ChannelNews Asia, 5 May 2010, 39 athletes from 12 sports selected so far for YOG

39 athletes from 12 sports selected so far for YOG
By Leonard Thomas, TODAY / Dylan Loh | Posted: 04 May 2010 1919 hrs

SINGAPORE: The Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) revealed Tuesday an initial list of athletes that will represent the country at the inaugural Youth Olympic Games.

The Singapore contingent so far numbers 39 athletes from 12 individual sports. Two team sports, boys' football and boys' hockey, have also been fielded.

Notable absentees from the list are athletes in track and field and badminton.
With 31 individual slots still open, athletes have until end-May to convince selectors they should participate in the Games.

As for team sports, volleyball and handball have a two-week window.

The SNOC must submit a confirmed list of athletes to the International Olympic Committee by July 15.

The Youth Olympic Games will be held here from Aug 14-26 and will feature some 3,600 athletes from 205 nations doing battle in 26 Olympic sports.

All eyes will be on two athletes at the YOG - Sportsboy of the Year 2009 Darren Choy and Natasha Yokoyama, who have been chosen to do Singapore sailing proud at the Games.

Mr Choy says: "For me I honestly don't really feel any pressure, I mean, as a person myself I handle pressure quite well I think."

Ms Yokoyama says: "I'm actually quite confident to medal at YOG because this is our home ground and I know the conditions here very well - the weather, the wind, the waves, the current."

Other athletes selected so far hail from swimming, archery and judo, among others.
Says Deputy Prime Minister and president of SNOC: "What we've done is we have selected the athletes and the teams who have clearly
demonstrated their qualification capability. There's a group of sports which have not yet finished their qualification trials yet, so we
have to wait for those. And then there's a group of athletes who are on the margin and we have to evaluate those athletes again on a
set of criteria to make sure that they're competitive."

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Sports

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• Singapore
• SingaporeSailing
• Youth Olympic Games
• sailing