SPORTS: FINA Swimming World Cup 2013,

Held at the Singapore Sports School in Woodlands, Singapore, I watched the athletes warming up in the competition pool, as their Coaches and Team managers ran about, putting their papers together.

With fans, friends and family trickling throughout the early morning heats on Tuesday 5th November, I could only imagine the nerves and adrenaline slicing through the cold early morning water.

I set up at the announcers desk, with monitors and mic, not quite sure what to expect, as I waited for Peter Graham, a veteran Olympic swimming announcer including the London Olympics 2012.

The day before, I had sat in on his clinic at the older Sports School at Evans road, picking up some interesting and important tips of the trade. realisation set upon me of how completely different commentating was, compared to announcing. In karting, commentating is full of opinion on the competition we see before us, as commentators for the Singapore Karting Championship, we generally know the participants personally, their driving styles etc. Swimming, was a different game, and much more formal.

1.Leave out opinion. One major difference was the lack of opinion that an announcer is allowed to have. In fact, it made sense, as there were 200 + competitors, how we viewed them out aloud could affect their swim mentally and thus physically. It was not up to the announcer of what he thought.

2. Keep to the facts. The audience do not need to know what I MAY think or or what COULD happen. What ever we see in front of us, it is the announcers duty to relay what is upcoming event wise, what is happening at that moment and who is involved.

3. Keep it simple. What is probably the hardest thing to do , is keeping the announcement and commentary simple. Sometimes there is no need to try and elaborate and make the sentence sound flowery, so long as the message comes across clearly. The message can be lost in translation, so go back to basics.

4. Think about what you are saying. Sometimes stating the obvious, may back fire on you and leave you looking a little Captain Obvious. a good example would be saying,  “In first place, with the Gold medal, is XYZ”. Common sense would tell us if you have won the Gold medal, that you will be in first place.

5. You are not the star of the show. Ego can be pretty commonplace in any sport, and with commentating, all ears are on the people talking, but with announcing, the athletes are the stars. As a commentator we want to be able to get the spectators to listen to the important announcements, without them thinking we are white noise. It is easy for a voice to end up blending into the background, and at most times, what the announcer says may no longer be of importance. An announcer needs to be able to capture the audiences attention at the right moment.

Although I was not able to stay for the second day of the finals, I had an enjoyable experience announcing along side Adeleide resident, Peter Graham, who was cool, calm and collected at all times and certainly needed no instructing of what was going on around him.

Away from what I had learnt, it was a great moment as I watched two World records set before my very eyes. South African Chad Le Clos and Jamaican Alia Atkinson were without doubt tthe stars of the moment, with Le Clos grabbing 5 gold medals and Atkinson swimming the second fastest 50m breaststroke of the year, with a personal best set, outshining favourite Katinka Hosszu (HUN), though Hosszu was the top female medal tally with five golds and two silvers.

Singapore’s top local swimming Tao Li clinched a silver medal in the 50m butterfly.

A big thank you to Arthur whom I met at the Singapore Disability Sports Council Para swimming event I was part of a few months ago, who got my involved.

A quick look below for the point table :

THE BEST PERFORMERS IN SINGAPORE

Men
1. LE CLOS Chad (RSA): 1:48.56 – 1015 pts – 200m fly
2. MOROZOV Vladimir (RUS): 51.36 – 962 pts – 100m IM
3. GYURTA Daniel (HUN): 2:02.62 – 953 pts – 200m breast

Women
1. ATKINSON Alia (JAM): 28.94 – 985 pts – 50m breast
2. HOSSZU Katinka (HUN): 2:05.33 – 982 pts – 200m IM
3. COUTTS Alicia (AUS): 58.32 – 970 pts – 100 IM

PROVISIONAL LEADERS OF THE OVERALL RANKING (after Singapore)

Men
1. LE CLOS Chad (RSA) – 436 points
2. MOROZOV Vladimir (RUS) – 303 points
3. HURLEY Robert (AUS) – 216 points

Women
1. HOSSZU Katinka (HUN) – 675 points
2. ATKINSON Alia (JAM) – 228 points
3. BELMONTE Mireia (ESP) – 214 points

Available for more results check out the Official Website FINA