Lo's change of heart and mind
After finishing 79th at the World Championships, he no longer has the gold as his Asiad target
It was only in January that national sailor Ryan Lo boldly declared his target of the gold medal at the Aug 18-Sept 2 Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia.
But, after finishing 79th out of 165 competitors in last week's Sailing World Championships in Aarhus, Denmark, the 21-year-old has had a moment of epiphany.
He no longer has gold on his mind.
This is in stark contrast to a year ago at the South-east Asia (SEA) Games, where he stated and met his target of gold in the individual and team events.
Lo, who finished his National Service only last month, said: "For now, I just want to go back to the fundamentals and focus less on the results."
"Coach (Nenad Viali) always tells me that if you practise well, the result will take care of itself naturally.
"I just finished National Service so, for me, it's a clean slate and it's only upwards from here."
While his 79th placing in Denmark was not good enough for Olympic qualification, Lo - who sails in the Laser Standard category - will have another bite at the cherry in the coming Asiad.
With only one Olympic berth up for grabs at the regatta, it would seem that a gold would be necessary for qualification.
But, with South Korean and 2014 Asiad gold medallist Ha Jeemin having qualified for the Tokyo Games after finishing 22nd in Aarhus last week, a silver will be good enough should Ha win the regatta.
And Lo, who will be taking the next two years off to train full-time, is hoping that the reduced pressure will bode well for his Olympic hopes, with a top-10 finish at Tokyo 2020 being his ultimate goal.
In addition to the mental shift, he has been working on his peripheral vision and multi-tasking for the past three weeks with sports psychologists from the Singapore Sport Institute.
In between sets at the gym, the 1.78m-tall sailor partakes in mini-games using an interactive device, in which he tests his reflexes by tapping flashing lights on a large screen, while occasionally solving equations.
To stimulate race conditions, he also plays games like chess and sudoku while on the stationary bike in the gym.
For now, I just want to go back to the fundamentals and focus less on the results.Ryan Lo, Laser Standard sailor who will represent Singapore at the Asian Games
Sailors have to strategise and react quickly while on the boat, owing to changing conditions like wind and currents.
Said Lo: "We discussed with the psychologist and agreed that I needed to be quicker with my response times.
"In Aarhus, I was going fast but I didn't look around often enough to see the other boats."
With Singapore sailing bagging three golds, two silvers and two bronzes at the last Asiad in Incheon, South Korea, expectations are high for this year.
And while Lo remains confident, he refuses to preoccupy himself with medal talk, saying: "The odds are good for a podium finish.
"But the minimum target is just to keep things simple, perform to the best of my abilities, and trust myself and the team who are supporting me."
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