Malaysia was having a dinner in their embassy down the road in a rather tatty looking building, albeit much larger than ours.

The food was… Left wanting.
The entertainment was… Godawful.
The speakers were… Political.
The company was… Fake – everyone milling around, trying to impress. It was far from a Black Tie, but everyone was more stiff than an Englishman in a top hat.

When they said (or rather, when they say tonight) that it was a Sea of Red (and I know tihs because I voiced it), it truly was. I’ve never seen so many people in the same thing! Actually, I lie. There’s National Day. But… This was different! It was a bit scary.

Anyway, photos from last night before I go into detail about the past few days…

The Boys and Girls of Singapore Swimming (minus a couple who had strayed off into the aircon)

I didn't realise she's so young! Another Singapore Swimming Sweetheart, Cheryl Lim

El Presidente

Pei Ru and Pei Yi: The Karate Sisters

The last member of the Trio (the one with a cut on her nose)

The coke came after a lil white wine, hence the flushed face when taking a shot with two of the Wushu Trio

We stole a shot with Tao Li just after her studio interview

justin came t join us and boy did we SHOPPPPPPPPPPPPP ahahaha it was awesome man. we went for swimming in the evening, last day of swimming and it was another medal spree for Team Singapore with many more meet records set and old records broken.

i got assigned t table tennis again tday, (YAY!) and it’s once again an all Singapore finals for the singles event. Gao Ning will meet Yang Zi and Tianwei will play Yuegu. we interviewed them after their semis this morning and man did Gao Ning have some beautiful rallies with his Thai opponent who put up a good fight and won the second game, but was no match for our world number 12 Gao Ning who took the first, third and fourth game respectively. in the next court, Yang Zi had a clean win of all four sets and as usual went in straight for the kill. when asked what he thinks his chances are up against Gao Ning, he answered the usual diplomatic answers about how they’ve been competing for three years and always stay together, they’re both around the same, Gao Ning is really good.. then Sher Khan and i pushed him and he gave a cheeky smile and said, wo jue de wo hui ying la! then laughed. and when we told Gao Ning this later, the gentleman at first refused to answer what he thought merely stating how his team mate and him are about the same standard then eventually laughed and said hao le hao le, wo shuo wo hui ying la! awesome soundbites.

okay, back to table tennis now to watch the finals and grab more interviews, it’s the Team Singapore dinner at the embassy tonight and kel and i get t go YAY thanks alvin & viv

p.s: sorry no photos, updating from IBM lousy laptop in the studios

xoxo,
nad

went down for shooting in the morning where Ong Jun Hong was competing in the men’s air rifle. he finished in 6th position which he feels was a decent performance by his standards. this is his fourth SEA Games and he felt very happy qualifying for the finals. the Myanmar and Thailand shooters each managed to score a bull’s eye at 10.9.

the mixed doubles semi-finals was on the afternoon for table tennis, our teams having earlier beat out Myanmar, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines to face Malaysia and Thailand. our teams played four games each, Yuegu faltering slightly during her third game against Malaysia due to a minor injury. Yangzi and Yuegu pulled through and beat opponents Thailand, securing a spot in the finals. in the next court, Tianwei and Gao Ning lost their first game and were feeling the heat, but came round to win it for Singapore as well! (:

rushing off for Swimming, xoxo!

Welcome to Laos

Pretty Pollution

Wouldn't you want to train in this sort of beauty?

Just off from the carpark, a desert of colours...

The landscape just after sundown

The spectrum of colours is just... Magical.

The Pool at Sunset

The Thais were in lane 8, making it hard for the Singpoare Sweethearts to spot their progress in the Womens 400m Freestyle Relay. It was a close call in the 2nd leg, but the girls managed to pull away with a slight lead in the 3rd. The last leg was ever crucial and Ting Wen managed to put enough distance between herself and the Thais to bag our single Gold for Swimming yesterday.

Joshua Lim just beat teammate Pang Sheng Jun in the Mens 200m Individual Medley to grab a Bronze. Although not a Gold, he was happy with the result, saying that he was there to break the National Record, and he did just that. Miguel Molina of the Philippines was just too fast, clearing Joshua by almost two seconds.

Lynette and Ting Wen were hoping for a 1-2 placing in the Womens 400m Freestyle, but Malaysia’s Cai Lin Khoo was just that bit faster. It was neck and neck between the three of them for the first two laps, before Ting Wen fell back, leaving Lynette to push the Malaysian to go faster. Coming in 49 hundreths of a second behind the Lin Khoo, Lynette didn’t quite make it, however, both our girls were fast enough to join Cai in smashing the meet record, with the Malaysian coming first with 04:10.75, Lynette with 04:11.24 and Ting Wen with 04:17.85.

Our girls were obviously saving themselves because 15 minutes later they were back in the pool for the 400m Freestyle Relay in which they got our Gold. Talking to them after the race, they had said they were after the 1-2 finish, but 2-3 is just fine and the result of the relay was more than enough for them.

Ting Wen is done with her races now, but she will be rooting for Lynette who still has her 800m race to swim. All the best to Team Singapore! Let’s hope our Singapore Sweethearts can continue swimming to victory.

the girl trio of Beiwen, Aiying and Mingtian were a powerhouse for Laos and won their all their games against their much smaller Laotian counterparts. Beiwen was particularly physical during her match, leaving her opponent in a sweat. Aiying was always in control of her game, playing the shuttle with ease. Mingtian won her game, all her shots demonstrating power and precision. so the women’s team was very quickly through to the semi-finals where they will play Indonesia. although Indonesia is the defending champions, Mingtian and Aiying both said that they have trained hard and although the line-up has yet to be confirmed for tomorrow, Mingtian said with a smile that she will try her very best.

