yours in sport,

Singapore Sports Fan

Related links:

14 July: Newsflash - It's Record No 3 for Piriyah at National Schools C'ships

11 July: Newsflash - 11 records in one day at National Schools C'ships 

Nakhon Ratchasima akan segera menjadi kenangan. Besok saya berangkat menuju Bangkok meninggalkan kota berudara sejuk itu. Tapi, jika sudah berada di Bangkok, kota yang tak pernah tidur pada malam hari itu, bukan berarti urusan bahasa terselesaikan. Di Nakhon, juga di Bangkok, pasti yang pertama kali terdengar adalah sawasdee krub, sebagai ungkapan selamat datang atau sekadar berhalo-halo.

Urusan bahasa dengan orang Thai selalu bikin ribet. Jika tak sabar-sabar atau tidak menyertakan jari-jari tangan, urusan bukan semakin mudah, tapi malah kian ruwet dan bikin sakit kepala. Kalau sudah begini, mau nggak mau saya tanya-tanya.

Kamis lalu, saya terpaksa memaksa sopir tuk-tuk bertanya ke sa-tanee tum-ruad yang artinya kantor polisi ketika saya dibawa nyasar hingga ke Sungnoen Municipality, tempat pertandingan pencak silat yang jauh dari Nakhon, padahal saya ingin ke arena balap sepeda.

Menghadapi sopir tuk-tuk kudu sabar. Kita harus berani sedikit membuang waktu. "Yaak ja pai?," yang berarti "saya mau pergi" sambil membuka map Kota Nakhon dan menunjuk tempat tujuan.
Urusan ongkos, cukup dengan jari-jari. Jika mentok, sang sopir mengambil selembar, dua lembar ratusan, atau dengan beberapa lembar uang dua puluhan.

Separuh persoalan selesai. Sopir tuk-tuk pun tancap gas sekencang-kencangnya. Jantung saya hampir copot ketika sopir itu melarikan kendaraan superberisik tersebut di tengah-tengah Kota Korat. Dengan seenaknya ia berpindah-pindah jalur. Melintas ke mana-mana. Saya pun segera mengucap cha-cha, memintanya ia mengendurkan pijakan gasnya. Atau minta ia segera berhenti dengan mengatakan yuut tee nee.

Yang paling menyenangkan tentu saja setiap kali sarapan pagi di hotel. Cukup mengatakan nam cha dan ga-fae untuk segelas air teh dan secangkir kopi. Saya buru-buru menyebut mai sai nam taan kepada pelayan hotel untuk tidak banyak-banyak memberikan gula. Sudah menjadi kebiasaan setiap kali makan di Rumah Makan Sederhana di Gandaria, saya selalu meminta teh pahit.

Urusan makan di Nakhon juga sering jadi masalah. Setiap mau makan, kepada pelayan saya memulai dengan ucapan neua, yang berarti sapi dan terlalu sering mengucap no moo untuk pork. Alamak, untuk urusan makan saja mesti seribet ini.

Nakhon Ratchasima akan segera saya tinggalkan. Senin pagi, pagi-pagi sekali, saya sudah harus berada di sanam bin atau Bandar Udara Suvarnabhumi untuk terbang ke Jakarta dan terpaksa mengucapkan la gon Nakhon Ratchasima atau "selamat tinggal Nakhon Ratchasima".

Terus terang, saya ingin mengatakan, "Laew phop gan mai (saya akan kembali lagi)." Tapi entah kapan?.

(Koran Tempo, Sabtu, 15 Desember 2007)

Balpreet rewrites junior 100m mark (The StraitsTimes, 5 July 2008 )

By Valerie Chia

WHEN Balpreet Kaur found out that she had rewritten the girls' national junor 10m record yesterday, she started screaming.

"I was so happy as  I didn't know I'd broken the record until my coach told me over the phone," she said. "I'd been working towards it since last year but I totally didn't expect to break it as I hadn't been doing well all day."

The 18-yar-old clocked 12.23sec at the Malaysia Amateur Athletic Unio Pre-Olympics Athletics Championships in Kuala Lumpur to erase Amanda Cho's previous mark of 12.26sec.

She came in third, behind Choo who clocked 12.18sec. Malaysia's Siti Fatimah took the gold with 11.80sec.

Balpree then teamed up with Choo, Wong Ze Teng and Ann Siao Mei, all 21, for the 4x100m gold.

Her habit of putting too much pressure on herelf durin competition had preventd herfrom lowering her previous personal best of 12.30sec until yesterday.

She said: "I went into the race feeling relaxed and I suppose that was the key."

Despite her feat, Balpreet is not eyeing Choo's national 100m record of12.12sec just yet. "I'm just going to challenge myself to better this timing first."

My thoughts:

Heartiest congratulations to Balpreet for her record-breaking feat. This means that to date, 15 national open and junior records have already been broken. (For a list of the other 14 marks, click here ).

But did you now have it could well have been 17 national marks ie two other national marks could have been broken in Kuala Lumpur. While it was reported in The Straits Times that Balpreet was later a part of the 4x100m team that won the gold, what wasn't reported was the timing that was clocked.

Our girls came home in 46.81sec, just 0.11sec shy of the national mark set by Lee Yan Ling, Amanda, Siao Mei and Ze Teng at the 2007 SEA Games in Korat, Thailand. What a pity - but what a positive sight too.

It couldn't have been easy for the girls to pull off a timinglike this since they were competing against only one other team - from Trengganu. So kudos to them for maintaining their standards despite the lack of competitive opposition.

But it shows that coach Loh Chan Pew's army of sprinters are now breathing down the neck of the existing mark. In other words, we could well see the relay mark being broken sometime this year, if all things go according to plan.

Likewise, Amanda came close to breaking her national 100m mark of 12.12sec with her 12.18sec silver-medal timing (difference: 0.06sec).     

My only wish now is that Balpreet shows a keener fighting spirit as a national sprinter.

The Straits Times article said two things to me: that a) she is prone to succumbing to mental pressure before her races and b) she is still hesitant about taking on Amanda and wresting the No 1 women's sprinter mantle from her.

"I'm just going to challenge myself to better this timing frst," she said in The Straits Times report.

My first reaction when I read that quote? "Alamak."

