[We won]
At 4pm, students collected their free T-shirts from SMU's campus green. There were 400 T-shirts given out. This was an SMU effort to prepare for that announcement. That big announcement. The one that will impact Singapore in 2010.

Still can't get it? It's the Youth Olympic Games.

We proceeded to the Lee Kong Chian School of Business to assemble for the big operation. Surprise surprise, two bigwigs from the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports suddenly appeared in SMU. Teo Ser Luck let me in on something when I asked for an interview after the announcement of the bid. He revealed that the Prime Minister would be at the Padang later. "Exciting," I thought to myself.



Slightly before 6pm, various flags and a contingent of students made their way to the Padang led by officials and the two guests.



Notice the guy with white hair beside Dr Vivian? It's none other than Singapore's only Olympic medallist Tan Howe Liang.

The contingent waited till exactly 6pm before their grand entrance into the Padang. I realised that I was about to be squeezing with more than 5,000 Singaporeans. It was a huge fanfare.

Hyper cheerleaders from Jurong Junior College dressed in green kept everyone entertained. Daniel Ong worked up the crowd. Then Daren Tan, Tan Diya and Hady Mirza entertained with a few English and Mandarin songs. There was a lot of noise and the crowd was building up. I saw various sports reporters strolling up and down - Ernest Luis, Tan Yo-Hinn from Today, Marc Lim and many others who looked very familiar. People from Team Singapore, NYC and PAYM came down to support as well.

7pm was the time to go "live" on TV. PM arrived shortly after that with lots of cheer. He was in high spirits just like always. Almost everyone sitting at the stands was wearing red. So was I (except for the motivators in green from JJC). At first the feeling was mild. Nothing exciting yet. Videos of youth speaking about the games were flashed one by one on the big screens.

In a matter of seconds IOC President Jacques Rogge (who I met during the IOC session in 2005) came on screen. My heart was beating slightly fast as I anticipated the results. In front, less than five meters away was Singapore's Prime Minister. Flanked by Dr Vivialn Balakrishnan on one side and Minister Teo Chee Hean on the other the rest of the seating area was filled with officials such as Singapore's only IOC member Ng Ser Miang and Singapore Sports Council's CEO Oon Jin Teik.



Suddenly, everyone stood up, anxious and full of smiles.



PM looked to the side and gave a wave. It was a false alarm.



They sat down slightly disappointed. It made me nervous. Two bid videos later (Moscow first, then Uniquely Singapore), the screen flashed back to Jacques Rogge. A small envelope was presented to him. By then, everyone was up on their feet again. It was time. I waited in anticipation of the announcement. A short silence was broken by some words. A split second later after the word "Singapore", the crowd went into a frenzy. PM could not speak at first (his mic was off). A shout and many screams later, he gave his piece thanking not only the young but the old (taxi drivers that put up decals to support the bid).







It's just the start of everything. After the happiness, it's back to work for the bid committee and without a doubt, I'll be looking forward to hosting the world in 2010. Nothing beats the excitement of having the first Youth Olympic Games right at our doorstep. Well done Singapore!