Sports Galore

(pic courtesy of www.ylje.com)

Singapore is not a sports-crazed country.  Well maybe, but not any sports usually followed back home.  No NFL, no baseball except the kids leagues, no basketball free agents clogging up the media to announce their next team (or any March Madness for that matter) and definitely no where for the Stanely Cup champions to play. 

Sports that are enjoyed - tennis courts down from my 14th floor window are regular active, lots of lap swimmers in the pool, runners everywhere and a number of golf courses around the island.  Professionally, there was huge controversy about which cable provider would buy the contract for the World Cup TV rights.  The F1 (think Indy car, not NASCAR) gets a lot of coverage with televised races on the weekends and a nice race through downtown Singapore in September.  Ping pong (or rather table tennis) which also has televised events - I watched some wicked ladies.  There's also some local football (i.e. soccer) teams that I've heard of and handball (?) as well as I think there's a new cricket field/pitch/something going on.

I have to get all my sport updates through the Yahoo ticker and FB updates.  So, I'm diving into local sports.  I miserably failed at the World Cup.  I saw the Spain/Germany game.  When I saw the time for the Spain/Netherlands final for 2:30am Monday - I thought "Monday late night? Nah."  Well, duh me, Monday morning is really Sunday late night.  Needless to say, my radio alarm woke me up tonight saying "Spain wins! First World Cup ever!"  It hit me, oh crap, I can't tell time and I missed the game :).

Well, I have two upcoming events which I'm sure not to miss!  The first ever Youth Olympic Games are being held in none other than Singapore.  I am a lover of all things Olympic and have it on my to do list to go to the Olympic games one day.  Seeing as Chicago brutally lost the 2016 bid, it is looking less and less likely.  If I can't participate in the real Olympics, next best thing is the kiddie version.  They are in August for a couple of weeks, involve many countries (there should be some US athletes here) and have some similar events.  I debated on what to sign-up for.  I figured I would start with volleyball, table tennis and badminton - three popular sports here which are sure to entertain.  There will be a US team on the day I'm going to watch volleyball.  For now, I only have tickets for prelim competitions.  Above are the mascots, my tickets, and the awesome free transportation passes.  Singapore is represented by a merlion (mermaid and lion) and I believe the mascots are suppose to reflect that in a way.  They have names, I forget them.  I don't know if the games have been well advertised here.  I also have tickets to the opening cermonies and while I'm sure they won't be as good as in Beijing, hopefully they are worth it :).  I'll have some August posts on this event. 

Coming in September....3-day pass to the Singapore F1 race.  I have walkabout tickets to this event and will be looking forward to practicing with my new DSLR (well it'll be a year old by then).  Hopefully some good rac pics! 

I hope everyone is enjoying sports back home.  I'm missing weekly "sandlot" volleyball and will be wishing I could join the Labor Day rolle bolle fun!!