It would have been more 'fun' and exciting for observers of local athletics if Balpreet had openly declared war on Amanda's national record. This would mean four possible situations arising:

i. the beginnings of an intense battle between two women sprinters for the No 1 tag, something not seen since the mid-1990s when Hiranisha Rasimuddin and Nurulaini Ariffin slugged it out on the track,

ii. Balpreet keeping Amanada on her toes which is a motivational pressure which the latter could really use as she guns for both a new national 100m record and a sub-12 timing before the end of the year,

iii. Balpreet emerging as the new No1 woman sprinter in Singapore? (I'm all for that because the more top sprinters Singapore has, the better for Singapore athletics as a whole)

iv. the national 4x100m relay team benefitting from such a intense rivalry as it seeks to break the existing national mark once again.

Sometimes, one cannot help wishing that our local athlete had more fire in their bellies and more self-belief.

Well, here's wishing that Balpreet will prove me wrong and that she really goes for the jugular from now on. After all, her timings are already proof of what she can do.  

Finally, I'm ending this write-up with some results from the MAAU Pre-Olympics meet. I've bolded the results of our athletes, particularly those who were in action on Friday. I took this from Saturday's edition of The Star. Today's edition of The Star didn't list down Saturday's results though.

MEN

100m: 1. Zabidi Ghazali (Ter) 10.65, 2. Poh Seng Song (Sin) 10.70, 3. Mohd Amiruddin Jamal (Sin) 10.76.

400m hurdles: 1. Mohd Zafril Mohd Zuslaini (Pah) 53.34, 2. Firdaus Mustafa (Maau) 55.01, 3. Mohd Affizuddin Ismail (Kel) 56.90.

800m: 1. Chen Fu Pin (Tpe) 1:53.45, 2. Liao Ping Wei (Tpe) 1:53.83, 3. Mohd Jeroni Defuan (Swk) 1:54.21.

10,000m: 1. Ndabili Bashngili (Bot) 30:58.42, 2. HO Chin Ping (Tpe) 31:28.69, 3. Wang Chin Chun (Tpe) 32:25.93.

4x100m: 1. Terengganu 41.31, 2. Sabah 42.23, 3. Kuala Lumpur 43.12.

Discus: 1. Wansawang Sawasdee (Tha) 51.71m, 2. Kvanchai Numsomboon (Tha) 46.50m, 3. Adi Alifuddin Hussin (Ter) 40.24m.

Hammer: 1. Azman Mohamed (Sel) 46.32m, 2. Abdul Halim Yatim (Sel) 43.65m, 3. Jackey Wong (Swk) 39.37m.

Javelin: 1. Peter Agan (Swk) 64.27m, Jasmon Justin (Sel) 55.94m, 3. Linus Nicholas (Sab) 55.30m.

Long jump: 1. Keeratikorn Janmanee (Tha) 7.70m, 2. Henry Dagmil (Phi) 7.55m, 3. Tsai Ah Tq (Tpe) 7.42m.

Pole vault: 1. Sompong Saom ban Kuay (Tha) 4.70m, 2. Mohd Sahadan (Pah) 4.60m, 3. Rafiuddin Che Omar (Joh) 4.50m.

WOMEN

100m: 1. Siti Fatimah Mohamed (Joh) 11.80, 2. Amanda Choo (Sin) 12.18, 3. Balpreet Kaur (Sin) 12.23.

400m hurdles: 1. Khoo Woan Chee (Joh) 62.03, 2. Dipna Prasad (Sin) 65.16, 3. Asmah Hanim (Sin) 66.03.

800m: 1. K. Ganthimathi (Pah) 2:18.69, 2. Nor Syahira Abu Bakar (Nse) 2:23.11, 3. Nik Zulailee (Maau) 2:28.14.

5,000m: 1. A. Amutha (Kul) 19:37.85, 2. Khadijah Dahlan (MAAU) 20:41.07, 3. Alaku Sundry (Nse) 20:59.23.

4x100m: 1. Singapore 46.81, 2. Terengganu 51.17.

Discus: 1. Yap Jeng Tzan (Nse) 43.45m, 2. Siti Shahidah Abdullah (Pah) 38.96m, 3. Asrenny Asik (Sab) 36.14m.

High jump: 1. Wong Boon Syian (Joh) 1.70m. 2. Wan Sitika Wan Shukri (Kel) 1.55m.

Shot putt: 1. Siti Nurul Ain (Nse) 12.32m, 2. Asrenny Asik (Sab) 12.30m, 3. Nor Syaidah (Sel) 11.84m.

Triple jump: 1. Ng Gha Yee (Nse) 11.77m, 2. Nurul Fatimatul Zaharah (Ter) 11.47m, 3. Ho Yen Kwan (Sel) 11.26m

Yours in Sport

Singapore Sports Fan

Related stories:

24 June: Fields of gold - 14 new national and open records and counting!

11 June: Rachel vaults to a new high

21 May: Dawn of a new era in Singapore athletics?

In an interview with the Singapore Sports Fan, the 17-year-old Nanyang Polytechnic student revealed that he is now gunning for the 20-year-old national open mark of 59.22m ( by Ng Bock Huat in 1988 ) by the end of the year.

Once that mission is accomplished, the second-year Sports and Wellness Management undergraduate plans to turn his sights on representing Singapore in the South-east Asia Games one day.

Akid, who is of Chinese and Malay parentage and has a 31-year-old elder brother, still remembers vividly how stunned he was at the Bukit Gombak Stadium on 22 June, the last day of the Championships, when he heard the judges announcing his new national junior record.

His distance of 53.70m had erased Huang Huaren's 16-year-old record of 53.25m.

"Honestly, I was confident of throwing a good distance because I actually threw an unofficial 55.35m at the Wings Invitational meet the previous week," said Akid who also won a gold at the Akira Swift Open with his 50m effort.

"But even then, I was still shocked when the judges announced that my throw was a new national junior record."

Here's another reason why Akid was shocked: he only went into competitive throwing last year when he joined Nanyang Polytechnic. In other words, he never thought he would end up breaking any major records so quickly.

Before that, the former Teck Whye Secondary School badminton player had never represented his alma mater in the javelin at national schools level. 

"I picked up the javelin in Secondary One but I only threw for my house in Teck Whye," explained Akid. "I never threw for school because our Track and Field team was closed down after Mr Choo and our seniors left."

He was referring to former Teck Whye throws coach Choo Chee Kiong who single-handedly created that awe-inspiring golden generation of Teck Whye throwers that regularly swept most of the field titles at stake at several National Schools Track and Field Championships in the late 1990s.

And because he was just a house thrower, Akid never seriously trained for the sport.

But that all changed after he entered Nanyang last year. "Now I know how much more I can possibly achieve with a proper training programme," said Akid who won a silver in the event at the Inter-Varsity-Polytechnic Track and Field Championships last year.

