Singapore Scene -- Athletics, Pentathlon; Rogge Says YOG "Fun Factor" Good for Olympics

YOG Exceeds Expectations

The International Association of Athletics Federations secretary general tells Around the Rings the YOG is "far much better than expected."

"Especially for athletics where we had a totally new format where we have a first round for three days a break and a second round where all the athletes have the opportunity to compete twice" Pierre Weiss tells ATR.

"We had a concern but it worked well.

"The feedback I hear from some team leaders is rather positive because these athletes are here for 12 days. They have 10 days to open their eyes to see other people, to see other activities, so this was also the goal or the target of the IOC not to be about sport only to be about friendship to be about culture."

Weiss said the YOG would serve as a better tool for promoting sports other than athletics. The IAAF has organized a youth world championships since 1999.

"But for some sports for the first time it is a fantastic tool of promotion for the sport and the countries where the athletes are coming from."

One thing that will help the sport he says is the spread of medals.

"Here you have the format is maximum of one athlete by country. So far more countries are having access to the finalist or getting access to the medalist. I think for us I hope we continue in this direction."

Nearly 550 athletes competed in the tournament which concluded Wednesday night at Beshar Stadium.

"It was tough because we are used to in our youth championships, having 1200, 1300 athletes. Here we have 546. So we have less than half.

He also would not say what the federation would change for the next YOG in Nanjing.

"It is in four years" he said with a smile.

"The first thing is to do a debrief, an internal debrief, and the IOC has invited all the federations to go to Lausanne on the 3rd of November."

He said the federation speaks with its technical officials daily about the YOG’s progress.

"We don’t go into details but global opinion it is positive."

He also expressed pessimism about the potential size of the YOG following Nanjing.

"When Singapore was a candidate it had to beat Moscow. And the IOC very deliberately chose Singapore.

"Why? Because they were saying Moscow is big enough to host the real Olympic Games, so we must give a chance to smaller countries. So you go to China it will be more.

"The opening ceremony cost $13 million. In Nanjing it will cost even more. And the target will be too high. And after, I already heard the delegation from Finland say that’s too much for us, we are not able to afford. So the risk is we are copying too much, the real Olympic Games and we will kick out from the circuit of bidders, potential candidates."

One area of potential concern is the venue for athletics. It hosted the Asian Games and has "only" 85,000 seats.

"I’m not worried" Weiss said. "It will be full morning and afternoon."

Rogge Says "Fun Factor" Can Improve Olympics

IOC president Jacques Rogge says the YOG’s "fun factor" can improve the Olympics.

"I think that there are things that will definitely be useful. I think, for instance, to introduce maybe in the traditional Games a more fun factor in the competitions that are sometimes too serious, too heavy and too full of stress."

But the IOC president also stressed the distinctiveness of the two events.

"It would be wrong to say that [the Youth Olympic Games] is going to be transferable automatically to the traditional games. The traditional Games will always be bigger and more sophisticated to organize," he said.

"Perfect" Olympic Debuts for Pentathlon

Laser pistols and mixed team relays made their Olympic debut for modern pentathlon at the YOG.

Klaus Schormann, president of the pentathlon federation, UIPM said everything with the tournament is "absolutely perfect".

"It couldn’t be better as we say.

"The laser pistol shooting is working as well perfectly. Today this is first time mixed relay and mixed by nations I think it is also another challenge. But this belongs to the Youth Olympic Games. You should do this to mix them up and not to look for the nations. This is very very important.

You see some of the combinations, like Cuba and United states, that’s a nice combination! We have seen so far it is rather successful, without any protest, perfectly organized by the Singapore Organizing Committee."

The laser pistols replace traditional guns firing pellets. Schormann claims the change reduces costs, makes the sport more environmentally friendly, and will help promote pentathlon.

"Kids, eight years, you are 10 years old, it doesn’t matter you can shoot. You can go directly into schools. No complaining from the parents thatsomething will happen. This revolution we have made is, I think the IOC might be very happy with what we’re doing here."

Joel Bouzou , UIPM’s secretary general said laser pistols also open up the sport for spectators.

"It’s fun" he said.

"You will see one day, we will have the shooters facing us. Why not. Nobody has ever seen the face of a shooter from front. We can put the shooters in front of the public if we want, see the emotion. And for them it is very fun."

Schormann said the IOC thinks highly of the changes.

"I just say one word: superb."

Schormann also claims young people are attracted to multi-sport events like pentathlon.

He says some work is needed to promote the sport but youths naturally like competing in multiple events.

"With the Youth Olympic Games we have another channel, it will be a help for us. It will be in our hand to make it more known to push it. And the media can help us, to write about our sport. It’s a really great sport."

Overall, Schormann gives the YOG high marks.

"The education program, I underline that this was a great idea to combine the high level athletes with this part of Olympic movement. The integration of young people to learn Olympic spirit, from the beginning until the end, not to move away like in Olympic Games, they really learn about the Olympic spirit."

Only "minor things" need changing for the next YOG according to Schormann.

"I think this is all sports where you find something you can’t change but modify."

Schormann said he hopes to see the relay even introduced in the Olympics.

"This is our wish. We want to have this in the Olympic Games. We are arguing and presenting but we know for London it is not possible but we have it in our pipe."

Competition took place at the Singapore Sports School, located about 30 minutes from downtown Singapore. Forty-eight

pentathletes from 29 countries competed in the tournament.

There is no time off from the federation now that the YOG tournament is over. The world championships begin Sept. 1 in Chengdu, China.

"The facilities are 10 star, 20 star" Schormann said.

The organizers built a multi-million dollar stadium specifically for modern pentathlon.

ATR coverage of the Youth Olympic Games

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Written by Ed Hula III.