Beijing Profile- Team Singapore

by Lim Han Ming on 3 Aug 2008 It was an unusually quiet day at the Singapore National Sailing Centre.Except for a few groundsmen doing maintenance work on the boats, it was a picture of calmness and tranquility on a breezy Wednesday morning. But inside the gym, there was a hive of activity.

Laser Radial sailor Lo Man Yi had just finished 50 minutes of rowing exercise on the rowing apparatus.

Beads of perspiration rolled down the 20-year-old's cheeks as she moved on to complete another 40 minutes of cycling.

There was no time to waste for Lo, who voluntarily went back to train at the National Sailing Centre, even though it was supposed to be a rest week for the sailors before they went for a 10-day familiarisation trip to host venue Qingdao earlier this month.

'Most of us are on a weight-loss programme before we go to the Olympics,' said Lo, who left for the Beijing Olympics with the rest of the sailing team yesterday.

'We expect light winds in Qingdao, so that will be an advantage to the lighter sailors.'

So far, Lo has trimmed 3kg off her 61kg frame. She is hoping to get her weight down to 56kg before the start of the Beijing Olympics.

For 470 pair Deborah Ong (left) and Toh Liying (right) to perform well at sea, they have to go through a set of aerobic exercises (top) at the National Sailing Centre together with Laser Radial sailor Lo Man Yi

The same goes for 470 sailor Xu Yuan Zhen, who lost 2kg in the space of a week.

Beside working out in the gym, the 23-year-old full-time sailor also runs regularly.

There was one day where he ran for one-and-a-half hours from the National Sailing Centre in East Coast to Potong Pasir, where his girlfriend of nine years and fellow Olympian Toh Liying lives.

The daily routine is slightly different from the one the sailors followed in Europe, where they were based the last two years trying to qualify for the Olympics.

According to Xu, a typical day in Europe starts at 7am, where they will do a light workout before having breakfast. The sailors then hit the waters from 9am to 11.30am before they break for lunch.

After lunch, they will spend the rest of the afternoon training in their boats.

Back in Singapore, the sailors have different objectives to meet for the Beijing Olympics.

While the sailors spent most of their time in the gym, the women's 470 pair of Toh and Deborah Ong were all set to go out to sea after lunch.


The duo were only informed of their slot in late June after the International Sailing Federation awarded them a slot under its Unused Quota Place which admits the best non-qualifiers for a particular class.

They have not trained together for five months after they failed in their bid to qualify for the Olympics in February.

Toh, 23, resumed her biomedical studies at Monash University in Melbourne while 17-year-old Ong went back to school at Victoria Junior College.

Although they were not guaranteed a spot in the Olympics, they kept themselves fit during this period.

Getting Fit
In Melbourne, Toh will wake up early to do her own workout before she goes for classes.

And whenever she can, she will try to go to the gym in between classes.

She said: 'I'm so used to exercising that I feel funny if I don't exercise for one day. Anyway, we have trained so hard for the last two years. It would be a big waste if we threw it all away.'

A typical day for Ong starts at 8am where she will go for a run or a swim.

After breakfast, she would do some aerobic exercises for half an hour before heading down to the National Sailing Centre.

In the afternoon, she would go out to sea for about two to four hours.

Depending on the intensity of the sailing session, she may go for a run or a swim in the evenings.

Ong said: 'We were very excited when our place in the Olympics was finally confirmed.

'We may be a bit rusty, but the thing about sailing is that it takes only a few days to get the feel back.

'Unlike the others, our focus is not really on losing weight. Our weight is ideal for our class. What is more important is that we re-acquaint ourselves with the technical stuff.

'Then we'll be ready for the Olympics.

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