The UrbanWire


^{Chad Le Clos (RSA) (Photo: SPH-Syogoc/Mugilan Rajasegeran)}

By: Benjamin Liew

At 18 years old, Chad Le Clos, the swimming sensation from South Africa is already looking to be the next Michael Phelps.

Le Clos, who holds 2 senior All – Africa Games and a 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games (CYG) swimming records, is one of the most recognised and decorated athletes at the world’s first Youth Olympic Games (YOG).

Born on April 12, 1992 in Kwa Zulu – Natal province, South Africa, he is the only real waterbaby in the Le Clos family of 4, whose true passion lies in football.

In an interview with Get It, a community magazine based in his hometown, Le Clos admitted that having to choose between football and swimming was one of the hardest decisions he has had to make.

“I started swimming at 9, but I played soccer too…as time progressed, I knew I had to sacrifice one sport in order to give it my all in the other.”

Since then, the ardent Manchester United fan has never looked back.

Talent scouted while still in primary school, his first taste of international competition was at a championship meet in England. Since then, Chad has found himself on the winner’s podium countless times, including the 2008 CYG, where he bagged himself 2 gold medals and set a new record that still stands.

His dazzling performance has continued at the YOG, as he bagged medal honours in all of his individual swimming events, including a bronze medal in the Youth Men’s 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay Final, bringing his total medal tally to 5 out of a possible 6 medal events.

His perfect streak was broken in the Youth Men’s 4 x 100m Medley Relay Final, in which South Africa finished a distant sixth out of 8 competing countries, nearly 5 seconds behind first – placed Australia.

In an interview after winning his second medal in the Youth Men’s 200m Individual Medley Final event, he said, “It feels great. My family and my mom came out to watch and there were a lot of South Africans out there…to win in front of them, you couldn’t have asked for a more perfect night.”

It was his first gold medal at the YOG, having won a silver medal the previous day in the Youth Men’s 400m Freestyle Final.

Despite having competed in many international swimming competitions, Le Clos claims that he felt the most pressure competing in the YOG. He said, “I’ve competed in other international competitions but for me, this has been the most pressured…the most scary.”

Stress notwithstanding, the experience at the YOG also imparted invaluable lessons to him. He added that, “It’s taught me so much on how to deal with the press, the nerves…competing against the best under-18s in the world…and heading into London (where the next Olympic Games will be held come 2012), which is just around the corner. This is a huge stepping stone for me and my preparations and it helped me to move forward.”

Besides the pressures and the lessons learnt at the YOG, Le Clos also revealed the secret to his winning streak; a lucky charm, or more specifically, a lucky pair of orange swimming trunks. He said, “I have an orange costume which I wear for my final sessions and I’ve (worn) it every time for the past year and so far it’s been working pretty well. And I wore it tonight…” before trailing off in chuckles.

Grinning cheekily as he left, his parting words were, “I’ll wear it (his lucky swimming trunks) tomorrow night, hopefully.”

By: Benjamin Liew

A week of investigations later, we are still no clearer about the cause behind 21 volunteers of the Singapore Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee (SYOGOC) developing food poisoning on Aug 15.

This is in contrast to the 3 days it took the National Environment Agency (NEA) to root out the causative agent in the notorious Indian rojak [Indian salad] food poisoning incident that occurred at a Geylang Serai eatery last year.

Prior to the Youth Olympic Games (YOG), this same agency had imposed stringent hygiene standards on food caterers who were contracted to the YOG.

Although all 21 volunteers at the Singapore Indoor Stadium and East Coast Park venues have since recovered, and there were thankfully no fatalities unlike in Geylang, the lapse in hygiene and slow response to the incident has raised some questions.

Not only has the cause not been uncovered, even the caterer responsible for this lapse in hygiene hasn’t been identified in more than a week.

In an interview with Channel News Asia, Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Vivian Balakrishnan said, “I have made it a point every day to have my meal with the volunteers so that’s my way of ensuring quality control… In a massive operation like this, from time to time, problems will arise.”

While this has been reassuring, of greater concern, especially among parents of volunteers, appears to be the delay in which the news was released. The public only learnt of the incident 3 days after it had occurred. The fear is that more people could have been unknowingly exposed to tainted food in that time.

Linda Wang, 43, a housewife whose how two children aged nine and ten had eaten the catered food at one of the YOG events, told UrbanWire that had the news been broken to the public earlier, her children could have packed their own food instead of eating what was provided at the YOG. This would then allow them to avoid risking food poisoning altogether.

Although every event, especially one of the scale of the YOG will have its fair share of controversies and accidents, some are wondering if more couldn’t have been done to protect the welfare of the 20,000 plus YOG volunteers who have done a great deal to ensure the games go on smoothly.

By: Benjamin Liew

It was a bittersweet day for Singapore’s fourth medallist, archer Mohamed Jaffar Abdud Dayyan.

Jaffer had a great start to the day, having beaten Britain’s Mark Nesbitt 6 – 4 in the round of 16.

What made the victory so significant is that Nestbitt had been touted as one of the favourites to win gold at the YOG, having won 2 previously at the Youth Olympic Festival in Australia in January.

However, the young archer’s run came to an abrupt end when he was convincingly trounced 0 – 6 by Slovenia’s Gregor Rajh in the Boy’s Individual Archery competition at the Kallang field on Aug 21 afternoon.

Egypt’s Ibrahim Sabry eventually claimed top spot in the event, beating Rick van Oever of the Netherlands with exactly the same score.

The Madrasah Al-Irsyad Al-Islamiah student had become Singapore’s fourth Youth Olympic Games (YOG) medallist, having won a bronze medal at the Mixed Archery event on Aug 19 in a thrilling sudden-death match, which saw him hit a bulls eye in his final shot to end the contest and claim third spot.