Free F1 tickets arrive too late for YOG volunteers Click on thumbnail to view

By Sherilyn Lim

ABOUT two weeks ago on Sept 17, volunteers who had helped out at the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) last month queued up for free tickets to the Singapore Grand Prix during a volunteer-appreciation night at Universal Studios Singapore.

They queued up for over an hour at a station set up with several computers. They gave their names, IC numbers and addresses to verify that they had been YOG volunteers.

They were then told by those manning the desks that the tickets would be mailed to them within a week.

The 400 complimentary tickets had been promised to volunteers as a reward for their assistance during the YOG, which was held from Aug 14 to 26.

But many of those who lined up at Universal Studios failed to receive the tickets and had to settle for second best: Watching Sunday's race on television.

In an e-mail sent to citizenjournalism website Stomp, Stomper Serene wrote: "At this moment, I am sitting in front of the TV watching the race!

"We all feel we have been fooled. Is this the way the YOG organisers want to thank us, by giving us false hopes?"

In a cruel twist of fate, some YOG volunteers received their tickets in their mailboxes on Monday evening - a day after the three-day Singapore GP ended.

The envelopes the passes were mailed in had postmarks bearing last Friday's date.

But, as mail is now collected and delivered only on weekdays, the envelopes would not have reached the YOG volunteers over the weekend.

Mr Benson Guek, a 40-year-old IT analyst who had queued up at Universal Studios, suspected that the passes had been mailed in batches.

One of his fellow YOG volunteers, 19-year-old Angeline Wong, received her ticket to last Friday's event last Wednesday.

Said Mr Guek, who got his passes for last Saturday's qualifying race on Monday: "It's a wasted effort, since the tickets cost at least a couple of hundred dollars.

"Not to mention it was really disappointing."

Miss Wong said: "I feel bad for those who didn't get the tickets, as I know of some YOG volunteers who are really big fans of Formula One."

YOG volunteer Gary Goh, a 28-year-old project assistant and a fan of the Ferrari F1 team, had queued up alongside Miss Wong. He received his ticket for last Saturday's race on Monday.

He was disappointed that he did not get to watch the race live.

"I was really looking forward to getting the tickets. I checked my mailbox at least three times a day since hearing that Angeline's tickets had arrived, but nothing turned up for me," he said.

The Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports was unable to release a statement on the issue by press time.

A mix of students, fresh graduates and working executives made up the approximately 20,000 volunteers who helped out during the YOG.

limsher@sph.com.sg

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