By Erwin Wong and Colin Tung
Avinash (#122, second from right) was initially nominated but was subsequently withdrawn. (Photo © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
A controversy over who should represent Singapore in the 400m race at the Asian Youth Games was reported in the mainstream media earlier this week. (Storm over selection; Tuesday, June 2, The Straits Times)
The unhappy father of Ng Chin Hui had questioned the selection policy after his son beat the nominated athlete, Jared Lim, in the final of two major races.
Jared had clocked 51.11s in the semi-finals of the inter-school championships, but Chin Hui finished higher (2nd; 51.25s) than Jared (4th; 51.55s) in the final.
However, the selection of Jared was based purely on timing only as stated in the Singapore Athletics Association (SAA) website.
Last weekend, on May 30, Chin Hui once again triumphed over Jared in the 400m at the National Juniors Track-and-Field Championships, winning in a time of 51.58s – 0.47s slower than Jared’s age-group leading time – with Jared finishing third in 52.05s.
The decision by SAA to pick the athlete with the fastest timing without also considering other factors like big-race temperament ruffled the feathers of Chin Hui’s father, and hence his letter to the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports.
However, the Straits Times report incorrectly pointed out that Jared Lim was nominated back in April when in fact it was 16-year-old Avinash R. of Seng Kang Secondary who was initially nominated.
In a May 4th article in the Straits Times, the athletics squad for the Asian Youth Games (AYG) was announced and Avinash was named as the 400m runner.
The official AYG website had also put the profile of Avinash up along with his other teammates, but he has since been removed.
Avinash held the fastest 400m time of 51.37s, in his age-group going into the inter-school championships and finished fifth behind Chin Hui and Jared in 51.64s.
But to add to the debate over whether Jared is the best option for the sole 400m spot, Avinash was the other person to beat Jared at the National Juniors over the weekend, when finishing runner-up to Chin Hui, in a time of 51.99s.
What’s the best criteria for selection? The best time, regardless of when it was clocked? Or the winner from one big selection race? Also, is it right to name a person as the nation’s representative and subsequently withdraw that honour away from him?
You know, I really do not know how the selection criteria for AYG was designed. Some of those athletes going are not even National Junior or National Schools champions but they’re deemed good enough to compete with the best in Asia. Baffling indeed!
hey guys, how about we go picketing outside 3 Champions Way?
waliuuuu i hate the way they do things man. its baised unfair. haiz…. SINGAPORE SPORTS IS GOING TO REMAIN FOEVER LOUSY UNDER THESE PEOPLE BECAUSE THE PEOPLE WHO DESERVE TO COMPETE WILL NEVER GET A CHANCE TO COMPETE WHILE THE LOUSY PEOPLE ARE GOING TO MAKE A FOOL OF THEMSELVES AND GIVE OTHERS AN IMPRESSION THAT SINGAPOREANS ARE LIKE HANDICAPSSSSSSSSSS. i hope someone from saa sees these comments. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
-comment moderated-
dont need to debate so much. whether you’re good or not doesnt matter. as long you have rapport with ssc before, you’re most likely to get chosen. same for the other sports.
sg sports will never ever break out easily just because of a lack of transparency in selection policies.
O YEA!! use the decathlon point system. cant go wrong if we use that. :D:D:D
In view of the upcoming AYG, I would like to express mine, as well as a consensus that many fellow athletes have put forth regarding the inadequacy of the selection scheme used by the SAAA, which is taking into account the percentage of athletes who better the world youth qualifying mark, or the degree which they trail from it.
First off, using percentage as a medium to gauge the performance of athletes is by far incomprehensible in the aspect of validity. Why? There is no linear correlation between events per say. In other words, to get lets say 90% in Javelin men’s event, one would have to throw 54m, 6m away from the world youth qualifying. For a thrower in the Javelin event, 6m would not be impossible within a month, especially taking into account the June break and multiple development phases which he could undergo, especially technically, where a slight adjustment could enable one to improve dramatically without fail. However, for a high jumper to even attain 95%, he would have to do 1.9m, a whole 10cm further from the 2m world youth qualifying mark. 10cm in 1 month? That might be possible if the athlete was doing 1.9m without his run-up in the first place.
Less notably though, SAAA might consider posting up further specifications on the qualifying procedure for athletes. Instead of simply saying “we’ll just pick the best through percentageâ€, I would suggest using the point system used by IAAF for the decathlon event. Aside from that, I do understand that these selections are sticky issues and being just to everyone is a task. However, more attention to these details would prove beneficial both to the organization’s effectiveness as well as for the athletes. Thanks.
