By Justin Kor in Buenos Aires

There were tears and cheers as the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) drew to a close for most sports that Singapore’s athletes were participating in.

Performance-packed Day 6 saw the wrap of swimming, windsurfing and badminton, with shuttler Jaslyn Hooi missing out on the bronze medal. Six other sports ended earlier.

She fell to top seed Chaiwan Phittayaporn in a bronze medal match, losing 21-9, 21-13.

“I felt that I did my best. I pushed through everything but unfortunately I didn’t get the medal,” said Jaslyn, 17.

“She (Chaiwan) is a very skilful player – a lot of her shots were unexpected and unpredictable. I’ll try to learn from her and get ready for my next match against her.”

Over at the Club Nautico San Isidro – a 45-minute drive away from the city centre – windsurfers Alexander Lim and Marsha Shahrin also completed six days of 12 gruelling races. Alexander came in 7th out of 24 racers overall, while Marsha finished 15th out of 23.

Both athletes were competing at their first major Games.

“I’m happy with my performance but I still think I can improve on my technique and get stronger physically,” said Alexander, 16, who believes he did quite well despite his inexperience.

Evaluating her own performance, Marsha, 17, shared: “I expected to do better, but when I first came into this competition, I didn’t really know how my competitors were like because it’s been a while since I met them – they’ve really improved a lot.”

The four-member swimming contingent also finished the final day of racing. Their last event saw the mixed 4×100 medley relay team of Gan Ching Hwee, Ong Jung Yi, Maximillian Ang and Christie Chue coming in 21st out of 27 in the overall heats with a time of 4:05:67.

“We’re all very tired on the last day, but we still gave it our best shot and everyone did pretty well,” said Maximillian, 17.

“The four of us had a really fun time here. We enjoyed our races and made new friends. The atmosphere is amazing.”

That sentiment was echoed by many Singapore athletes, including those who participated in fencing, gymnastics, shooting, sports climbing and triathlon that had finished earlier.

They will stay on for the remaining six days of the YOG, participating in the cultural and educational activities available at the village.

Although the Games might be officially over for most of them, there would not be much downtime as some continue to train for upcoming competitions in November.

Some of the swimmers will compete at the FINA Swimming World Cup in Singapore in just over a month’s time, while Jaslyn and fellow shuttler Joel Koh will be heading to Canada to compete in the World Junior Championships on November 5th.

The YOG still continues for our athletes in table tennis, sailing and athletics.

Other Singaporeans in action on day 6

Swimming

Women’s 200M Breaststroke Heats – Christie Chue (2:36:49) Finished 24th out of 40. Did not qualify for final

Men’s 200M Butterfly Heats – Ong Jung Yi (2:02:99) Finished 14th out of 37. Did not qualify for final

Women’s 400M Freestyle Heats – Gan Ching Hwee (4:17:86) Finished 10th out of 26. Qualified as reserve for the final

Table Tennis

Mixed International Teams Preliminary Stage

Choi Hae Eun & Cho Dae Song (KOR) beat Goi Rui Xuan & Koen Pang (SGP) 3-0
Hirano Mui & Harimoto Tomakaszu (JAP) beat Goi Rui Xuan & Koen Pang (SGP) 3-0

Sailing

Mixed Two-Person Multihull Day 5 of 6 – Chia Teck Pin & Sophia Meyers are currently ranked 12th out of 14, after 12 of 13 races