2 Dec - Our first medals
At long last, I woke up to the sound of my alarm. Finally Kiok and I managed to sleep through the night. I was still quite tired and Kiok told me to skip gym. As I don't want a repeat of Manila, and I don’t have money to walk off all the fats in Melbourne this time, I dragged myself out of bed and to gym. Surprisingly, I was the only one there. Perhaps the two Japanese guys were tired out by the Opening Ceremony last night. Alas! The treadmill!
The moment I stepped into the room in the apartment, Kiok said Alvin wanted me to call him. His first question for me was did we run commercial break during the Singapore Contingent last night during the Opening Ceremony and I said no. Apparently Conty ran commercial break on the Singapore Contingent during this morning’s repeat telecast. Now the whole world would think it’s us!
I had to cut short our conversation as I wanted to mark spot desperately. Sensing something is wrong, Alvin asked if I want to mark spot, I said YES! And I have to call him back in a bit that led to a long discussion about Biao Shu as Kiok had grabbed this opportunity to complain to Alvin.
We decided to walk to IBC despite the drizzle and it was freezing outside. There was flood everywhere. Given that it hardly rain in Doha, the locals didn’t plan their drainage properly and thus the floods.
The morning was pretty quiet and I sat there, staring at the computer screen as I tried to plan for tomorrow’s Live Belt. I asked Biao Shu what he has in mind, but he kept pushing it saying “later!” Until he went out for shoot!
With Prem and Biao Shu out on location, Ghandi is the only cameraman left at IBC for mobilisation. Our women’s table tennis team has taken the first two games against North Korea, Vivian started to ask who can go for sound bites. I wanted to, but there is no way I could make it back for the Live Belt. Looking around, there was only Kiok to deploy. So off to the Al-Arabi Indoor Hall she went, for her first experience as field reporter.
As Vivian put it, Kiok is the Woman of All Trades. She even managed to get a dustbin for us in the IBC, which the Iranians kept filling up. As to why our neighbours don’t get their own dust bin, Vivian's deduction was that they had no woman with them. Simple as that!
I was running on adrenaline our women peddlers dropped the next two games. It all boiled down to Sun Bei Bei. She had to win to keep our medal hopes alive. And what a comeback she staged, sending all of us into a state of euphoria.
Prem came back with the shooting story of our girls winning silver for the 10m Air Rifle team's event. This was our first medal, and back home, they wished for more. I was torn in between wanting them to win more and exit the competition early. More medals meant more work for us.
Biao Shu, instead of doing his own story, was watching table tennis from start to end, shouting together with JB. He was already high with Tao Li qualifying fastest in tonight's Women's 100m Butterfly Final. She had swarm for her life in the morning heats, and we thought the best she could do is a bronze medal.
When the time came for the Live Belt, it was a big mess. Instead of going according to lineup, he took whatever Vivian was recording for TAG. We were so ill-prepared that we had to refeed the opening titles. With everything recorded and playing back from EVS, we cheered as Tao Li's quest for medals started. There were high-fives all around the panel as everyone has crowded around for this moment. At this point of time, all our differences were put aside, as we basked in the glory of our second medal of this Games. This was what I really wanted. Somehow, I got the feeling that I've come home. I played a part in this legacy that the Doha Asian Games would be leaving behind.
The consequences would be unthinkable, had we gone live. We were all exhausted after today’s show. Thank God for Table Tennis. Had it not overrun into our Live Belt, God knows what will happen??!!
We ate our dinner at IBC, while Wendy sat outside with Simon. We were all fuming with Biao Shu. She kept telling us that Biao Shu can’t do this to her after Simon goes as she will be editing alone.
Wendy went on and on about it until we ended up telling her that the best for everybody, is to have her, Jusri and Halid talk to Biao Shu about it. There is no point in Vivian, Prem, Kiok or me to tell him. It will have to be the technical people.
On the way back, while we were all on the coach, Simon apologised for raising his voice. Well, I said I was very fierce too, so it’s ok. Then we all laughed about the whole Biao Shu episode. According to Kiok, after I shouted at Biao Shu, he actually came out and told Vivian and Prem to get their stories ready as early as possible and walked back in. Vivian didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. How can he say such things when his stories were the last to complete??
