Li Shing files a special report after her trip to Thailand for the 1st ever Asian Indoor Games.
—————————————————–

It was an eXtreme eye-opener for me to be up in Suphanburi for the first ever Asian Indoor Games. The Games was split up at various locations in Thailand, including Bangkok, Pattaya and Suphanburi. I made my way up to Suphanburi - through country roads and padi fields - for my slice of the action at the Extreme Sports arena.

thai hospitality at the airport

some padi field

athletes setting off from our hotel to the arena

Our very first medallist, Khoo Boon Ann (a.k.a. Huffy), is in the bee-striped T-shirt; little does he know he would be a winner in a few days time. The dude in green is a rather seasoned rider from Taiwan - it was amazing to find out that he was in his 30s, considering he still does gravity-defying backflips in the air with his bike!

our inliners!

For those not quite clued into the extreme sports scene, let me give you a quick intro into the sports, well, at least those that were held in Suphanburi. The events are broadly divided into 3 disciplines, bike (BMX), inline (skates) and skateboard. Within each category, athletes are further sub-divided into ‘Park’ (where they are given one minute to do stunts around the whole stadium) and ‘Technical’ (where they do their tricks on selected parts of the stadium). Aside from these categories, there is also a ‘vert’ (which is also called a half-pipe because it looks like one) for the inliners’ vert event and a separate event for BMX bikers called ‘Flatland’, where atheletes do stunts on their bike by balancing on the bike, which is on the flat part of the stadium. Key is not to fall off the bike or let your feet touch the ground.

Ashler, our very own Flatland athlete

check out the stadium!

….. and the vert.

The 3 days of competition is certainly not for the faint-hearted!! It was eXtremely eXhiliariating - just to watch the BMX bikes ride up the ramps and twirl in the air (whether they are back-flips or side spins). We were treated to some spectacular displays by Luke Fink, an Australian pro hired to coach the Thai BMX riders. His moves were amazing - well-timed, flawlessly executed, and he even managed to soar past a beam on his bike with one hand holding onto the beam. The Taiwanese inliner was very graceful as well - he skated, flew and glided his way to win a gold medal for the Inline Skate Park Best Technical event and a 3rd place in the Park event.

Hung Chien-Kai - 3rd from left, Taiwan Inliner

Our boys did us proud and brought home 2 bronze medals for us despite strong competition from the Thais. Huffy came in 3rd for his BMX Technical event and Low Chi Siang 3rd for the BMX Park event.

Huffy with his bronze medal

See the Singapore flag fly at the stadium

Our BMX Park and Technical athletes

Medals aside, the sport is quite prone to injury as well. I’ve never seen so many falls or atheletes carried out on stretchers. Amazing thing was, before we even knew it, they were back again doing their stunts. It’s almost like they have rubber bones!

Before I knew it, it was time for me to leave Suphanburi, but not without first checking out some local Thai street fare. Yum. My guide tried to find some original Pad Thai for me, but we were unsuccessful, so here we are chomping down delicious Pad Siew instead. Tastes like our local char kway teow with lots of veggies!

Yum!

stall selling Pad Siew

So it’s goodbye to Suphanburi. I’m still hearing the hip-hop tunes ringing in my ears and dreaming of skateboards, skates and bikes flying in the air.

Popularity: 13%

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 15th, 2005 at 4:52 pm and is filed under Competitions/Contests, Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.