In fact, he credits one member of that Teck Whye Golden Generation - Chen Jin Long - for helping him to pick up the javelin again when he joined Nanyang Polytechnic last year and refining his throwing techniques.

"I also have to thank Mr Muhamad Hosni, who is the sprints coach of NYP Athletics, and Mr Guru Oly, who is the NYP staff in charge of athletics," he said.

"Last year, I was still toying with playing badminton. But they all advised me to choose between the two sports and to concentrate on my final choice. It was because of them that I finally became serious about the javelin this year."

Even then, he never expected to break the national junior record so soon.

But now that he has done so, the feat has effectively opened up his mind to new possibilities and new targets to conquer. Such as the national open record and qualifying for the SEA Games one day.

And Akid knows what he needs to do to get there.

"I really have to work on my strength training and on improving my explosive power," said the NYP Athletics skipper who trains three times a week with Jin Long and goes to Hosni to work on his speed.

"I also have to work on my techniques and run-up.

"Finally, I have to stay focused, disciplined and positive. It is not easy trying to juggle studies and sports. In fact, it is very easy to fall into the temptation of being lazy about evening training after a full day of school.

"But now that I know what I can achieve with hard work, I'll be working extra hard from now on to get to the next level.

"I want to break the national record and I want to represent Singapore at the SEA Games one day."

Here's wishing Akid all the best as he pursues his sporting dreams.

Yours in sport

Singapore Sports Fan

(Note: Photos courtesy of Akid Chong and nypathletics.blogspot.com)

Related links:

24 June: Fields of Gold: 14 new national open and junior records and counting!

Today's editions of TODAY ( "Zhang fails to meet target but is still on course for Olympics" ) and The Straits Times ( "S'pore Awarded Women's 470 slot" ) have differing reports on whether national shot put record holder Zhang Guirong will be given the green light to compete at the Beijing Olympics or whether her place will be given to sprinter Amanda Choo, who will then compete as a wildcard entry in the women's 100m.

This situation has arisen after Zhang threw a poor 16.48m at the third leg of the Asian Grand Prix in Hanoi, Vietnam. The SAA had set her a target of 16.95m, within 1.5 percent of the 17.21m she had thrown at last year's SEA Games, which was also an Olympic 'B' qualifying mark. Zhang had also thrown 16.8m and 16.77m at the first two legs of the Asian Grand Prix in Thailand.

TODAY quoted SAA assistant technical director C. Veeramani as saying that Zhang should get the nod. However, The Straits Times reported that the SAAA is set to nominate Amanda for the Beijing slot. 

My thoughts:

My stand in this case would be the same as my stand in the Singapore Badminton Association's selection dilemma over whether to give Ronald Susilo or Kendrick Lee the sole men singles slot at the Beijing Olympics.

I went for Kendrick even though he is below Ronald in the world rankings (No 34 compared to Ronald's 17 ) because at age 24, I felt he has age on his side, is potentially hungrier for success, and has more potential for growth. In the end, the SBA went with Ronald.

In this case, I would plump for sprinter Amanda Choo for the same reasons.

Some of you may think it's because I'm biased towards Zhang because she is a naturalised citizen, a Chinese national who was granted Singapore citizenship in 2003.

But in this case, I think the facts speak for themselves for Amanda being the obvious choice.

Sure, Zhang has met the grade for Olympic selection. She cleared the qualifying mark of 17.20m, the qualifying distance for Beijing, at the SEA Games last year (she won the gold medal for the distance too ).

But since then, Zhang's competition results have been pretty abysmal. The 29-year-old Shenyang-based athlete has not been able to breach the 17m mark.

That's not all. If you check Zhang's distances in the past three years, you will find that they have been on an alarming decline since 2005 when she won the gold at the Asian Athletics Championships with her national record hurl of 18.57m.

She threw 17.40m at the 2005 SEA Games in Vietnam ( she won the gold with it). Then she threw 17.39m at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia, to finish fourth.

After that came the above-mentioned 17.20m at the 2007 SEA Games before this current string of high to mid 16m throws.

If this is not concrete proof that Zhang's better days are increasingly passing her by, then I don't know how else to measure Zhang's development as an athlete.

Besides, even if Zhang somehow manages to breach the 17m mark again in the run-up to the Olympics, she is still a no-hoper in the medal stakes as the bronze-medal distance at the last Olympics, the 2004 Athens Games, was 19.49m.

So, perhaps it is time to be brutal and axe Zhang in favour of Amanda Choo.

Sure, Amanda is a medal no-hoper at Beijing  too ( Her national record of 12.12sec is nowhere near the 2004 Athens Games bronze-medal time of 10.97sec ).

But there are three things that are currently to her advantage: her age, her consistency and her potential for growth.

At 20, the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) student has a number of good competitive years in front of her.

The fact that she clocked her season's best of 12.13sec at the Singapore Athletics Association's Progressive Meet in March this year is not just an indication of her consistency but also a promising sign that she could soon become the first Singapore woman to break the 12sec barrier.

As such, even though she will be out of her league in Beijing, going to the Olympics will not only be a great boost to Amanda's confidence but also give her much-needed competitive exposure, and perhaps even the push to set a new national record.

After all, the young woman has already shown that she thrives in competition. In fact, Amanda's current 100m national record of 12.12sec was recorded at the 2007 SEA Games.

Her performance in the heats also made her the first Singapore woman to qualify for the 100m final since Eng Chiew Guay in 1973 ( Here's a history lesson for all young athletes: Chiew Guay won the gold, by the way ).

If Amanda can break the 12-sec barrier, it could well make her a dark horse contender for a medal at next year's SEA Games in Laos ( the bronze medal time at the 2007 Games was 11.77sec).

That should be enough reason for the SAA to axe Zhang for Amanda. Unfortunately, such a move will probably be the final nail in the coffin for Zhang's throwing career and spell the end of her relationship with the SAA and Singapore. But, to be honest, all will be forgotten if Amanda can set a new national mark at the Olympics.

Bottom line: The decision is a no-brainer.

Yours in sport

Singapore Sports Fan

(Note: Picture of Zhang Guirong taken from www.ssc.gov.sg. Picture of Amanda Choo taken from www.singaporeathletics.com, with thanks )

Related links:

26 June: Singapore boleh, local talent boleh!

2 June: Epilogue: Ronald gets sole Olympic ticket

5 May: Who should it be? Ronald or Kendrick

The lanky 18-year-old lad leapt a stunning 7.45m in his first of three jumps in the Boy's U-20 event to shatter two national records: Matthew Goh's national junior mark of 7.23m and Kenneth Wang Kan's month-old national open record of 7.41m.

