Mahjong & Japanese lunch for SIN team, while CEO worries about lottery
News filtered through from the lay day at the SEA Games in Pattaya, Thailand via The Straits Times – we only have Singaporean news, how about you? Anyway news sleuth, Jeanette Wang, writes: “It was a busy day for Singapore's 25-strong sailing team in Pattaya yesterday. Mahjong, online gaming, shopping, getting temporary tattoos by the beach and a scrumptious Japanese lunch. Chatter and laughter filled up most of their hours. The mood among the tightly bonded team was relaxed and upbeat. No one could have guessed that this was a group of athletes in the midst of competition at the 24th South-east Asia Games” (we could, sound just like thos laid back guys when they came to Medemblik in August [ed]). Apparently, SingaporeSailing President and chef de mission, Low Teo Ping upped the gold-medal target , but even this failed to twitch any nerves! The usual daily 7.45am physical training went ahead, but sounds pretty much games on the lay day, when the team's burly, strength and conditioning coach, Quintin Roman, got rugby-tackled by his charges and thrown into the swimming pool.
Team manager (& SingaporeSailing CEO) Andrew Sanders remained cautious: “It’s still early to talk about medals. Conditions over the past few days have been very tricky, with predominantly light winds suddenly dying down. It’s like a lottery out there. There isn’t one race where the points’ margin is very wide. All the teams are still very close to each other, and with the tricky conditions, just a single bad day is enough to turn the tide against us.”
