who thinks ang peng siong's mistake was 'trivial' says SSA chief?
http://www.todayonline.com/Sports/E...d-Ang-should-not-be-punished,-says-swim-chief
http://www.todayonline.com/Sports/E...d-Ang-should-not-be-punished,-says-swim-chief
ang peng siong's mistake was 'trivial'?
- Thread starter pokiemon
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He was stuck in the traffic jam.
The Commonwealth Games is a major screw up by India.
Not so trivial in my opinion but the SSA has to give him some "face" because of his contributions to Singapore swimming.
Traffic is always bad there so he should have expected that, he also admitted that he could have left the athlete's village earlier.
i think ssa had the spirit completely mixed up...is this the message we want to send to our singapore atheletes who trained so hard for the games?
"In our case, our swimmers were not expected to win medals and were looking for seventh place. It's unfortunate that they weren't able to swim in the final, but it was not a major error."
"In our case, our swimmers were not expected to win medals and were looking for seventh place. It's unfortunate that they weren't able to swim in the final, but it was not a major error."
I'm sure all the athletes in the games want to win a medal, the purpose of the comments made is to defuse the situation and draw the blame away from ang peng siong but i agree with you that it sounds really depressing that they are only aiming for a 7th placing.
It was a major error IMHO. I think he should be forgiven in light of his past contributions, but his mistake should not be trivialised.
Why in the 1st place the list must be submitted in person? We are in a digital age, for goodness sake. And I thought India has some of the best of mind in the IT field. If all else failed, whatever happen to good old fashion fax? There is no phone at the other end?
Besides, he came out from athlete's village, not some tourist area or places where he shouldn't be, so no logistically support from organizer to speed up the communication process?
What a screw up.... I think we should ban India to organize any such event (at least for a few years).
'I wanted to be with the swimmers for as long as possible and make sure they were prepared before their race.”
This is seriously such a lame excuse.
All the preparation is spent training in the pool which is done months, possibly years before. At most you can give a pep talk 10 mins before the race.
This is seriously such a lame excuse.
All the preparation is spent training in the pool which is done months, possibly years before. At most you can give a pep talk 10 mins before the race.
with SSA president Jeffrey Leow saying reaction to the incident had been "totally overboard".
"In terms of mistakes, this is trivial. I believe the Americans had done the same in the '70s in one of the Olympics and that was a serious situation where they lost medals.....
"In our case, our swimmers were not expected to win medals and were looking for seventh place. It's unfortunate that they weren't able to swim in the final, but it was not a major error."
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(comments below are in response to Jeffrey Leow's published comments and NOT to the incident, which can happen to the best of us)
Mod mode off...
I pray that Jeffrey has been misquoted by the Press.
Otherwise...
That kind of comment is blardy patronizing and outright disrespectful to the atheletes who have put in alot of effort to prepare for the Games!!! Its essentially a statement of no-confidence........ my God, this guy is the SSA president???
Wow... like there is no hope in hell that there might be personal bests set by the relay team or an upset result for a higher placing or, heaven forbid, even a medal ? This is like.... performance coaching and sports psychology ....in reverse.
Then might as well scrap the entire final and award medals based on qualifying times.........
I've no problem with Peng Siong... he's man enough to take responsibility for this and I'm sure he feels terrible about the whole thing.
At least, Jeff Leow should stay encouraging and go into damage control, comfort/counseling mode to the affected atheletes.... these kids must be devastated and emotionally confused, given the huge amount of respect they have for APS , and then for this slip-up by APS to happen...
Mod mode back on....
"In terms of mistakes, this is trivial. I believe the Americans had done the same in the '70s in one of the Olympics and that was a serious situation where they lost medals.....
"In our case, our swimmers were not expected to win medals and were looking for seventh place. It's unfortunate that they weren't able to swim in the final, but it was not a major error."
--------------------------------------
(comments below are in response to Jeffrey Leow's published comments and NOT to the incident, which can happen to the best of us)
Mod mode off...
I pray that Jeffrey has been misquoted by the Press.
Otherwise...
That kind of comment is blardy patronizing and outright disrespectful to the atheletes who have put in alot of effort to prepare for the Games!!! Its essentially a statement of no-confidence........ my God, this guy is the SSA president???
Wow... like there is no hope in hell that there might be personal bests set by the relay team or an upset result for a higher placing or, heaven forbid, even a medal ? This is like.... performance coaching and sports psychology ....in reverse.
Then might as well scrap the entire final and award medals based on qualifying times.........
I've no problem with Peng Siong... he's man enough to take responsibility for this and I'm sure he feels terrible about the whole thing.
At least, Jeff Leow should stay encouraging and go into damage control, comfort/counseling mode to the affected atheletes.... these kids must be devastated and emotionally confused, given the huge amount of respect they have for APS , and then for this slip-up by APS to happen...
Mod mode back on....
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How can he say its a trivial matter. Whoever represents Singapore and carry its flag abroad must treat each and every opportunity with the greatest respect, honor and commitment. Even if all Singaporeans felt its understandable for the late registration due to traffic jams, how about the swimmers themselves, who are deprived of such opportunity to have exposure and experience at the highest levels due to such an error of judgement, in this case time to get the registration done. I sincerely believed not all the swimmers involved are happy about although they may jointly agreed on the circumstances.
This is serious matter. If each opportunity lost is considered as forgivable and taken likely just to save Mr Ang's face, then SSA would have lost its creditability as a governing body. I believe SSA chief used the wrong choice of words.
IMHO
This is serious matter. If each opportunity lost is considered as forgivable and taken likely just to save Mr Ang's face, then SSA would have lost its creditability as a governing body. I believe SSA chief used the wrong choice of words.
