You have to be young, disabled and a "first timer"! All at the same time! And that's not all....
You CANNOT be a SWIMMER!!---
the words in bold sorta make up for the otherwise rather crappy article - in terms of some of the ?!? info i mean (but well, it wasn't the reporter's fault i guess)
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The Straits Times
April 23, 2007
ARCHERY
New range a boost for archers
By Hoe Pei Shan
SINGAPORE'S archers have set their sights on one gold, two silver and two bronze medals at November's South-east Asia Games.
Said Archery Association of Singapore vice-president Wong Loong Tat: 'I am not going to promise two golds, but we will try very hard to reach our target this time.'
At the last Games in 2005, the archers promised two golds but delivered only one bronze.
The reasons for this new-found confidence: a new home, a new coach and fresh talent.
Yesterday, the national archery range at Zhenghua which, at 190m by 140m, is Singapore's biggest, was officially opened.
The $80,000 facility will be a centralised training venue for national archers. It will also host the inaugural South-east Asian Archery Federation Junior Championships from May 2-6.
Members of the public can also shoot there annually for $25. Student membership costs $18.
This will help 'develop high-performance athletes while also building up mass participation in the sport', said Mr Michael Palmer, an MP for Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC.
He is adviser to the Archery Association of Singapore.
Although it will take up to six months before the facility is fully operational, the Zhenghua range signals a change for the better.
The previous national range at Portsdown Road, in use since the 1970s, was torn down in 2003 to make way for a new road linking Queensway to the Ayer Rajah Expressway.
The national team spent four years shooting from a basketball court into a school field at the old Upper Serangoon Secondary School.
Said Henry Ong, a silver medallist at the South-east Asian Championships in February: 'The new national range is about four times bigger than the Serangoon range, and we are able to shoot from Olympic distances of 90m in a straight field.
'The ground here is also flatter, which is preferable.'
The end of their nomadic existence is good news for Korean Choi Mi Jin and her charges.
Choi, a gold medallist at the 1996 Asian Championships, was appointed the national coach last year.
The AAS turned to South Korea in its search for a coach as the country has produced numerous world and Olympic champions since the 1984 Los Angeles Games.
And, with Choi at the helm, the juniors have shown marked improvement.
In yesterday's qualifiers for the SEAAFJC, the top scorers were close to 90 per cent on target.
Christopher Han, 18, shot 796 out of a total of 900 points to top the men's junior recurve.
Compound archer Tan Ken Li, 17, shot 849 points to emerge the overall top junior.
And Valerie Tan, 14, was second overall and first in the girls' recurve with 821 points.
With these young talents, it is no wonder the AAS is confident it can deliver at the SEA Games.
With a beginner-level bow costing about $450 and arrows costing $10 each, Mr Palmer noted that 'archery is a good sport for Singaporeans'.
'It is not prohibitively expensive and is skill-based, which means that it does not rely on size and strength,' he explained.
'It's not a very specialised sport in terms of facilities required, and can be practised pretty much anywhere that has a field.'
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well done j2s + daryl! :D
pwn them all at seaafjc!
aas shoot
jinglin in action!
ongnardo is cool.
