I would have understood had the tussle for the title been between Jamaican sprint marvel Usain Bolt, the amphibious Michael Phelps, or the multi-time Olympic swimming medallist Dara Torres.

These were household names on planet earth during the summer Olympics and pictures of their faces (and torsos) were splashed across the pages of all magazines. The Straits Times award was confined to local athletes.

Surprise No. 2 was the vigour with which some of them put across their arguments for their choice of champion.

Listening to those backing Tao Li, a martian visiting earth (that's the only way you would not have heard of Phelps) would have concluded that the Singaporean was the fastest in the world and the US record Olympic medal winner, a very close second.

Other than when English Premier League football is discussed, sport doesn't evoke emotions in Singapore like it does in Australia, New Zealand or some of the countries in this region. But that night, the guys would have outdone Taiwanese politicians in parliament.

Perhaps it was the wine. May be that is the secret of the Aussies and the Kiwis (something for the Singapore Sports Council to look into).

So for someone like me who would like to see a stronger sporting culture in Singapore, this was a treat.

The arguments for who should win the award generally took one of three points of view. A number of them believed that medals count for everything and that the award should go to a medal winner.

Athletes who have not won anything have no business being on the list and should quietly request that their names be withdrawn, one ebullient supporter of the women's table tennis team said.

Using that criterion, bowler Jasmine Yeong-Nathan, paralympian Yip Pin Xiu and golfer Lam Chih Bing are others who would have made the cut.

The football team would be out, so would Tao Li. 

A few others held the view that athletes should be rewarded for their achievements, regardless of medal tally. Those who gave their utmost, and had outdone themselves put themselves in good stead for an award.

All six nominees passed this test. Those who took the third line of argument were adamant that nothing could beat the achievements of the paralympians. For this group, only Pin Xiu deserved to be nominated.

As the night wore on and the guys championed their pick while running down the choice of the others, flaws began to show up in their arguments.

It slowly began to emerge that the athlete they were rooting for was not the top, but their favourite athlete.

One of them, a great football fan, could rattle off the match scores of games the Singapore Lions had played since Dollah Kassim’s time. For him, the Lions were king.

But when asked about how these players compared against what Pin Xiu or even Tao Li had achieved, he dismissed us like football referees do protesting players. This guy knew zilch about what the other athletes had achieved.

The ST Athlete of the Year award is not about picking our favourite athlete, who we like, or the athlete from the sport we enjoy. It is an award to honour the one athlete who had impressed and inspired us with his performance.

It's going to be tough because it calls for us looking beyond the sport we love.

Email stsports@sph.com.sg and leave your comments here on who should get the award.

Back in Germany, his tree was a fresh-cut live pine tree and they used real burning candles (how silly, I thought) to decorate it.

Well, that was Christmas trees for this visitor to Singapore. Christmas is around the corner and some of you will be deciding whether to get the real thing or a fake one. Nothing beats the smell of a real pine tree.

My previous neighbour used to get a real tree every Christmas, not me. To spend $500 on a tree that was going to last just a month, was not good use of money, I have always felt. Just work out how many kilogrammes of honey-baked ham or roast turkeys you could get with that money.

I was fortunate back in those years. I could smell my neighbour's tree from my home. So I got a fake tree but with the smell of real pine in my home.

But if you do decide to get a real tree (and there are some places listed in The Sunday Times today), here are some tips on how you can make your tree last till the end of the Christmas season.

- Make another fresh 2cm cut and place the tree in a sturdy stand that holds about 4 litres of water.

- Keep the water level above the base of the tree or a seal will form and prevent any more water from being absorbed by the tree. If that happens, you'll need to make another cut in the trunk. You don't want to do that once it is decorated. Remember, a tree that has been cut for a few weeks is going to suck in a few litres of water in the first few hours after cutting the slice and mounting the tree. On the first day of setting up the tree, check the water level every hour or two. Once the tree quenches that initial thirst, its take up rate will slow down.

- Plain water is all that is needed to keep a tree fresh, don't bother with additives, aspirin, panadol, whatever.

- Unplug tree lights at night. You don't want your home lighted up unnecessarily.

