[Official Thread] Asian Youth Games (AYG)
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Asian Youth Games: Singapore's Quah strikes gold again
SINGAPORE: Singapore's Quah Ting Wen struck gold the third time in the Asian Youth Games on Monday.
She topped the girls' 100m freestyle finals in 55.57 seconds to clinch her third gold in the Games, after the two golds won in the 200-metre and 50-metre freestyle events.
Amanda Lim made it a Singapore one-two when she edged out South Korea's Kim Jung-Hye for the silver.
Amanda clocked 56.24 seconds, faster than Kim's 56.39 seconds.
- CNA/ir -
AYG: Singapore's bowler Basil Low wins gold
SINGAPORE: Singapore added another bowling gold to the two clinched earlier in the Asian Youth Games.
Basil Low struck gold in the Boys Masters Finals on Monday, following earlier wins by the Singapore girls.
Low scored a total of 501 pinfalls for two games for the gold, against 433 pinfalls by his Korean opponent Choi Kyung-Hwan.
In the Girls Masters final, Singapore's New Hui Fen could not continue with her winning form.
New, the winner of two gold medals so far, had to settle for the silver in her step-ladder final against Korea's Sim Ui-Jin.
Another Singaporean, Darshini Krishna, clinched the bronze.
- CNA/ir -
Originally posted by Bus&Soccer l0v3r (VO3x 1):
may i ask did Malaysia Join the AYG? y didnt see they even get a medal?
Yes, they sent 2 persons to participate in sailing and got a bronze medal.http://www.ayg2009.sg/page/medalTally/0,,12804,00.html
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AYG: Singapore's sailing gets thumbs-up
SINGAPORE: SingaporeSailing president Low Teo Ping said on Monday the performance of the local sailors and the progress of the competition off East Coast Park at the Asian Youth Games was good enough to obtain a grade "close to an 'A'".
So pleased was he with the event he claimed the sailing team and overall facilities would be ready for the Youth Olympic Games, if it were held today.
The Republic's sailors bagged one gold, one silver and one bronze in four events and Low attributed the success to the association's youth development programme.
"This is a space we're comfortable with because of the way we have structured the whole broadbase development pipeline leading into the Olympic classes.
"We believe we can host the Youth Olympics tomorrow and participate in it, if we have to," he said.
Darren Choy and Najwa Jumali took home the boys' and girls' Byte CII gold and silver medals respectively at the Asian Youth Games, while Audrey Yong won a bronze in the girls' Bic Techno 293.
It is understood that as one of the 26 sports in the Youth Olympics, sailing will receive an initial grant of about $100,000 from the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports to help prepare their athletes for next year's Games, which Singapore will host from August 14-26.
But there will be no tailor-made programme for the likes of Darren, who will have to battle 14 other sailors for a spot in next year's team.
Said Andrew Sanders, SingaporeSailing's chief executive officer: "Our principle is we coach the many, and not the few. We never put all our eggs in one basket."- TODAY
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Singapore ends the AYG 5th on the list with 9 gold, 6 silver & 15 bronze..
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Asian Youth Games: Team Singapore medallists to receive monetary bonus
SINGAPORE: Team Singapore's medallists at the Asian Youth Games will receive a monetary bonus for their successful performances at the event.
Just before the closing ceremony at the Games Village yesterday, the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) announced that the athletes are likely to be rewarded via an incentive scheme.
"We are talking to potential sponsors and are thinking about putting the money into an endowment fund for the athletes," said SNOC secretary-general Chris Chan. "We hope to announce it over the next few days."
The money will not come from the current Multi-Million Dollar Awards Programme, which is sponsored by the Tote Board and Singapore Pools and gives cash payouts to athletes who win medals at the Olympics, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and SEA Games.
The Republic's 90 athletes competed in aquatics (swimming and diving), athletics, football, 3-on-3 basketball, beach volleyball, bowling, shooting, sailing and table tennis at the Games, winning nine gold, six silver and 15 bronze medals in six sports.
