Over 6,000 gather to celebrate Singapore's success in hosting AYG
By Pearl Forss, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 10 July 2009 2249 hrs

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SINGAPORE: More than 5,000 volunteers and 1,200 sports officials gathered to celebrate Singapore's successful hosting of the inaugural Asian Youth Games (AYG), which ended on Tuesday.

The event at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on Friday evening was graced by Mr Teo Chee Hean, Deputy Prime Minister and President of the Singapore National Olympic Council.

Mr Teo said the Games were not perfect but Singapore did well. He said 1,400 athletes were here for the AYG, and 3,600 are expected for the first Youth Olympic Games next year.

Hence, a lot more work needs to be done, especially the training of more volunteers.

Mr Teo said the AYG brought a wonderful challenge to Singapore, and the experience showed that when there is a challenge, the country can rise to it.

Oon Jin Teik, chief executive officer of the Singapore Sports Council, said: "The workforce volunteers form a critical backbone to whatever we do and many of them would ideally have had years of training before the events.

"But I think with their own personal background, their passion and their inherent knowledge of what to do right, we pulled off an event within a very short time, with a very small budget."

- CNA/yb