Most importantly though, Calvin's feat will mark a new psychological breakthrough in the young athlete's fledgling jumping career. It is no secret that the Auckland University of Technology student had been bogged down for a long time by the mental albatross of not being able to breach the 7m mark during competitions.

Although he was officialy credited with a personal best of 6.94m, Calvin was consistently able to clear 7m during traning. In fact, he even ceaed 7.5m once. Hwever, he was never able to replicate that sort of form during actual competition.

Ths, in turn, cost him dearly as it meant that he could not qualify for this year's Asian Junior Athletics Championships and the World Junior Championships. He will be overaged by the time the next editions of these two competitions come around in 2010. It is also no secret that he has been left bitterly disappointed by this. 

But now he has not only broken the 7m psychological and phydical barrier, he is also just 0.03m shy of qualifying for a major competition in Singapore's sporting calendar - the SEA Games, which is a must-compete milestone in every athlete's wish-list ( Note: the qualifying standard for every Games is the bronze-medal winning time or distance of the previous Games. I 2007, Malaysia's Mohd Suhaimi Mohd Syarul Amri won the long jump bronze in 7.48m )     

With just one leap, Calvin is now just three centimetres away from qualifyng for the 2009 SEA Games in Laos, a stunningly amazing feat for a teenager who only picked up the long jump four years ago when he was a student at St Joseph's Institution.

In fact, Calvin was so stunned by his achievement this morning that he was not able to focus on his next two jumps. He subsequently cleared 7m and 6.9m.

The Singapore Sports Fan congratulates Calvin on his remarkable feat and hopes that this will be the first of many record-breaking feats to come in the near future.

Yours in sport

Singapore Sports Fan

Related links:

30 May - Newsflash: Four national records to go at Akira Swift Open?

21 May: Dawn of a new era in Singapore athletics?

In its report "Must Do Better" (12 June 2008 ), the TODAY newspaper reported that despite the international successes of its athletes, the Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA) was conspicuously absent from the Singapore Sports Council's list of role model sports associations when the SSC unveiled its grants for national sports associations ( NSAs ) for FY 2008/09.

Said SSC chief executive officer Oon Jin Teik: "Table tennis did not fulfill all the factors as we are looking at youth development and whether there is a sustainable system (for developing athletes). There is no pipeline for youth athletes ... an NSA may be winning medals but is there a high performance system in place?"

My thoughts:

I was intrigued by Oon's remark and so I checked out the STTA's website and its section on youth development . I found a flow chart detailing how talented young paddlers will be spotted, groomed and developed, how they will graduate, at certain ages, into the youth development squad, and how, from there, they will move on to the national training team and finally, to the national team.

The section also states:

"STTA is committed to the systematic development of local youth talent. The flow chart provides a broad outline of the stags of development as local youths progress from the initial stages of training at the zone centres, culminating with the very best joining the established elite players in the National Team."

And yet, here is Oon saying on public record that the STTA is not a role model for youth development because "there is no pipeline for youth athletes."

Does this mean that the STTA's youth development programme is but a paper diagram and nothing more? Does the SSC know something that it is not saying publicly? Because I am now seriously wondering where the bulk of the annual funding - our tax dollars - that the STTA is receiving from the SSC is going to.

I was also intrigued by STTA general manager Jackie Tay's almost flippant response when TODAY asked him for his views regarding the SSC's move to not recognise it as a role model NSA.

"Being a role model NSA is not key for us as our vision and mission is in elite deveopment and high participation," he said.

So, in effect, what the STTA is saying is that it doesn't give a hoot that its youth development programme is not up to the mark.

Yet, in the next breath, Tay had the gall to say that the STTA had expected a little but more in funding from the SSC for youth development.

Excuse me, but if being a role model in youth development is not key to your NSA's vision and mission, then why should you be asking for more public money for your youth development programmes?

Clearly, something is not right, here. And clearly, only one conclusion can be drawn from this:

Tay's remark has revealed the STTA's true colours: the NSA is not interested in developing local talent.

It is only focused on elite development and, by logical extension, achieving success on the international stage ( for what is the point of elite development if not to win medals? ) by all means neccessary.

This probably explains why top local youth players Jenn Lim Pei Qi and Zena Sim, despite being blooded at competitions as early as the 2003 and 2005 SEA Games as well as the 2006 Commonwealth Games, are not - have never been, in fact - in the mix for a ticket to Beijing.

One would have thought that given the sort of early international exposure, these two young women would, as the next step, be developed in time for the Olympics.

What we have witnessed instead in the past 18 months is the parachuting of high-calibre China-born paddlers like Sun Bei Bei, Wang Yuegu and Feng Tian Wei into the national women's team. They were given Singapore citizenship so that the team can now potentially win a medal at the Beijing Olympics.

Not only that, they were also sent all over the world to compete in the various ITTF Pro Open competitions and other international championships to gear them up for Beijing.

Is this where the bulk of STTA's funding from the SSC - public money, let me remind you once again - was poured into - leaving precious little for youth development?

If so, then as a fan of Singapore sports, I will state now, in no uncertain terms, that I will feel no pride should our women paddlers go on to break our 48-year Olympic medal drought at Beijing in August.

As far as I am concerned, it will be a hollow victory, full of sound and fury but ultimately, signifying nothing.

Why? Because the STTA has failed in its raison detre as an NSA, its reason for existence as a local Guardian of the sport.

No form of Olympic glory can ever mask this fact. 

Yours in sport

Singapore Sports Fan

See also: Singapore table tennis (Part 2): Damning quotes, damning facts

mypaper (mypaper.sg) reported today that national pole vaulter Rachel Yang soared to a new national record at the Taipei Open last month. The 26-year-old cleared 3.60m to break her own national mark of 3.50m. She also finished third in her event. Rachel is now aiming to clear 4.00m by the end of the year.

Here's a picture of the report. You can also find the story in its entirety (as in what it wold have looked like physically in the print edition) here (pg A 14 )

My thoughts:

I was really pleasantly surprised when I stumbled upon this story today. Even though Rachel's achievement is a month old, it was still news to me because I don't recall having read it in any of the main English papers.

I guess also that mypaper chosed a more featurish approach to announcing Rachel's new national mark because the news was no longer fresh (even though it hadn't been reported previously ). No matter, I enjoyed reading it all the same because it gave me a better insight about the athlete.

So my heartiest congratulations, Rachel! And may you continue to break your national record many times over. 

The 26-year-old is probably still some distance away from being a possible medal contender at next year's SEA Games in Laos - after all, the qualifying height for the 207 Games was 4.60m.

