Youth Olympic Triathlon: Scott Ang betters personal best in spite of early morning visit to hospital

Story by Colin Tung/Red Sports. Pictures by Vanessa Lim and Colin Tung/Red Sports

East Coast Park, Monday, August 16, 2010 — In spite of a stomach ache that necessitated a trip to the hospital at 2am on the day of competition, Scott Ang managed to make the start line of the boys’ triathlon.

1 hour 2 minutes and 15.11 seconds after the start, Scott had achieved a new personal best for the 750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run, en route to 29th position in a field of 32 competitors in the Youth Olympic Games triathlon competition. His previous personal best of 1:03:12 was set at the Youth Olympic Games Asian qualifiers in Incheon, Korea.

The Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) student, who is studying for his International Baccalaureate said: “It was not a bad race. I did a PB.”

“It was really good conditions for a race. Flat water … little currents made the swim easy. It was pretty windy for the bike leg though,” said Scott about the East Coast course which he has trained and raced on so many times.

Throughout the interview with him, he made no mention of the stomachache that made chief national coach Guo Weidong bring him to the hospital for a consultation.

“The doctor said he must have ate or drank something wrong. He also gave the advice to withdraw from the competition if the stomachache persisted. But Scott told me he wanted to compete,” coach Guo said.

The mettle of our Singaporean boy is not the only thing that impresses.

Namibian Abrahm Louw, who finished fifth in the race, shared about the interaction he has had with Scott.

“We had been to the World (Junior and Under-23) Training Camp together (in 2009). He’s a really nice and helpful guy. He offered to take us around town and show us where to run and cycle because his mother has a car,” said Louw with a smile.

The winner, Aaron Barclay of New Zealand, finished in 54 minutes 41.49 seconds, 7:33.62 faster than Scott. Barclay put in an aggressive performance, heading out of the first transition between the swim and bike in second position. He then took the lead on the second of three bike laps and never looked back to claim victory for New Zealand.

American qualifiers winner Kevin McDowell of the United States took silver in 54:55.28, just 13.79s behind Barclay, who had been runner-up in the Oceania qualifiers. The second runner-up in the European qualifiers, Alois Knabl of Austria, rounded up the podium in a time of 55:04.72.

The leading pack of boys came through the swim pretty quickly, in slightly over nine minutes. The first boy out of the water was Thomas Jurgens of Belgium in 8:38. Others with him as they exited out of the transition area on their bikes included African qualifiers winner Louw and Miguel Fernandes of Portugal.

A light drizzle started to descend as rubber hit the road. Three packs — with a couple propping up the back — formed on the bike leg with Singapore’s Scott Ang hanging on to the third pack. The drizzle did not discourage the leaders from attacking as they extended the gap between themselves and Scott with each lap.

By the time Scott came in for his second transition, he was 2:43 down on the leaders.

Meanwhile, the battle for the medals was intensifying down the road from Scott. Eight boys had been within 10 seconds of each other with Barclay leading the way at 38:09 out of the second transition.

The American, McDowell, was putting in a good shift too in the run (with the second-fastest time recorded) and overhauled Jeremy Obozil of France, the European qualifiers winner, Knabl and Fernandes to put himself in second position.

Barclay would however be out of his reach as he posted the fastest run time of 16:32 to breast the tape.

Barclay, a native of Southland, New Zealand’s southernmost region, was in his first race outside of New Zealand and Australia. He shared after the run: “I am very proud to win for New Zealand. I love my country.”

Australia’s Michael Gosman, who had beaten Barclay in the Oceania qualifiers, had good words to share of his rival.

“The race suited him. He did well today. But I’ve got a couple of races up (including September’s ITU World Championship in Budapest) against him soon so we’ll see,” said Gosman.

Gosman finished in 12th position after having his swimming goggles knocked out of place when diving into the water.

“It happened once in practice and I thought I had it fixed. I had to stop and put the goggles back,” Gosman explained.

With both the girls’ and boys’ triathlon wrapped up, all that is left in the triathlon competition at the Youth Olympic Games is the Mixed Team Relay on Thursday, August 19th.

For the full results, click here.

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Youth Olympic Triathlon Mixed Team Relay

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