23rd SEA Games Manila 2005

ok the SEA games have been over for quite a period of time, and only till now do i have the time to pen down some of my thoughts about it all...anyway here are the 5 things that caught my eyes the most

1. Tao Li of swimming. in case you start wondering why her name is so short, she comes from china. well this girl is muscular...is this a trait of all butterfly swimmers? And you can roughly guess her age by what she does: she will make faces at the camera...haha...what really caught my eye about her was that she has that confident aura about her...a bit like lance armstrong...and thats what athletes need...a sort of arrogance in the correct way...and her results does prove her confidence...3 individual gold medals…2 in backstroke and 1 in butterfly...the backstroke times broke the sea games records...how about that for a 14 year old?

2. Tay Xi Hui Nicole of gymnastics. my goodness this is really touching. fell down from the balance beam three times! for 2 of the falls, i think her hip hit the beam...it was solid wood against bone...real painful...after the 3rd fall, you can see her clenching her little fists...and the tears were about to burst out of her eyes...and she still went on to complete her routine...thats really the perfect example of mental strength and 100% concentration on a specific task...she could have just walked out but she still hung on! And heres the most amazing thing! Not long after her falls, she picked herself up from the physical and mental pain to complete the floor exercise with a gold medal performance! That’s exceptional mental strength for a 12 year old *as a member of sports ccas, i start to wonder whether i can do the same...hmm only when a similar situation befalls me will I know, I guess...touch wood actually…however, in sport, failure is a way of life*

3. Yeo Wei Ling Joscelin of swimming. once you see the name, theres not much i need to say right? once you see the name on the start list for individual events, you are almost 50% sure that she will clinch the gold medal...as for relays, these are team efforts so there is no guarantee winning even though shes in the team...and guess what? all her individual victories are quite straightforward...it wont be a thriller finish or what...what impressed me about her at this games…there was the 4X100 m medley relay and joscelin was in charge of the third leg which was the butterfly…from almost no lead, she opened up singapore’s lead to about 3 body lengths, leaving the last swimmer with a pretty simple task…she is just so powerful…

4. Young Lions of…obviously…soccer…these are the statisitics...no medal of any colour since 1995...no gold medal ever since singapore ever started taking part in sea games...out at the group stage for 3 consecutive times...in short ever since sea games became an u-23 tournament we have never got past the group stages...actually the young lions didn’t really catch my eye at this games…its just that for every sea games, the sport that I will be the most concerned about will be soccer…anyway, the teams preparation was ok…but then come the tournament, they just couldn’t score!…especially the Indonesia match…so many gilt-edged chances…it was the same thing at the 2003 sea games…guess we have to work on shooting…and also one factor for the failure was the under-performance of some players…no choice I guess…maybe raddy should have used the other players instead of keeping faith with the more experienced but under-performing for the tournament…

5. Live Our Dreams by Kit Chan (the theme song for this SEA Games)…hehe…the song itself is so touching…and everytime they like to fit in the videos of our athletes together with the song…makes it even more touching…everytime I see the video I will feel like crying…maybe its because I am involved in sports in some way myself…that’s why the song is more close to my heart

alright…that’s all for the sea games!

Saturday, December 31, 2005

only about half a day gone now…so I shall not write about today but rather write about yesterday, the last day of 2005…oh yes…heres wishing a happy new 2006 to all…hope everybody in this world can stay happy always…

So, what happened yesterday? Let me think…not much actually…spent most of the day doing homework…just like most people of my age…and yes…my muscles ached yesterday…Friday had track training…we did drills, then striding, followed by an all-out 800 m run…then after that we did 10 sets of heeling (is that what mr .yazid called it?)…essentially we just sprinted up a slope 10 times at intervals…for those at tpjc…it’s the slope that we see when we get in through the main gate…yes…after that we still went to gym…so all these kind of explains why my muscles ached…at first I was afraid of overworking already…but I kind of decided that will be the last time that I shall take the risk of overworking…I need to read up on what exactly is overworking…have to do this fast…

Wow I cant imagine how much I have digressed already…blogging today about yesterday, and then went on to talk about Friday? My goodness…

Oh yes…and yesterday afternoon I typed 2 e-mails, one to my aunt living in Virginia, Maryland of usa and another one to my kor…the one to my aunt was super long…and I kind of decided that I will start to e-mail her regularly…the e-mail that I just sent was actually a very late reply…so actually I felt quite bad about it

As for the one to my kor…hmm he is currently touring in peru…and by the way he just called home about an hour ago…for some reason he said he can only talk for one minute…and he did talk for only 1 minute or even shorter…he just finished his trekking at inca trail…and according to him, he was unscathed…anyway, I looked for pictures about that place…and my goodness that place looks awesome…it looks like new Zealand…and the first thought I had of it was that it looked like a scene taken out of lord of the rings…haha…just cant help feeling a bit worried about him touring in peru…but well…hmm…on the other hand we cant possibly stop him from seeing more things right?

After sending the e-mails, did some more homework before having a nap…it may sound a bit funny…but I like to sleep on my house’s ceramic floor…it’s a tad hard but its really cold to lie on! Haha!

After nap was dinner…then a bit more homework before my weekly dosage of she4 diao1 ying1 xiong2 zhuan4…every Saturday 9 pm on channel u…I sound like I am advertising…but anyway…next week is the last episode already…hehehe

After the show ended…did some more homework…for some reason this word keeps on appearing…haha no choice…have to finish up as many holiday assignments as possible right?…after homework was fruits…then bathe…then homework again…and guess what…only when I looked up did I discover that I did my homework through to the new year…I didn’t even notice that the clock had hit 12…haha

After that, more homework and then I slept at about 2…upon waking up, it was the first day of a new year of 2006! which is TODAY!

oh yes the picture above is that of inca trail...pretty isnt it?