Asian Youth Games: Jeremy Law

Name: Jeremy Law
CG: 18/09
Sports Covered: Beach Volleyball
Venue: Sentosa Siloso Beach



Participating in the Asian Youth Games as a reporter for the AYG Official Website for Beach Volleyball has definitely been an enriching experience.

Whether it was in the span of about 3 weeks before the actual games, researching on the athletes participating and writing pre-event articles, or during the actual games itself, when I managed to catch spectacular matches over at Sentosa's Siloso Beach, there was never a moment when you could not learn something.



First-off, being a reporter for a website proved not as easy as first thought, especially when articles had to be up by deadlines as short as half-an-hour after the match ends. That is why, one of the first things learnt, is that you had to depend on teamwork to get things done. Up to four matches were going-on every hour for the first few days of the competition, and after those ended, more matches started almost immediately. Trying to do everything by oneself was not an option for the members of the team of reporters and photographers for Beach Volleyball.



Coming face-to-face with some of the future pro-athletes of Asia is, of course, another privilege with the job. Getting the chance to interview athletes from countries such as Thailand, Japan, Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia, I saw people from many different walks of life, cultures and least importantly, skin colours. After all, you don't have to communicate with your opponents in an all-out match of beach volleyball on the court. Sport breaks all communication barriers, in that sense.



Unfortunately, interviews don't… It was sometimes difficult to interview athletes when the interpreters did not appear, but then again, it was also interesting to try to "communicate" with the athletes, often ending up looking like we, the reporters and the athletes, were playing a game of charades. When we did have interpreters though, it was much easier finding out about the various goals and driving force for each athlete.



All in all, the Asian Youth Games 2009 has been an exceptional event for me in life and I will never forget the experience I had in Sentosa, especially when I revisit Siloso Beach.