The swimmers were the top performers at the nine-day event with five golds, two silvers and five bronzes. Six national and nine under-17 records were set, and 36 personal bests were posted.
Singapore's bowlers won three gold, two silver and two bronze medals, followed by sailing (1-1-1), athletics (4 bronze), shooting (1 bronze) and table tennis (1 bronze).
The Republic finished fourth on the medal table, behind China (25 gold), South Korea (20) and Thailand (11), but Team Singapore chef-de-mission Lee Wung Yew warned against complacency.
"Singapore's medal standing is not a true reflection (of our standing in Asia) as Malaysia did not send a full squad and they are a force in bowling," he said.
"The Japanese also did not send quite a few of their top athletes in swimming. That gave us the opportunity to shine. But looking at the performance of the athletes, it shows our potential to reach higher standards."
The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) gave the organising committee a glowing report card.
"It was a fantastic Games, not only for the athletes, but the atmosphere was great," said Timothy Fok, OCA's vice-president for East Asia.
"They had only one year to prepare, so it wasn't a walk, but a sprint. Health issues (H1N1) factored very much in the preparations and created tremendous stress for the organising committee, but they did well."
Touted as a test event ahead of next year's Youth Olympics - which Singapore will host from Aug 14-26 - these Games was hosted at a cost of $15 million, with S$8.4 million raised through sponsorship. Over 1,400 athletes from 43 National Olympic Committees took part.
Issues such as poor ticket sales, website updates, event information and volunteers' training will be ironed out in time for the Youth Olympics, organisers promised.
- TODAY/yb -
Asian Youth Games: Ting Wen shines bright
SINGAPORE: With the nine—day Asian Youth Games done and dusted, Singapore’s final medal haul from its 90—strong athlete contingent is nine gold, six silver and 15 bronze medals.
The hosts’ brightest star was Quah Ting Wen, who accounted for five medals — four gold and a bronze.
On Tuesday night, the 16—year—old was recognised for the big splash she created at the Singapore Sports School pool when she was presented with the Most Valuable Player (Girls) award at the closing ceremony, held at the Games Village at Swissotel the Stamford.
South Korean swimmer Chang Gyu Cheol, 17, bagged the male prize after also winning four golds.
"I’m really surprised," said the 1.74m—tall Ting Wen, who turns 17 on Aug 18. "I really exceeded my expectations. I’ve done my best times, which was what I set out to do. I’m really so happy and this is an added bonus."
Ting Wen broke her own national records in the 100m and 200m freestyle and was part of the 4x100m free relay team that smashed the previous mark by almost eight seconds. She also won gold in the 50m free.
Singapore’s young athletes are set to benefit as sports chiefs explore ways to ensure they do not slip through the net.
"We have to figure out a way to retain and train them, first for the Youth Olympics," said Senior Parliamentary Secretary (Community Development, Youth and Sports) Teo Ser Luck.
Each of the National Sports Associations (NSA) representing the 26 sports that will feature at next year’s Youth Olympic Games here will receive about $100,000 in funding to help prepare their respective athletes and sports, with medal potential likely to be given additional funding.
The Youth Sports Development committee, launched last year with a war chest of $15 million, will play a central role.
Said Teo: "This joint—committee will work on the effort of tying up between the SSC, NSAs and schools to come together and develop a programme around the athletes to enable them to train with a more flexible academic curriculum."
Addressing the issue of National Service for the male athletes, Teo said: "Beyond the Youth Olympics, we hope to have Mindef’s support as well. If any of the athletes have been identified for the Olympic Pathway Programme, then we’ll have to see if they can go into Mindef’s sportsman scheme."
While the Singapore National Olympic Council announced plans to reward the Games’ successful athletes monetarily, Ting Wen feels support in areas like sports medicine and science is also crucial. She said: "Going overseas for meets and seeing the sports science, especially in the US and Australia, I feel that can be improved to better help younger swimmers."
Ting Wen’s long—term goal is the 2012 Olympics, where she will probably meet Suwon—born Gyu Cheol, who is aiming to compete at the London Games.
