Singapore Youth Olympic Festival - Day 1
by Icarus Sailing Media 1 Jun 2014 19:56 NZST
31 May - 1 June 2014
Singapore Youth Olympic Festival day 1 © Icarus Sailing Media
Welcome to Singapore and the 3rd Youth Olympic Festival – which celebrates the talents of the nation's young athletes. Singapore hosted the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in 2010 and the Youth Olympic Festival was launched as a legacy from this event.
Today was the opening day of the 3rd edition, held in the spirit of the Olympic values of Friendship, Excellence and Respect. The Youth Olympic Festival is also a promotional platform to increase awareness of the upcoming Youth Olympic Games, taking place in Nanjing, China this August and to inspire more Singaporeans to take up sports. Six sports are in the line-up for the Singapore Youth Olympic Festival 2014 – and of course sailing is well established in this menu.
Open to youth sailors aged 18 and under and with all equipment supplied, Singapore's National Sailing Center is the host venue - offering its usual exceptional hospitality to the athletes. Early in the morning, the sailors gathered to attend the skippers briefing, followed by the lottery draw to allocate equipment. A reasonable breeze of around 8 knots was blowing on the race track – so all set for kick off.
The racing area is close to the shore, so easy access and a short sail to get to the race track. Short sharp races were scheduled, with 6 races for each class in today's qualification series. The one person dinghy events raced in the Laser Radial and Byte CII. The Byte CII is specifically targeted at the younger age group of 16 years and under. Two classes for the windsurfing, using the RS:One and RS5.5, and the school team event was in the Laser Bahia, with 3 students from the same school racing together. A mixed background of sailors – college students to World Champions – and all excited to be taking part in this new Youth Olympic experience. Racing was predicted to be close, with the objective of fun paramount.
In the Laser Bahia, 3 former Optimist World Champions Bertha Han, Kimberly Lim, and Yukie Yokoyama joined forces. The trio set the pace to lead the charge. Next month they will be racing against each other, to battle it out for Singapore's 420 National Championship title. But clear evidence of their friendship and respect for each other's talents - sees them racing here together. The one-person dinghies were also focused on fun, with the skippers in the Byte CII and Laser Radial racing with big smiles. In the RS:One windsurfing event, Ynez Lim was working particularly hard, as she builds up to the honour of representing Singapore at the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing this Summer.
The forecast for Sunday's final day looks set to be similar, with a variety of wind and weather. So another day of challenging racing on the cards for the young sailors here as they move through to the semi-final and final rounds. Get ready for more racing action and final results in our next report!