2010 Youth Olympic Games, Singapore
Dates: 12-26 August
Coverage: Highlights on the BBC Red Button, iPlayer and the BBC Sport website; Watch a round-up of the action on BBC 1 on Sun 29 Aug at 1130

Youth Games medals for GB trio

By Ore Oduba BBC Newsround presenter in Singapore

If Team GB's 39 young athletes wanted to sum up what it's like to compete at an Olympic games, then they might well look back at day seven in Singapore as the point at which their two-week experience really hit home.

One week after the fanfare of the opening ceremony, Saturday presented itself as the day Britain would showcase some of its best youngsters.

Seven GB medals was certainly not a target too far, and, were it all to go plan, the floodlights of the Bishan Stadium would set the stage for the perfect climax - gold in the men's 100m final.

Instead, the event rounded off a mixed day that reminded Team GB's sports stars of the future just what sport is - unpredictable. And it was possibly the athlete who has been so intensely under the spotlight that had the biggest reality check.

Even before setting foot in Singapore, David Bolarinwa's title as the fastest under-18 in the world this year and the UK's second fastest ever in the same age group would weigh heavily on anyone's shoulders.

Add to that the responsibility of being Great Britain's first ever Youth Olympic flag-bearer and you've created a pedestal from which so many could easily fall.

But Bolarinwa's performance in his 100m heat (fastest qualifier with 10.62s) suggested that the 16-year old south Londoner has the grounding to perform at the highest level. Still, as these athletes are quickly finding out, form can count for nothing when Olympic medals are up for grabs.

The entire stadium fell silent in anticipation of the main event of the night, just as it did in Beijing's Bird's Nest two years ago during the 2008 Summer Olympics. And just as then, another sprint sensation from Jamaica took home the plaudits and the coveted gold medal.

Jamaica's Skeen beats GB gold-medal hope Bolarinwa

Odane Skeen's personal best run of 10.42s eclipsed Bolarinwa's time of 10.61, with the teenager bumped down to third place and settling for bronze - two places on the podium away from where he felt he should have been, but true champions will bounce back.

Earlier, Annie Tagoe had finished in an agonising fourth place in her 100m final. It was a surprise that she even made the start line, considering the strapping that masked hamstring, back and knee problems.

Nevertheless, with a season's best of 11.62s and the fastest time at under-18 in Europe to qualify for these Games, there's no doubt she had been going for gold in Singapore.

The biggest disappointments of the day possibly came at the archery and diving, where County Antrim's Mark Nesbitt and Barnsley's Megan Sylvester threw their excellent recent form books out of the window.

Sylvester, who claimed bronze at the senior European Diving Championships only last week (albeit in alongside synchro partner Monique Gladding), could only finish ninth in the 10m platform.

And third-ranked Nesbitt also showed this Olympic environment takes some getting used to, falling at the hands of local favourite Abdud Dayyan Bin Mohammed Jaffar in the last-16. Perhaps a word in his ear from friend and fellow Ulsterman Rory McIlroy about dealing with pressure could have provided a helpful insight.

Amid the below-par performances though were more medal-winning efforts. Oliver Golding's involvement in the singles tennis tournament had come to an end at the quarter-final stage earlier this week, having claimed the scalp of the Junior Wimbledon Champion and under-18 World number one in the first round.

In the final of the doubles he enlisted the help of Czech player Jiri Vesely and the two powered past their Russian opponents, 6-3 6-1, to pick up a Youth Olympic Gold medal each.

They don't count towards their countries' individual medal tallies, but International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge would have been beaming with happiness had he witnessed the British-Czech union both on and off the court.

Gymnast Sam Oldham's silver medal in the individual pommel horse event ought not to have been a surprise for too many.

But the 17-year old European junior champion showed some real character in coming back from the devastation of throwing away second place in the all-round event on Wednesday to take his rightful place on the podium.

How the next few years unfold for these athletes will be crucial to their long-term development. Yet this fortnight of character building in Singapore could be a pivotal period that determines whether Team GB's talent become Olympic good or Olympic great.

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version