But as the saying goes, all good things come to those who perservere. And judging from the story on Rachel, she does come across as a fighter.

Back to the lack of media coverage on Rachel's feat - I wonder why this could have happened in the first place? It can't be that the media isn't interested judging from the sort of increasing coverage that they have been giving to local athletes. 

Was there no press release by the Singapore Amateur Athletics Association? Or does the SAA usually not do such things?

And if so, why not? Shouldn't this be part and parcel - the bread and butter, in fact - of a national sports association's scope of work: to find as many opportunities as possible to highlight the achievements of their athletes?

Wouldn't this be one of the most fundamental things that one, as the governor of the sport in your country, would want to do - draw public attention to all the good things that are happening in their sport?

In the light of this, this is my call to action to everyone out there who visits this site: if you do know of any achievements by our national athletes (from seniors to juniors to school athletes) that have gone unnoticed bythe media, please let me know, either by dropping a comment at this site or by sending an email to sporesportsfan@yahoo.com.sg.

I promise you this: if it is newsworthy enough, I will not only publicise it on this blog, I will also alert my contacts in the mainstream media as well as the other websites that write about local sport ( such as redsports.sg and singaporeathletics.com ) 

Going back to Rachel's new national mark - do you know that this means that four new national open records and three national junior records have been set this year?

Triple jumpers Stefan Tseng and Mariam Shazana set new national men's and women's open and junior records at the Pahang Open last month (Stefan cleared 15.71m while Mariam jumped 11.66m) while Kenneth Wang Kan set a new national men's long jump record (7.41m ) at the 3rd All-Comers Meet.

Finally, Matthew Goh set a new national junior mark in the long jump earlier this year with his 7.23m effort.

And the exciting thing is that there could be more to come this week.

Stefan, Matthew and national sprinter Calvin Kang, who holds the national junior mark of 10.55sc, are among part of the Singapore team competing at this weeks 13th Asian Junior Athletics Championships in Jakarta ( see www.asianathletics.org )

You can probably forget about them setting any Asian junior records because the current marks are way beynd what they can possibly achieve right now. For example, the boy's triple jump mark is 16.73m, the long jump mark is 7.85m and the 100m record is 10.26sec. (Mariam isn't competing because she hasn't met the qualifying mark of 11.77m ).

But who knows what the higher level of competition may bring out of them? If the conditions are right, and the athletes are in the zone, we could see a few more natinal marks added to this year's tally.

And if that happens, you can be sure that I will not only be writing about it here - but also passing the information to the local media.  

Here's wishing the Singapore team in Jakarta all the best.

Yours in sport

Singapore Sports Fan

(note: picture of report on Rachel Yang taken from http://myepaper.mypaper.sg ) 

Beginning Go

My Go life started with watching Hikaru No Go about five years ago during my A-Level time. I thought the anime was really fantastic, and I quickly learned the rules and tried out few games on Igowin software. But I only truly start playing Go on 19x19 board few months later after I started studying in London. There, I sought out a go club on Internet and found Central London Go Club (CLGC). Also I created an account on Kiseido Go Server (KGS) as 'idazuwaika'. From here, my Go journey began.

Luckily my closest friends in London, Azhari and Hazrul were supportive of my Go. All of us did not care about studies too much :) . Azhari was all into Magic The Gathering whereas Hazrul was more into Playstation. So, I was not psyched to be too studious as I originally planned.

Hazrul played some go too and we fought equally initially. However after I studied Kageyama's Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go, I left him behind. Anyway he was not serious about Go and already had a girlfriend that time, so he was unwilling to follow my pace.

Kageyama's book actually carried me much further than leaving my first rival. Before I knew it, I was already 16k after few weeks. However, that was not enough for me to play without handicap in CLGC. I had to take 9-stones handicap against almost everyone.

More playing, more playing everyday.

Shodan in A Year

By the seventh month, I was about 10k. I suspected that time, my tactical reading was at much higher level but my knowledge of go theories was still lacking. So, I set out to buy the six volumes Elementary Go Series.

Those books gave me another boost in my ranking, comparable to Kageyama's.

By simply learning some opening theories, and keeping in mind that 'the area in front of shimari' is valuable, I had twice of 25-winning streaks on KGS, shooting me up to around 8k. I further improved my skills in the opening by reading Opening Theory Made Easy written by Otake Hideo, and easily got 6k.

Promoting to 5k, then 4k, 3k and 2k were much harder. At 2k I reached one year six month of playing, so basically I totally failed to get "1 dan (1d) in a year" which is the commonly stated goal. However, later KGS revised the ranking system and I got promoted to 1d straightaway. 1-d after almost 2 years, I'm not talented it seems.

Haha, I'm not to concerned anyway. My goal is to keep progressing, no end to it.

Meeting Yuki Shigeno

My progress seemed to be quite steady and fast. I was already at dan level within CLGC. So, when Yuki Shigeno 2 dan professional came to London as guest for London Go Open, I was brought to her by my Japanese friend, Tomahaku Urascoe.

Yuki then interviewed me to be featured on her website. I couldn't describe how honoured I was that time. Interviewed by a Go professional .. shouldn't it be the other way round?

Anyway that gave me another boost of motivation and spirit to keep studying Go.

Leaving London

So finally in June 2007, I completed university. At that time I was 4d KGS. To mark the end of my four years of effort in Go during university, I joined Go To China 2007 trip, organized by Michael Yao and Carl Johan. The idea was to study Go everyday for a month under high-dan Chinese amateurs, along with other go players.

There I was placed within the first group with Sander, Christoph, Neil, Alex, Wills and Andrew. We all studied together under Wu Qi and later Liu Yuanbo (Peter) who was a Chinese professional 2d. Listening to Peter's story, I understood how hard it was to get to high level of go playing. It was both motivating, and scary.

The teaching were excellent but after two weeks, I started skipping morning lessons. But in the afternoon, I played a lot with other go trip members and sometimes go to the local go clubs. At times I still played on KGS but my rank was still 4d.

Time was too short to apply what I learned to my play, but one thing became clearer. I knew, I wanted to play Go all my life.

I knew I wanted to play Go all my life.

On July 29 2007, I returned to Malaysia. I brought along quite a number of Chinese Go books back with me, although I could only read a little. I thought, the trip to China would only mark the end of my 4 year study of Go during university, little did I realise it was a start to another journey.

Asian Tournaments.