the whole selection is UNFAIR. daym, i wonder how they come out with that noob selection citeria. HOW?!?!?!??! its like SOOOOOOOOO UNFAIR! using percentage as selection citeria. no one in their rite mind on earth will use this as a selection citeria. OMGGGGGGG!!!! okok so why on earth isit unfair?! There is no linear correlation HENCE jumpers and sprinters would have an throwers if u still do not understand, u have crap in ur brains:D we can see that no throwers are selected for the ayg and it feels weird as track and field is basicallly about running jumpin and thrwoing, leaving out the throwers dosent make the track and field team representing singapore complete. our athletes are gonna perform infront of SOOOOO many spectators and i realised something we have got to look good but due to the selection citeria i feel that some are gonna look quite bad. i admit, some are gonna do estremely well. BUT some are REALLY GONA LOOK BAD. im not trying to make people feel bad but lets face it, they are gonna look SOOOOO bad. i went to the ayg website and realised that one of our long distance runner is gonna get trashed badly as she/he missed the qualifying mark by a shocking 35seconds but because of the screwed selection citeria he/she qualified. this is going to look really abd on tv. another example is the high jumper. missing the qualifying mark by a shocking 15cm this is going to LOOK PATHETIC as the jumpers final height would be the other jumpers starting height. IM SORRY IF THE ATHLETES ARE READING THIS BUT FACE IT! ok i shall end with saying that the selection citeria is going to be the main cause of some athletes looking bad and i hope this selection citeria wont be used for yog as it is unfair to athletes who train so hard and not getting chosen. I REALLY HOPE THIS GETS POSTED
But one point that we must still note regarding Kenneth’s post. Although i completely agree with him that using a major qualifying trials/national championships would be a better alternative as compared to the controversial and ridiculous method we use now, WE DO NOT SEND ATHLETES FOR ALMOST EVERY EVENT like the US. We have limited slots despite us being the host city. So how do we deal with that? theres no relation between events, definitely, and using percentage is just wrong. haizpo…
I am glad Redsports PICKED this up. It is Straits Times that published Avinash as being selected first.To leave Avinash out was factually incorrect. StraitsTimes being read by so many of us should now make the correction.Thank you again Redsports for setting this whole story straight.It shows you have a good journalism guys with you. Keep this upi. I am sure the WINNER of all this is SINGAPORE SPORTS.
Think the REDpoll regarding the selection medium for the AYG churned out some interesting results. I guess to me the most fair method would be to adopt the American practice of holding qualifying trials or even a National Championships right at the selection deadline to decide who should go (e.g. the top 2 or the winner of the trial will automatically qualify). This has a few advantages.
Firstly, selection is based on most recent form. This weeds out athletes who peak early in the year but are unable to reproduce their form when it matters. It also rules out athletes who had qualified earlier, but are injured during the run-up to the AYG & are thus unable to repeat their earlier performances.
Secondly, all the contenders are lined up head to head. Hence, the eventual winner is the athlete who has trumped over all his/her rivals in the same race & track conditions. This eliminates potential grouses (like the one from Chin Hui’s dad) regarding athletes who do better or worse timings albeit based on differing conditions like wind speed, rainy conditions etc.
Thirdly, The eventual winner is also the one who can hold his/her nerve & triumph in the face of his/her other rivals. For a major meet like the AYG, we want athletes who can perform under pressure, not athletes who only do their personal bests when they compete in a pressure-free environment against vastly inferior competition.
Hopefully the SAA would seriously consider adopting this selection practice to rule out potential controversy over selections.
A M I,
write to the ST forum lah.
“Dear Editor,
I refer to last Tuesday’s report, ‘Storm Over Selection’. I wish to inform Mr Ng Foong Chuar to take a leaf out of Mr Zaki’s father’s book and not make a mountain out of a molehill. I also wish to ask that Mr Ng wake up his idea and not be a prepubescent male as he is fifty-seven this year already.
Yours truly,
A M I”
muhd zaki will be 17 this year which rules him out of the asian youth games track and field. only athletes born in 1993 or 1994 are eligible, according to saa.
Based in the National T & C… ALl those names mentioned ARE NOT THE QUALIFIER…
The person who ARE QUALIFIED is Mr. Muhammad Zaki from EVG. He clocked the time of 50.65 sec.. ahead of Jared, Chin Hui or even Avinash… But this fellow father did not even make an issue of it. To the father of Chin Hiu, please wake up yr idea and dun be a small boy
U know all this could be avoided if the SAA had specified clear selection guidelines & criteria & had them explained to all athletes involved in the first place. If not selection problems are going to keep surfacing.
Thats really unfair to avinash seriously
Avinash deserves the spot, totally.
but if they (SAA) stated from the beginning that they would select the best time closest to the qualifying time by the nearest percentage, they would have to pick Jared, wouldn’t they? or else, they would be going by a criterion not stated earlier. this would take away the credibility of their words.
generic as the criteria spelt out may be, the heats and semi-finals do fall in the qualifying period, so technically, Jared’s qualification is legal, isn’t it.
of course, having said that, the SAA could have been more specific. and the reason why humans are the ones to make the call on the team is so they can exercise their judgement on the more deserving candidate. otherwise, all selection could have been made by a computer with no room for discretion.
I say avinash and chin hui!
it should be either avinash or chin hui!
yes i agree, i think avinash and chin hui are both extremely worthy of the 400m place rather than Jared as they have shown consistency.
Should post this in the straits times forum man