| By Jeanette Wang & Lin Xinyi | ||
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Singapore's start to the table tennis competition almost ended before it began. The mixed team of Clarence Chew, Tay Jit Kiat, Isabelle Li and Chau Hai Qing had their matches postponed after the boys were deemed potential contacts of a confirmed H1N1 case. -- ST PHOTO: LIM SIN THAI |
ALL he wanted was panadol, but Zachary Ryan Devaraj ended up having to swallow the bitter pill of missing the biggest race of his life so far.
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The 14-year-old runner was stuck in isolation at the Asian Youth Games' Games Village at Swissotel The Stamford awaiting test results for suspected Influenza A (H1N1), as the heats for the boys' 800 metres got underway at the Bishan Stadium yesterday afternoon.
The result - negative - was out at 4.30pm and he was allowed to leave. But there was no way he could make the 4.47pm start.
'I'm quite angry. I was crying,' said the Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) Secondary 3 student, when he eventually arrived at the stadium at about 5.15pm with his father, Simon, to appeal his case.
The chain of events began on Tuesday night at about 9.30pm, when Zachary, who has a history of sinus, wanted some panadol to clear his blocked nose. Just a few hours earlier, he had finished sixth in the 1,500m final in 4min 24.48sec.
Fearing the medicine could be a banned substance, he consulted team manager C. Veeramani first.
The teenager said he was then directed to the medical centre, where he was diagnosed as having flu-like symptoms.
An oral swab was taken at about 10pm and Zachary spent the night in isolation. Yesterday morning, the test results were inconclusive and a second swab was taken at about 10am.
'My highest temperature was only about 37 deg C. I didn't feel weak or anything,' he said.
His heat - the second of three - was eventually won by India's Ravi Kumar in 2min 3.90sec, slower than Zachary's personal best of 2:01.04 set last week at the a meet in Kuala Lumpur.
'Knowing that I could have made the final makes me feel even worse,' he said.
'The 800m is my pet event and I trained six times a week for it. I sacrificed going out during the holidays for training. I'll be too old for the next AYG.'
Did he feel robbed?
'Kind of,' said Zachary, who has no more events at the AYG. 'But I guess they had to be strict because of the H1N1. I'll just have to get on with life and focus on next year's Youth Olympic Games.'
Organisers yesterday acknowledged that the time taken for Zachary to obtain his test results was longer than expected.
The medical procedure has been rectified and in future, two tests will be conducted concurrently.
Singapore's table tennis players almost suffered a similar fate - in the mixed team competition.
The quartet comprising Clarence Chew, Tay Jit Kiat, both 13, Isabelle Li and Chau Hai Qing, both 14, were due to open their Group D campaign against the Philippines at 10.15am yesterday.
But minutes before the start at the Toa Payoh Sports Hall, organisers decided to postpone that tie, and Singapore's 12.45pm match against Nepal.
This, after Clarence and Jit Kiat had been identified on Tuesday night as potential close contacts with a confirmed H1N1 case - national youth teammate Kerry Tan, 14, who is not in the AYG squad.
Kerry was diagnosed with the H1N1 flu on Monday.
The two fixtures were rescheduled to the afternoon when it was determined that both Clarence and Jit Kiat had not come into close contact with Kerry.
The Singapore team went on to beat both the Philippines and Nepal 3-0.
Both the Philippines and Nepal supported the move, although they were kept waiting for as long as 40 minutes before they received news of the postponement.
Filipino paddler Ian Lariba, 14, said: 'I'd rather play against Singapore than receive a walkover. Competing against them is one way for us to test ourselves.'
