By Lin Xinyi

WHEN the Singapore Table Tennis Association's Youth Olympic Games (YOG) squad was revealed yesterday, it was double joy for the Chau family.

Oscar Chau and his older sister Hai Qing were among the four boys and four girls selected from 33 hopefuls.

Oscar said: 'When I knew I was chosen, it was the happiest day of my life.'

For the past six years, training together has been a weekly affair for the siblings.

On top of their own training schedule, they make it a point to have a session at the Bishan Sports Hall.

Now that they have made it to the squad, they can be sure that they will be seeing much more of each other.

For the eight players selected after weeks of intensive training and competition have more work ahead of them.

From now till the start of the inaugural 2010 YOG in Singapore, they are expected to train 12 times a week, which is over 30 hours on court.

They will also undergo a three-week training stint in China next month.

While it remains uncertain how many paddlers will eventually feature in the three YOG table tennis events - the boys' singles, girls' singles and the mixed team - the players from this squad represent the most likely candidates, said STTA chief executive Chew Soo Sheng.

Despite the hectic schedule ahead, Isabelle Li, one of the selected players, is unfazed.

'Training has been very productive. So there's a great sense of satisfaction when I feel myself improving,' said the Commonwealth Youth Games women's singles champion, who has been tipped as one of the Republic's biggest medal prospects at the YOG.

'The expectation to do well at the YOG is a big motivation for me to work harder and to try and catch up to the standards of players from Japan and Korea.'

For Clarence Chew, being selected to the YOG squad takes him one step closer to his dreams.

The Singapore Sports School Secondary 1 student, who picked up a bat at the age of five, said with a boyish grin: 'Hopefully the YOG will be the first step, then the Summer Olympics sometime in the future.'

This article was first published in The Straits Times on 28 Nov, 2008.