When I was in London, I only participated in two tournaments, LSE Open which I finished runner up next to Yun He (KGS 9d mrga) and London International Team Go Tournament where our CLGC team finished first. Pretty cool to win international tournament although actually only 4 go clubs participated in it. :)

After returning to Malaysia, I have already joined two tournaments within two months span. The first was Asian University Go in Khon Kaen, Thailand and also South East Asia Go Game in Korat, Thailand. I did rather badly in both, mostly due to yose play.

And today ... 22 December 2007, I am sensemaker on KGS, at 5-dan. However, I'm thinking of quitting KGS now as the internet is not so reliable here at the moment.

I dont have much time to lose. I will be active on Internet Go again after fiber optic roll-out in Klang Valley is completed and 50Mbps broadband is offered.

Anyway I lent the account idazuwaika to a friend so, at the moment it does not reflect my real rank.

OK, hopefully my story will grow to include more interesting events. :) Jia you myself.

The Straits Times recently carried this report on schoolboy long jumper Kenneth Wang Kan breaking a 26-year-old national record. Click here to read the original story.

My Opinion?

One of the best coaching hires ever by the Singapore Sports School would have to be its Georgian jumps coach, Valeri Obidko.

The results speak for themselves. In the space of just four years (he joined in 2004), he has created a growing platoon of promising jumpers, who have completely transformed the local athletics scene. Long-standing records have not only been broken (and isn’t it embarrassing that the records had been standing for 20 years or more before that?), they are also constantly being rewritten at least once a year.

And at the rate these young jumpers - Stefan Tseng, Mariam Shazana, Matthew Goh, Kenneth wang Kan etc - are improving, they are looking more and more like potential SEA and Asian Games medalists with each passing day.

That’s pretty impressive considering the fact that the Republic didn’t even have a track record in the jumps before Obidko’s arrival. 

So, sure, the man may have his critics. 

Some feel that he is a tad too arrogant for their liking. Others say that his trainees have a high injury rate because his training techniques and the intensity of his training sessions, that they are likely to burn out too quickly.

I say so what? Singapore athletics is on the cusp of an exciting new dawn: in the next two to four years, we are going to see medals coming in from a new source – the jumps. 

Think about it: when was the last time we ever won a SEA Games medal in the jumps? For that matter, when was the last time we ever won a SEA Games athletics medal using our own home-grown talents? 

Only two names come to mind: James Wong (who stopped competing after the 2005 SEA Games), and UK Shyam who won the 100m silver at the 2001 SEA Games. 

Think about it: When was the last time we saw three national records being broken in a single weekend (one at the SAAA's All-Comers meet and two at the Pahang Open?). Four if you count Matthew Goh's national junior record in the long jump the weekend before.

Think about what this means: No more having to rely on James to come out of retirement every two years to collect his nap-shot $10,000 bonus. No more relying on crap foreign talent, who clearly seem to have little love or respect for the Singapore passport. 

Once you’ve done that, think about what Valeri has achieved – and compare it with the little that has been achieved by foreign technical expertise in the same time frame.

And let’s be brutally frank here: Singapore is no Australia. Considering the kinds of societal pressures our athletes face, I’d rather they burn brightly on the international scene for a few years before retiring at, say, age 25 or 26 to focus on the other priorities in life. It’s the natural order of things. 

So here’s to Valeri and his young charges – keep up the great work, guys. And here’s hoping that you’ll bring back some medals from next year’s SEA Games.

Yours in sports,

Singapore Sports Fan

Friday night, Philip fetched me from KL Sentral and took me to his house. I was to stay there so that we could make it to the bus stop the early next morning to Singapore. Before we went to sleep, he showed me pictures of his trips to Japan and Korea as Malaysia Go representative last year and told me a lot to do this and that when I go there in May.

"Dont forget to eat everything."

"Kimchi is nice, Korean rice taste so good."

"Next time you go, make sure you extend your stay. Just pay for the hotel, it's worth it."

Well, there were lots more. Then he showed me souvenirs and next thing I knew, I wanted May to come quickly.

Next morning, we boarded Grassland bus at a station across Berjaya Times Square. For RM65, we got spacious seats and personal TV there. The seat in particular was amazing and the TV was a welcome as anyone would want to watch a movie or two during a 4 hours journey. I watched 300 (again) and Mr. Bean : Holiday. I also had a little less than an hour of sleep.

At 1:30p.m. , we reached Singapore and Philip's uncle was there waiting for us. He took us walking past Bugis junction to Singapore Weiqi Association club house where the go tournament is held.

Singapore National library. Amazing isn't it? Well located in the city too.

A triangular building that's supposedly not good for Feng Shui?

Toyota Denso Cup Qualifier. First Prize USD$1000 !

The club house entrance.

Tournament already started when we arrived.

There were three professionals entering this tournament. One is from Hong Kong and the other two are from Singapore. Malaysia sent Lee Choon Huat, who did well that day, winning two games from three.

I scouted around for go friends I got from my previous trips to Thailand. Yes, there were many of them ! Lim Surya, Xinwen, James, Kaiwen, Munyi, Karen, Sok Nee, Le Mai Duy, Kang and Yang laoshi, Alvin, Haidar, Daniel, Jia Cheng and many more.

Sok Nee was generous to take Philip and I around. She brought us to Mustafa, a large supermarket owned by an Indian-Muslim that sold almost everything, and sold them cheap. I bought a Japanese doll and some chocolate :)

That night, Philip and I slept at Uncle Tony's place in Ang Mo Kio. It was a large residential area, packed with apartments. It was a good sleep, and I was refreshed to have another tour around Singapore in the following morning. This time Sok Nee took us to Chinatown.

Singapore is indeed a beautiful city. And I was impressed with its image of a multi-racial country. The previous night, we visited Little Indian where Mustafa was located, and this morning, we were in Chinatown. We also passed by Malay Street, Bugis Junction and Arab Street, with various different building architecture reflecting the racial identity.

One thing I noticed about Singapore though, was that most people are old (sorry :) ). "Where are the kids?" I asked. Sok Nee admitted that Singapore had a serious problem of 'greying' (hair color) population. Also, since we were walking early in Sunday morning, most kids simply hadn't woken up, so this 'greying' population problem seemed more serious that it should.

Nearly noon, we visited the club house again. Most game had already finished and it appeared the 8-dan professional from Hong Kong won the first place and will represent Asian region (not including Big Three Korea, Japan and China) to Toyota Denso World Championship.

Informal discussions among Go professionals. I was just posing there :)

Singapore Weiqi Association provided great facilities. Look at this multi-purpose table. One side is a go board, the other is normal table surface. Next to me was Karen, among top female players from Singapore who went to SEA Games. Me and Shuwen as Malaysian pair might meet her and Tan Jia Cheng in Korea Pair tournament later in May.

