The Singapore’s sailing team are in familiar waters. (Clockwise from bottom right) Deborah, Toh, Lo Man Yi (Laser Radial), Terence Koh, Koh Seng Leong (Laser Standard), Xu.

Women’s 470 pair may just get lucky should a little bit of history repeat itself

EVERY time national 470 sailor Toh Liying loses a personal belonging, she ends up getting
back something else greater in value. She’s not superstitious but Toh, who will be partnering Deborah Ong in Race 1 of the women’s 470 class at the Beijing Olympics starting today, is prepared to forego one of her personal possessions for a Games medal off the Qingdao coast.

In her very first 420 race at the 2000 World Youth Championship in Sydney, Toh lost her wallet on the penultimate day of competition, but won the final race the next day. It happened again at the 2002 Busan Asian Games, and she ended up with a bronze.

And on the second last day of the competition at the 2006 Doha Asian Games, she lost her camera, but won the women’s 470 silver the next day. Said Toh: “Every time I lose something,
something good happens. But I won’t be deliberately losing my things, though!”

One may attribute it to coincidence, but just over six weeks ago, the pair had no idea they would be racing in the Olympics. In fact they were planning to watch the Beijing Games on television.
But for the next six days, the women’s 470 pair will be the focus of millions of TV viewers as they battle 18 other teams for line honours.

In January this year, the duo had failed to qualify for the Games. But they earned an 11th-hour reprieve in late-June, when Singapore was offered an “unused quota” by the International Sailing Federation. The emotion from that January day was still very much evident when Today
interviewed them last month.

“I was very frustrated and disappointed, and my eyes welled up,” said Toh, a final year bio-medical student at Monash University. “All the time and effort, such as foregoing my studies to sail full-time for one-and-a-half years, had gone to waste.”

While the 23-year-old kept her feelings to herself, Deborah let it all out at Melbourne’s Mordialloc Sailing Club — host of the 470 World Championship and their last hope of qualifying for the Games.

“It didn’t hit me until we finished the race and went ashore. After I put my things down, I just sat there and cried,” said the first-year student at Victoria Junior College.

The 17-year-old had taken the whole of last year off to further her sailing ambitions. Since the turn of events, the pair underwent an intensive training regime developed by SingaporeSailing’s Olympic head coach Craig Ferris. It consisted of logging three sessions daily — two on the water and another in the gym — in a bid to fast-track their preparations for their first competitive outing since January.

“We had to get back to sailing mode quickly. We had to sharpen our boat handling, starting procedures, acceleration, manoeuvres and line judging before heading out for the Games,” said Toh, whose boyfriend and national team-mate Xu Yuanzhen will also start Race 1 of the men’s 470 today with Terence Koh.

The sailing events are being held in Qingdao and the Singapore team are in familiar waters.

“We’ve sailed here in two test events in 2006 and 2007, and it tends to have light winds averaging about four to five knots, but there can be choppy currents from offshore typhoons. It can get very unpredictable with frequent wind shifts,” said Toh.

“The key to a good race here is a good start and staying clear of the pack in order to get the space to manoeuvre and catch as much wind as possible.” On paper, Japan’s world No 1 pair of Ai Kondo and Naoko Kamata are the favourites.

But there’s always hope ... perhaps Toh might misplace one of her items and bring home an Olympic medal.