Derek Wong started off with the singles games for the men and was up against an extreme agile Vietnamese opponent whose smashes were completely petrifying. the part-time SIM student who is taking his diploma in business management lost the first set but managed to come round and put up a fighting finish in his next set, but unfortunately lost his game. Ashton Chen was feeling the pressure but put up a confident show and managed to secure the win needed to turn the game around. Ronald Susilo came on next but lost his game and the rumours that his broken engagement with Li Jiawei has perhaps led him to fall from his title as badminton-prince couldn’t help but come to mind. the 30 year old wasn’t quite on form and admitted to perhaps having not trained enough for his singles event. first doubles partners Hendra and Terry put up a good fight and brought our score to a 2-2. the fifth game had to be played and Susilo looking slightly tired out, took to the court again with Hendri. the two demonstrated considerable chemistry and took the first set. the Vietnamese came back very strong and it was neck-and-neck at 21-21 points till they pulled ahead to 23-21, leaving the panting Singaporean pair having to contend with a third set. fortunately, our side proved stronger than the Vietnamese and took the final set 21-16, pushing the mens’s team through to the semi-finals. tomorrow they will meet Malaysia who were already seeded through. looks like it’ll be a tough game tomorrow ladies & gentlemen but cross fingers and GOOD LUCK TEAM SINGAPORE! the Singapore fans are damn loud at all the games man, good support for our athletes (:

Ronald Susilo warming up

Zhang Beiwen

Derek Wong putting up a hard fight against top Vietnamese playerAiying cooling down after her game

Well done, Pei Ru. Keep it together and stay strong. There’s still hope yet!

Laos’ Women’s badminton team is losing pretty bad but Vietnam’s Mens Team is pretty good.

Stay tuned for more updates!

Nad with more:

Singapore Women’s Singles just won their first game! Derekk Wong still playing second set, unfortunately losing to Vietnam, whose player is EXTREMELY agile with an amazing smash.

(All comments have been rephrased as originals were condensed to fit in one text as Laotian networks can’t seem to cope with more than 160 characters per text.)

Tan Qing Yuan, Singapore vs Jintar, Indonesia

Just got back from the Budo Centre where Tay Qing Yuan got knocked out in the Semi-Finals against Indonesia, eight points to none, allowing Singapore to add one more medal to the bag.

Qing Yuan scraped through in the Quarter Finals against Myanmar with six points to all, but winning by default with two seconds to go as a disqualification was awarded to his opponent.

“The Process” helped him get through to the Semis, but when asked what happened against the Indon, Tan replied “He was fast… The Indonesians are strong… All I could do was focus and go through the process. I did my best.”

This isn’t the end for Qing Yuan, who is determined to work harder. “I will train more and hopefully I’ll be able to win the Silver that I missed this time.”

Thankfully, we’ve already got one Silver from the younger of the Ng sisters. Pei Yi competed in the Kata event yesterday where she managed to come in second. Her sister will compete in the Kumite 61kg category later this afternoon. Maybe the elder sister will be able to snag a Gold, bringing home a round three medals? Our fingers will be crossed, and hopefully back home there will be more support than was present in the Dojo.

It’s hardly a wonder that the Karate-kas aren’t performing up to their usual standard when there is next to no support, whilst the other teams have hoards of fans, other athletes and families sitting in the stands. It’s disheartening.

Well, let us all hope for the best and pray that Pei Ru will be able to clinch that Gold and keep our tally rising!

champions (:

our men's team (:

oh the men’s team had a tough game yesterday.  there was much frustration, passion and determination written all over their faces through the game which saw them neck-and-neck during the semi-finals with Vietnam, while the women’s team displayed their usual effortless grace and smashing attacks during their game.

that is to be expected of course, from a world class team who brought home the silver from the Beijing Olympics. comprising of world number 5 Feng Tianwei, world number 13 Wang Yuegu and Sun Bei Bei, the women paddlers quickly smashed their Malaysian counterparts 3-0.

the men’s team had it harder against noisy opponents Vietnam who brought their game face on. Gaoning played the first game and won, but Yang Zi found his individual game slightly harder. in his fourth game however, Yang Zi got back in the groove with confidence shining, bringing Singapore an awesome and much deserved win 3-2. the marathon semi-finals which lasted slightly past three hours was only maringally shorter than the previous time against Vietnam in the last SEA games.

i really felt for our boys. Gao Ning, Yang Zi and Xiao Li fought really hard and well and i am immensely proud of them and feel awfully Singaporean, watching them sing the National anthem really made me smile haha. their technical skills have improved immensely and maybe very soon can reach the high standards which the women’s team have set. so two medals down with both teams’ successful defense of their golds, and five more t go! youngest women paddler Zena Sim, 19, will be coming in the studio tnight so catch her on today at the games at 10pm (:

also present was Mr Teo Ser Luck and Mr Teo Chee Hean, who had a busy day touring the recovery centre and soccer, shooting, table tennis and swimming. i managed t be the first reporter t grab a soundbyte from uncle HEH mediacorp FTW!

will be covering the badminton men and women quarterfinals later in the afternoon. the men play vietnam while the women are up against host country Laos. if we get through, we met Malaysia who has already been seeded. THAT would be a tough fight but heyho Majulah Singapura! more photos up soon, i really like these two (:

xoxo