running on adrenaline

I'm running on adrenaline the whole night. Left office only at 1am and had dinner only after I reached home. Why?

Cos I was covering the STTA press conference. Covering the conference is only half the excitement. I had to file 'live' report back to the station. It's my debut filing live and I felt the anxiousness from the moment I was told of the assignment as soon as I got into office today.

I have more or less been following the saga that had gone on for the Singapore Table Tennis team. The Gao Ning incident, Lee Bee Wah wanting to sack the manager, Head Coach Liu Guodong's job being on the line. It has gone on and on, casting a dark cloud on the Women's Team victorious return from the Beijing Olympics with the medal that Singapore has been waiting 48 years for.

And the media knows that the whole saga perpetuated BECOS of the media. I would not have known who Gao Ning and Yang Zi are if not for this saga. So in a way, it has risen the profile of the men's team which have been living under the shadow of the women's team for the longest time.

Anyway, yesterday's press conference was the first time I saw so much media at one event. Every single news platform was represented and each publication/platform had like 2 reporters, and there were at least 5 photog. We even had live feed back to the office. It felt like THE event to be at.

The Table Tennis Team were also there in full force. From the president to the coach and manager and everyone from the men's and women's team. And that was when I realised I have no idea who the reserve woman player is, what is her name. Nor the other male players other than Gao Ning and Yang Zi. It was as if if did not matter if they were there or not.

But seriously, I think it's time to let the matter rest and a more or less happy ending have been set. The men's team will get their own head coach, Liu Guodong will stay as the women's coach and manager Antony will move on to SNOC after he's done with matters pertaining to the Olympics at STTA.

And after tonight, I have new found respect for Dr Vivian and Teo Ser Luck, seeing that they have handled the situation pretty well and I think it's only right they called for the press con to set the matter to rest.

While I think my debut live report is far from perfect, not even good, and I had to race for time to release soundbites and packages for every hour after that, on an empty stomach, I felt a sense of satisfaction that is indescribable at the end of the day. I think I'm still on adrenaline rush now. Remnants of the chain of events that happened today. And this is how I'm reminded why I chose to do what I am doing now. This is job satisfaction.