AYG Sailing: A medal of each colour for Team Singapore

Story by Alan Chiang/Red Sports, Photos by Vanessa Lim/Red Sports

National Sailing Centre, Monday, July 6, 2009 - Singapore collected medals from three out of four events at the Asian Youth Games sailing competition. They bagged a gold, silver and bronze each from Darren Choy, Najwa Jumali and Audrey Yong respectively.

After six days of racing, with a rest day in between, today finally marked the final day at sea for these admirable young sailors.

It was a great day for sailing as winds regulated between 12 to 20 knots. The Bic Techno girls had the privilege to race first, and Singapore's Audrey Yong had to command a good performance to seal a bronze medal for her nation.

She surely pleased her coach with an impressive showing against leaders Thailand's Kaewduang Ngam Siripon and China's Hao Xiumei. At a certain point during the course, she had moved up to second position after a tussle with Kaewduang. All Audrey needed was to finish in front of Hong Kong's Man Ka Kei to be guaranteed of the bronze medal. She did just that, leading Man by at least 20-boat lengths to claim the race's third position, and the bronze medal for Singapore.

Audrey, 14-year-old student at Mayflower Secondary School said after the race, "I am really happy as I didn't expect myself to get the bronze medal."

She added, "Actually, I was pretty nervous before the race. But I have two fantastic coaches who helped me a lot along the way."

In the boys' category, Singapore's Chuah Jun Ler would definitely want to erase the memory of his final race as he could only finish in the last position.

Jun Ler, a 14-year-old student at Juying Secondary School, said of his performance, "I think it is still not bad. But I managed to learn a lot from this Asian Youth Games."

On his surprise third placing finish in race 9, he said, "It was a good start for me and I managed to catch up with the wind shifts."

This was the first time Audrey and Jun Ler have participated at a major competition in the Bic Techno category.

The windsurfing coach, Christian Chua Tan-Ching, explained, "Both Audrey and Jun Ler have done well in their first major race. They last raced at the Pattaya Windsurfing Cup in early April."

On Audrey's performance, he said, "I think she handled herself very well as she was well-focused and completed her task. She had a bit of an anxiety before today's race but when she's out at sea, she will perform to her best."

On Jun Ler's performance, he said, "He started late but he still managed to do a few good races." He added, "I guess he still could lead by example to the rest of the sailors who were not selected here."

On the next plan for the windsurfers, he said, "It will be down to the basics again to regain their fitness levels. We also need to expose them (the sailors) to more races as practice makes perfect in sailing."

The excitement kicked in with the matchup between China's Gu Min and Malaysia's Mohd Afendy Khairunneeta in the Byte CII girls' race. Gu had a torrid time at sea when her sail capsized as many as three times. With Malaysia's Mohd Afendy staying in front of her for most part of the course, Gu had to keep her rival firmly in her sights in order to take home the bronze medal for China.

Afendy also had a chance to nick the bronze medal if she could conclude the last race with a strong finish, and hoped that Gu fell back to the rest of the fleet. However, Gu’s fighting spirit brought her back to third position as she was determined not to concede the medal.

Ahead of them, Singapore's Najwa Jumali had an easy ride as she led from start to finish in the final race and ended her silver medal-winning campaign with a bang. Thailand's Thanawitwilat Jittiwa, who had already secured the gold medal, was nowhere to be found in the course.

Najwa, 15-year-old student at Raffles Girls' School, said, "I am quite satisfied as I managed to find form towards the end of the regatta."

She added, "I would have done better if I was more focused for the first few races."

In the Byte CII boys, Singapore's Darren Choy had to seize upon Malaysian Md Jais Muhamad Amirul Shafiq's slip-up to claim the top spot in his final race. Md Jais had mistaken the route of the course and went to the wrong loop after having an enormous lead over Darren. Darren can count himself fortunate as he managed to pull away and finish on a high.

He reserved his comments as he felt tired after the whole regatta.

Mark Plummer, the Byte CII coach, said, "I'm delighted with the overall results. I thought that both Darren and Najwa had done exceptionally well in this whole regatta."

He added, "For Darren, he had exceeded expectations to clinch the gold medal while for Najwa, this silver-medal achievement is her new personal best and standard for her."

Commenting on their chances at next year's Youth Olympic Games, he said, "It's so hard to predict as in the Olympics, we need to take on 6 continents. We also need to take a look at the wind conditions during the races because today, we witnessed a fresher experience of wind strengths. But we will try to let them gain more exposure and experience through the UK and European races."

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