Along with Toyota Denso Go Tournament was a Junior tournament held in the next room. This was the tournament where kids played. I was amazed by the number of junior players and they seemed to be strong ! I was told that the strongest among these kids was a 3-dan player. That is nearly my level already ! I might have to play against kids next time :)

Malaysian Lee Choon Huat played with the kids in an informal game.

Turn out for Singapore kids tournament was larger than Malaysian National Tournament. :) Are we not nearly 10 times their population?

The seriousness displayed prompted me to take this picture.

Hehe. So cute.

Friendly matches after the main tournament finished.

Le Mai Duy with his famous moyo style. I want to play him again !

Philip and I learned a big deal from this tournament, particularly the go scenarios in other countries by talking to the representatives. The Mongolian girl, Ravjir told us that there were about 500 Go players in Mongolia although only 20 were active. And Le Mai Duy  informed me that in Vietnam, the Go Association was a division of Chess Federation. To my understanding, the Chess Federation is formed by International Chess Association, Chinese Chess Association and Go Association. Philip hypothesises that maybe all associations have the same players :) . Very likely.

Anyway, Vietnam has about 5 times more Go players than Malaysia. We need to catch up !.

3p.m. Philip and I had to leave. Many thanks to Singapore Weiqi Association for holding this fantastic tournament. Also many thanks to Fong Sok Nee who tour-guided us around Singapore. Otherwise, I must say a trip only for Go purposes could be very boring. Hehe :)

1a.m. Monday now. Office hours soon. God knows how much I hate Mondays.

p/s : Mun Yi said I looked like the escaped terrorist !

Mengapa tidak, dan ini benar-benar terjadi. Tanggal 4-6 Juli 2008 akan diselenggarakan SEA-Games 2008 (South East Asian Games) di Sacramento, California Amerika Serikat.

Kegiatan olahraga multi-event ini mempertandingkan tujuh event olahraga yaitu Sepak Bola Putra dan Putri, Bola Voli Putra dan Putri, Golf, Kato (semacam sepak takraw), dan Gasing. Disamping itu juga ada perlombaan menyanyi yang disebut 'Asian Idol' dan perlombaan dansa (dancing competition).

SEA-Games USA, diselenggarakan setiap tahun oleh Hmong Foundation Inc. Tahun ini merupakan penyelenggaraan yang ke-3.  Pesertanya terdiri dari masyarakat Amerika Serikat keturunan Asia Tenggara, namun sebagian besar berasal dari keturunan suku Hmong.

Suku Hmong berasal dari wilayah Cina bagian selatan yang sejak abad ke-18 banyak yang bermigrasi kewilayah Asia Tenggara. Di Amerika Serikat saat ini terdapat sekitar 275.000 orang keturunan Hmong, sementara di Cina sendiri terdapat kurang lebih 3 juta orang. Ratusan ribu orang Hmong lainnya tersebar di negara-negara Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Australia dan Perancis.

Dilihat dari namanya (South East Asian Games), multi-event ini memiliki nama yang persis sama dengan SEA Games yang kita kenal selama ini sebagai ajang olahraga multi-event dua tahunan antar negara-negara ASEAN. Apakah SEA-Games kita belum memiliki hak paten atas namanya, atau memang ada perbedaan, karena yang di Amerika ada tambahan 'USA' dibelakangnya, penilaiannya kita serahkan kepada yang berwenang. Yang jelas, kalau SEA-Games 'kita', juga di beri tambahan nama negara atau nama daerah penyelenggaranya, misalnya; SEA-Games Vietnam atau SEA-Games Chiang Mai.

Sumber: http://www.seagamesus.com/ diakses tanggal 20/04/08.

Oleh Harris Rajahdin

BANGGA: Najib (empat dari kiri) menyampaikan replika cek kepada Daniel (tiga dari kiri) dan Cai Lin. Turut sama Azalina (kanan), Tunku Imran (dua dari kiri) dan Pengarah Urusan F&N Coca Cola (M) Sdn Bhd, James Teo pada Majlis Anugerah Olimpian 2007 di Wisma OCM, malam tadi.

Dua perenang terpilih berdasarkan keupayaan raih dua emas di Korat, layak ke Beijing

SAMBUTAN Tahun Baru Cina yang menjelang tiba ini cukup bermakna buat dua perenang - Daniel Bego dan Khoo Cai Lin yang dinobatkan selaku pemenang anugerah Olimpian Tahunan 2007 dalam majlis gilang-gemilang di Wisma OCM, malam tadi.

Kejayaan mereka berdua menandakan buat julung kalinya malam anugerah ini disapu bersih calon dari acara perenang negara sejak ia diperkenalkan pada 1993. Mereka mengikut jejak langkah Alex Lim Keng Liat (1998) dan Elvin Chia (1999).
Daniel, 18 dan Cai Lin, 19 dipilih oleh Lembaga Eksekutif MOM untuk anugerah Olimpian Lelaki dan Wanita berdasarkan kejayaan mereka meraih dua pingat emas dalam Sukan Sea Korat XXIV di samping melayakkan diri ke temasya Sukan Olimpik, Ogos ini.

Anugerah dan hadiah RM10,000 disampaikan oleh Timbalan Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Razak yang juga Pengerusi Jawatankuasa Kabinet Mengenai Pembangunan Sukan. Turut hadir adalah Menteri Belia dan Sukan, Datuk Seri Azalina Othman dan Presiden Majlis Olimpik Malaysia, Tunku Tan Sri Imran Tuanku Ja’afar.

Emas Daniel hadir menerusi acara 100 meter kuak kupu-kupu dan 200m gaya bebas. Dalam kedua-dua acara, perenang kelahiran Sarawak itu memecahkan rekod 100m kuak kupu-kupu dengan catatan 54.33 saat manakala rekod lama satu minit 52.47 saat dalam 200m gaya bebas dipadamkan dengan satu minit 52.22 saat.

Daniel mengenepikan pencalonan pemenang empat emas, Mohd Qabil Ambak Mahamad Fathil (Olimpian 2001), penerjun, Yeoh Ken Nee, Lim Yoke Wai (karate) dan pemanah Cheng Chu Sian yang juga sudah melayakkan diri ke Olimpik.

“Ini satu penghormatan yang amat bererti bagi diri saya. Sebenarnya saya tidak menjangka akan menang anugerah ini kerana menyedari ada calon lain yang hebat juga. Ini menyuntik satu inspirasi baru kepada saya bagi tahun ini, khasnya untuk Sukan Olimpik nanti,” katanya.

