International Olympic Committee
(IOC) Vice-President and Singapore
Youth Olympic Games Organising
Committee (SYOGOC) Chairman
Ng Ser Miang (R) passes the Youth
Olympic flame to Singapore's
Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew at
the Marina Bay promontory in
Singapore yesterday. The Youth
Olympic Flame completed its
journey in Singapore yesterday,
where the inaugural Youth Olympic
Games (YOG) will be held from Aug
14-26. Picture: Reuters

Singapore's Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew lit the cauldron at the Promontory@Marina Bay in Singapore yesterday to mark an end to the hosts' final leg of the Journey of the Youth Olympic Flame.

The Singapore leg of the Journey of the Youth Olympic Flame began on Aug 7. The Flame arrived in Singapore on Aug 5 and there had been islandwide torch relays on the streets ahead of the today's opening ceremony for the first Youth Olympic Games.

The six-day journey in Singapore started at Nanyang Girls High School, where Singapore's Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim lit the torch.

"It is my hope that these inaugural Olympic Games, in bringing out the best in our young, will further hone their sense of perseverance and discipline, both physically and mentally, and also mould their development as all-rounded individuals," Yaacob had said in his speech then.

"As we near the end of the Journey of the Youth Olympic Flame, I am sure everyone is very excited about the new young sporting champions that the Games will be presenting to the world."

The young athletes indeed have stars to emulate, for among the torchbearers were the brightest stars in the sporting world like International Olympic Committee (IOC) Athletes Commission members Alexander Popov, Yang Yang and Frank Fredericks, Youth Olympic Games (YOG) Ambassador Yelena Isinbayeva and Chairman of the IOC Coordination Commission for the first Summer YOG Sergey Bubka.

The five athletes were once and are still regarded the best in their respective fields. Russian Popov held the world record for men's 50-metre freestyle with 21.64 seconds for almost 10 years until it was broken by 0.08 second in 2008 by Australian Eamon Sullivan.

In 2005, compatriot Isinbayeva became the first woman to clear the historic 5.00 metres barrier in pole vault.

In the men's division Bubka holds the current outdoor world record of 6.14m, set in 1994 in Sestriere, Italy, and also the current indoor world record of 6.15 metres, set in 1993 in Donetsk, Ukraine.

Chinese Yang is one of two badminton players, the other being Lin Dan, in the world to have ever won two World Badminton Championships men's singles titles consecutively (1987 and 1989).

Namibian Fredericks is his country's first and sole Olympic medallist, finishing second in both the 100m and 200m at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.

IOC Vice-President and Chairman of the Singapore Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee, Ng Ser Miang, completed the final leg of the torch relay, running into the Promontory@Marina Bay before passing it to Lee to bring an end to the 13-day torch relay which began in Ancient Olympic on July 23.

The Flame will be brought to the Float @Marina Bay, the world's largest floating stage, today where it will ignite the YOG cauldron as part of the opening ceremony to mark the start of the Games.

It will continue to burn throughout the 12 days of competition. The Games ends on Aug 26.

Courtesy from Brunei Times