IMHO
IMHO, some words such as 'trivial' and 'only expect to come in 7th place' are absolutely bad choice of words to use for such international event. The SSA chief should just admitted that an unintention human error had been made and SSA will ensure such error will never repeat instead of trying to brush the matter aside. And after serious review and consideration, SSA will not pursue this matter and will continue to support the head coach and looking for more medals in future.
I guess that Ang Peng Siong will feel guilty and very sad that he has let down his few young team members and nation, however what happened cannot be undone and should move on. Hopefully the youngster can convert their anguish to winning energy. They will continue to compete with greater strentgh and determination in future competitions and bring in more medals for Singapore.
I guess that Ang Peng Siong will feel guilty and very sad that he has let down his few young team members and nation, however what happened cannot be undone and should move on. Hopefully the youngster can convert their anguish to winning energy. They will continue to compete with greater strentgh and determination in future competitions and bring in more medals for Singapore.
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After re-reading the story, I realise Ang Peng Siong, with all due respect to him, should have accepted the blame.
I don't think this was pointed out by anybody thus far- if it has, take this as a reiteration of the ridiculousness of it all, be it here or in the newspapers- Mr Ang blamed bad traffic conditions for extending the duration of a trip that would normally last 20-30 minutes to a duration of 45 minutes, which thus caused them to be late.
However, under his instruction, the team left at 2.45pm. Assuming traffic was fine, they would have expected to arrive between 3.05 - 3.15pm, when they had to arrive at 3pm. Surely this is a disrespect to the organisers as well as the swimmers, by putting their opportunities to swim in jeopardy. Human error in terms of losing track of time is no longer a possibility as Mr Ang stated this was a 'tactical decision', so that last minute changes could be made if needed. However, by leaving at 2.45, he expected the team to arrive late, an in turn, the team suffered the consequences. Evidently this is significant error of human judgement.
I don't think this was pointed out by anybody thus far- if it has, take this as a reiteration of the ridiculousness of it all, be it here or in the newspapers- Mr Ang blamed bad traffic conditions for extending the duration of a trip that would normally last 20-30 minutes to a duration of 45 minutes, which thus caused them to be late.
However, under his instruction, the team left at 2.45pm. Assuming traffic was fine, they would have expected to arrive between 3.05 - 3.15pm, when they had to arrive at 3pm. Surely this is a disrespect to the organisers as well as the swimmers, by putting their opportunities to swim in jeopardy. Human error in terms of losing track of time is no longer a possibility as Mr Ang stated this was a 'tactical decision', so that last minute changes could be made if needed. However, by leaving at 2.45, he expected the team to arrive late, an in turn, the team suffered the consequences. Evidently this is significant error of human judgement.
He left at 2.45pm and expect to arrive there on time at 3pm? (20-30 mins journey)
Confirmed late . . .
Ang Peng Siong is our icon too in swimming . . . since he had already apologised, let's move on. We can't turn the clock around. Just wasted that we cannot make it for the relay.
Let us forgive and forget . . .
I thought I have read that Ang Peng Siong has accepted the responsibility for this?
Personally I don't classify it as a mistake. A bad judgement if you want to put it.
And I think SSA PR is just horrible. The whole of SSA should be apologetic to the swimmers and the nation. Instead this SSA comes up with such statement.
Winning medals or not is secondary. It is the exposure to such big events that these young swimmers needs. It is an opportunity miss and the association and the team manager must shoulder all the responsibility.
In Singapore mistakes at the bottom is not related to ppl at the top.
Personally I don't classify it as a mistake. A bad judgement if you want to put it.
And I think SSA PR is just horrible. The whole of SSA should be apologetic to the swimmers and the nation. Instead this SSA comes up with such statement.
Winning medals or not is secondary. It is the exposure to such big events that these young swimmers needs. It is an opportunity miss and the association and the team manager must shoulder all the responsibility.
In Singapore mistakes at the bottom is not related to ppl at the top.
I don't think for a moment that this was a mistake or an error of judgment.
APS is an Olympian and have many experience in this field. To leave at 2:45 pm when the deadline to register is at 3 :00 pm., just don't make sense at all.
Unless he is doing it for a purpose and as a protest against the workload he is having and not given an additional assistant for the many tasks !
SHAME on the organizers/management who did not give him ample staff.
BUT even sadder was the swimming team lost the chance to compete and Singapore was let down.
A PURE waste of time, energy and money in training and preparing the team.
Someone must answer for this lost and the big clowns are saying it is trivial. Amazing ! PURE BS ! ! !
I think APS may lose his job after the games.
APS is an Olympian and have many experience in this field. To leave at 2:45 pm when the deadline to register is at 3 :00 pm., just don't make sense at all.
Unless he is doing it for a purpose and as a protest against the workload he is having and not given an additional assistant for the many tasks !
SHAME on the organizers/management who did not give him ample staff.
BUT even sadder was the swimming team lost the chance to compete and Singapore was let down.
A PURE waste of time, energy and money in training and preparing the team.
Someone must answer for this lost and the big clowns are saying it is trivial. Amazing ! PURE BS ! ! !
I think APS may lose his job after the games.
For sure, its a mistake, and nobody involved wanted it to happen.
An apology might be sufficient, but I can't seem to find any quotes in any reports that hint of acceptance of blame, sincere or otherwise.
The statement that "our swimmers were not expected to win medals and were looking for seventh place." is terribly unfair to those who had trained so hard for it.
Move on, sure? Admit your mistake first.
An apology might be sufficient, but I can't seem to find any quotes in any reports that hint of acceptance of blame, sincere or otherwise.
The statement that "our swimmers were not expected to win medals and were looking for seventh place." is terribly unfair to those who had trained so hard for it.
Move on, sure? Admit your mistake first.
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