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SINGAPORE: Team Singapore's medallists at the Asian Youth Games will receive a monetary bonus for their successful performances at the event.
Just before the closing ceremony at the Games Village yesterday, the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) announced that the athletes are likely to be rewarded via an incentive scheme.
"We are talking to potential sponsors and are thinking about putting the money into an endowment fund for the athletes," said SNOC secretary-general Chris Chan. "We hope to announce it over the next few days."
The money will not come from the current Multi-Million Dollar Awards Programme, which is sponsored by the Tote Board and Singapore Pools and gives cash payouts to athletes who win medals at the Olympics, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and SEA Games.
The Republic's 90 athletes competed in aquatics (swimming and diving), athletics, football, 3-on-3 basketball, beach volleyball, bowling, shooting, sailing and table tennis at the Games, winning nine gold, six silver and 15 bronze medals in six sports.
The swimmers were the top performers at the nine-day event with five golds, two silvers and five bronzes. Six national and nine under-17 records were set, and 36 personal bests were posted.
Singapore's bowlers won three gold, two silver and two bronze medals, followed by sailing (1-1-1), athletics (4 bronze), shooting (1 bronze) and table tennis (1 bronze).
The Republic finished fourth on the medal table, behind China (25 gold), South Korea (20) and Thailand (11), but Team Singapore chef-de-mission Lee Wung Yew warned against complacency.
"Singapore's medal standing is not a true reflection (of our standing in Asia) as Malaysia did not send a full squad and they are a force in bowling," he said.
"The Japanese also did not send quite a few of their top athletes in swimming. That gave us the opportunity to shine. But looking at the performance of the athletes, it shows our potential to reach higher standards."
The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) gave the organising committee a glowing report card.
"It was a fantastic Games, not only for the athletes, but the atmosphere was great," said Timothy Fok, OCA's vice-president for East Asia.
"They had only one year to prepare, so it wasn't a walk, but a sprint. Health issues (H1N1) factored very much in the preparations and created tremendous stress for the organising committee, but they did well."
Touted as a test event ahead of next year's Youth Olympics - which Singapore will host from Aug 14-26 - these Games was hosted at a cost of $15 million, with S$8.4 million raised through sponsorship. Over 1,400 athletes from 43 National Olympic Committees took part.
Issues such as poor ticket sales, website updates, event information and volunteers' training will be ironed out in time for the Youth Olympics, organisers promised.
- TODAY/yb
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