Speaking via a translator, he said: "I couldn’t imagine my good results before coming here. Before coming here, I trained a lot. It is the best way to get good results. I ate right and was disciplined and it also helped. I want to be a great world champion in swimming in the future."
— TODAY
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Well Done Singapore!
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Over 6,000 gather to celebrate Singapore's success in hosting AYG
SINGAPORE: More than 5,000 volunteers and 1,200 sports officials gathered to celebrate Singapore's successful hosting of the inaugural Asian Youth Games (AYG), which ended on Tuesday.
The event at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on Friday evening was graced by Mr Teo Chee Hean, Deputy Prime Minister and President of the Singapore National Olympic Council.
Mr Teo said the Games were not perfect but Singapore did well. He said 1,400 athletes were here for the AYG, and 3,600 are expected for the first Youth Olympic Games next year.
Hence, a lot more work needs to be done, especially the training of more volunteers.
Mr Teo said the AYG brought a wonderful challenge to Singapore, and the experience showed that when there is a challenge, the country can rise to it.
Oon Jin Teik, chief executive officer of the Singapore Sports Council, said: "The workforce volunteers form a critical backbone to whatever we do and many of them would ideally have had years of training before the events.
"But I think with their own personal background, their passion and their inherent knowledge of what to do right, we pulled off an event within a very short time, with a very small budget."
- CNA/yb -
Teo Ser Luck says AYG a success despite problems faced
SINGAPORE : Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Community Development, Youth and Sports, Teo Ser Luck, has given the Asian Youth Games' organising committee an "A" grade.
Speaking at the sidelines of a youth award event on Monday, he told reporters that the event was a success despite the problems faced.
The Asian Youth Games may have opened with a bang, but it was plagued with several problems from the start.
Criticism erupted over poor ticketing promotion and last minute scheduling changes, amid complaints about events held in half-empty venues.
There were also initial doubts whether the Games would go on as scheduled, as the H1N1 virus hit the Philippine and Hong Kong football teams and Malaysia pulled out as a precaution.
Despite those problems, Mr Teo said the organising committee did their best, given the time and budget constraints.
While he admitted the committee was not fully prepared, he added the Games had always been meant as a testing platform for the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in 2010.
He said: "Honestly, we did not realise that it can come up to be so big, and we also did not realise that it would capture so much attention. But nevertheless, putting the hiccups aside, and some of the gaps we need to close aside, I think they have done a great job. I would give a good 'A' grade."
On Team Singapore's performance, Mr Teo said the crop of 30 medals - comprising nine golds, six silvers and 15 bronzes - confirms the Republic can produce local sporting talent.
Mr Teo said: "Based on the results of our youth athletes, I realised that they do have a chance for medals, and five medals were originally what I'd forecasted, but they exceeded my expectations."
Mr Teo added that with growing interest in Singapore's sports culture and the work done by the YOG organising committee so far, he is confident Singapore will be able to pull off similar events in the future.- CNA/ms
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Asian Youth Games Singapore 2009 website garners 2.6m visitors
SINGAPORE: There were 2.6 million page views for the first Asian Youth Games Singapore 2009 website made by visitors from 141 countries.
The event was held from 29 June to 7 July 2009.
The inaugural AYG is the first multi-sport event to receive approval from the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) to provide broadcast coverage for all of its events via digital channels.
More than 165 live hours featuring nine sports were broadcast on the website.
Of the 2.6 million page views, the most popular events were swimming, athletics and football.
The number of visitors logging onto the live-stream peaked on July 6 during the broadcasts of the final rounds for swimming and bowling, followed by the July 3rd and 4th live broadcasts of the football and swimming competitions.
Host Singapore, where the site was most heavily promoted, accounted for 75 percent of traffic on the site. - CNA/vm
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Originally posted by QX179R:
Asian Youth Games Singapore 2009 website garners 2.6m visitors SINGAPORE: There were 2.6 million page ... first Asian Youth Games Singapore 2009 website made by ... and swimming competitions. Host Singapore, where the site was ...
I dun quite get what u're saying...