Cai Lin pula dipilih atas kejayaannya meraih emas dalam 400m gaya bebas dan 800m gaya bebas. Dalam 400m, gaya bebas, Cai Lin mencipta rekod baru 4:18.20s memadamkan catatan lama, 4:19.13s.

Aksinya dalam 800m gaya bebas lebih menakjubkan apabila memadamkan rekod kebangsaan 8:56.88 Nurul Huda Abdullah yang bertahan sejak 1988 dengan catatan baru 8:47.80.

“Saya gembira terpilih bagi anugerah ini. Sebelum ini saya sudah menjangka saingan tinggi daripada calon lain. Saya mahu menjadikan kejayaan ini sebagai satu motivasi bagi mencipta keputusan lebih baik sepanjang tahun ini,” kata perenang kelahiran Selangor itu yang akan mengiringi Daniel ke Beijing 2008.

Secara sebulat suara, Lembaga Eksekutif MOM memilih Cai Lin di atas dua pencalonan lain, penerjun, Leong Mun Yee (Olimpian 2001) dan atlit gimnas empat emas, Chrystal Lim Wen Chean.

Tahun ini juga menyaksikan ia dilangsungkan dua kali dalam tempoh setahun dengan satu lagi malam anugerah akan diadakan selepas berakhirnya temasya Olimpik. Malam anugerah 2007 terpaksa ditangguhkan sehingga tahun ini berikutan Sukan Sea Korat XXIV yang dilangsungkan pada Disember lalu.

Pada majlis itu juga seramai 10 tokoh sukan dari kalangan pegawai dan bekas atlit diraihkan dalam Dewan Kemasyhuran.

ON the back of a disappointing Sea Games outing and a lagging road programme, the Malaysian National Cycling Federation (MNCF) has put into place a new Malaysia Continental Team, geared towards the 2012 Olympics.

By AFTAR SINGH

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Amateur Athletic Union (MAAU) have big plans for 19-year-old hurdler Rayzam Shah Wan Sofian. 

Rayzam, who was a surprise winner in the Korat SEA Games, is not in any of the National Sports Council's (NSC) project squads. 

The Sabahan made a golden debut by winning the 110m hurdles at the biennial Games. En route to victory he clocked a personal best of 13.91 to break the Games record of 13.92 set by Thailand's Susphan Wongsrisphuck in Hanoi in 2003. 

MAAU coaching and development committee chairman Karim Ibrahim said that Rayzam has a bright future and they are making arrangements to send him for overseas training. 

Bright star: The MAAU hope to groom Rayzam Shah Wan Sofian into one of the top hurdler in Asia.

“He has shown tremendous improvement despite not being in the national project squad. Furthermore, he trains in Kota Kinabalu under his personal coach Raymie (A. Bakar) and has established himself as the best 110m hurdler in the South-east Asian region. 

“He is capable of becoming the top hurdler in Asia and we have plans to send him either to the United States or England for training,” said Karim. 

Karim added that they have written to the University of Illinois in the US to include Rayzam in their training programmes. 

“All the world's top hurdlers train there and it will definitely benefit him by running against the best,” said Karim  

He added that MAAU have also talked to a few coaches to base Rayzam in England. 

“We are waiting for replies from the coaches. We also hope the OCM (Olympic Council of Malaysia) will help Rayzam get an IOC (International Olympic Committee) Solidarity Scholarship so that he can train overseas,” said Karim. 

He added that by training overseas, Rayzam would be able to achieve his dream of not only breaking the national record of 13.73 (set by Nur Herman Majid in the 1994 Hiroshima Asian Games) but also qualify for the Beijing Olympics.  

The qualifying mark under category A is 13.55 while for category B it is 13.72. 

Karim added that they would send Rayzam to the Asian Indoor meet in Doha in February. 

“It will be a good opportunity for him to assess his form against the best in Asia,” said Karim.

By : Devinder Singh

Teoh Boon Lim.

NOT only did walker Teoh Boon Lim emerge from a six-year hiatus to win a Sea Games gold, he also defeated the two-time defending champion in the process.

By : Christopher Raj

Daniel Bego.

Nữ võ sỹ Đinh Thị Phương Thanh sẽ bị tước huy chương đoạt được tại SEA Games 24 sau khi kết quả kiểm tra doping cho thấy cô phản ứng dương tính với một loại chất cấm.

Chi tiết tại : http://vietbao.vn/The-thao/Mot-VDV-Viet-Nam-vo-tinh-dinh-chat-la/35123643/134/

KUALA LUMPUR: Nineteen-year-old hurdler Rayzam Shah Wan Sufian is on the fast track to success. 

The Sabah athlete won the gold in the National Closed in Kangar in September with a personal best time of 14.15 in the men’s 110m hurdles to qualify for the Korat SEA Games.  

Rayzam then made a golden debut in Korat, breaking the Games record with a blistering run of 13.91. Thailand’s Suphan Wongsriphuck set the previous mark of 13.92 in Hanoi in 2003. In Korat, Suphan won the silver in 13.95 and Mohd Faiz Mohd, the other Malaysian representative, took the bronze in 14.00. 

And now the Keningau hurdler wants to make an attempt to shatter the national record and qualify for next year’s Beijing Olympics. 

The national record is 13.73 set by Nur Herman Majid in the 1994 Hiroshima Asian Games. And the qualifying mark for the Olympics is 13.55 under category A and 13.72 for category B. 

Said Rayzam: “It has been a dream year for me. But I hope to do better next year. 

“I managed to achieve a double in Korat by winning the gold and shattering the Games record. Now I hope to achieve another double next year – by setting a new national record and also to qualify for the Olympics.” 

Rayzam added that his fine form this year was because of a one-month training stint in Bulgaria. 

“I hope to go for another training stint in Europe next year. By training with top hurdlers from Europe and with stiff competitions, I am confident of a better showing next year,” said Rayzam, who has been training in Kota Kinabalu under coach Raymie Bakar for the last six years. 

Rayzam also attributed his success to training under Raymie. 

“Raymie has helped me to improve on my techniques and speed. I am happy to train under him,” said Rayzam, who won the silver in the Asian Junior Championships in Macau last year. 

Mohd Robani Hassan, the country’s top 110m hurdler, who skipped the Korat Games because of hamstring injury, said that he was happy with Rayzam’s steady progress. 

“He is going to be the country’s next top hurdler. He definitely will push me to train much harder to improve on my personal best and qualify for the Olympics,” said Robani, who has just recovered from his injury.