- Use miniature lights, LED lights are good, as they produce less heat and reduce the drying effect on the tree.

- Spray the leaves with an anti-transpirant product, if you can get your hands on some. This material, when sprayed, leaves a thin wax-like coating over the surface of the leaves which slows down water loss through the pine needles.

AFTER Singapore's good showing in the Olympics in Beijing - the winning of the silver medal by our table tennis team and the inspirational against-all-odds wins by Tao Li - I was convinced that some of this burning desire to win would rub on to our local athletes.

When bowler Jasmine Yeong-Nathan captured the AMF World Cup in mid-November and Remy Ong and Shaun Ng bagged the men's doubles gold at the IV Commonwealth Tenpin Bowling Championships a few days ago, I said: "Yes! It's happening."

Our athletes were beginning to believe in themselves. Finally, it appeared like they had stopped saying, "We are only Singaporeans, how can we win?"

But the third game in a row without a win by the Lions yesterday brought me back to reality. It was their final warm-up game before Friday's Asean Football Federation Suzuki Cup opener against Cambodia in Indonesia and all they could manage was a 2-2 draw with Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur.

Considering the injuries and the shock ineligibility of China-born striker Qiu Li for the tournament, Singapore have soldiered on and not succumbed to defeat for the games and that is good.

Raddy Avramovic has also given assurances that his men, who are bidding for a third consecutive Asean crown, will do well in Jakarta.

I am sure the Lions will, if they just grit their teeth and go out with a burning desire to win.

In the latest Saturday issue on Nov 29, our fitness freak of a journalist looks at an alternative route to fitness - indoor cycling - that is the latest craze among fitness nuts. The kind of cycling she describes pushes you to the limits of your fitness and really tests you aerobically. But there is a place for those just starting out on their fitness journey. Some would consider cycling less painful than running. So, this may be a good way to get started on your fitness plan.

We also ran stories the past two weeks on workouts you could do come thunder, lightning or sleet. These are tips good for the rainy months of November and December. You might want to check those out too.

And finally a look ahead: towards the latter part of the week, The Straits Times sports pages will be running stories as a build-up to the marathon next Sunday. Some are inspirational stories others are just tips for what you should or shouldn't do when you go for your distance run, if you are taking part, be it for the full 42km or just the half 21 km. Look out for these pieces which will run from mid-week.

She is the first Singaporean to die in a terrorist attack.

This must be one of the more painful stories I have read in a long while. Sure, terrorists attacks happen all the time, but it is difficult to be so stoical about it especially when someone from Singapore is killed.

It sometimes irritates me when jokes are made about the need to be vigilant to report unclaimed parcels, etc.

It is a serious matter, no country can afford to let its guard down.

My condolences to the family of Lo Hwei Yen.

The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) said in a statement yesterday that importers and retailers have been told to recall that particular batch immediately. This follows an alert from the European Commission that the biscuits have been found to contain high levels of peroxide; 'an indication of degraded food quality which may result in rancidity, deterioration in taste and flavour', the AVA said.

Those with queries can call the AVA hotline on 1800-226-2250.'

I could just be flippant and tell you what deadly news you are missing if you just catch the news headlines off TV or radio. It is frightening to think how easily one could miss such a report and merrily continue munching on stuff like that. My son is convinced that the stomach problems he continues to have is due to the melamine-tainted milk he was taking on a daily basis before the news on China's milk scandal broke.

What can we do about it? If you believe in extreme measures, read on. I have some very strict rules in my home and my friends think I am crazy.

Products from some countries are allowed in my home so long as they are used for scrubbing, washing, waxing, etc, but food products from these countries are banned. So, anything that goes into our mouths should not come from the blacklisted countries. I exaggerate only a little, but I assure you, I follow this rule quite rigidly.

When my youngest son was on a trip abroad with his school, he bought a product in a flavour which could not be found in Singapore. He was so excited he actually called me and told me about his find and its purchase.

He was told to flip to the label and check where it was made and promptly ordered to dump it. Then, even I thought I was being unreasonable but not now.

The melamine scare, I notice, has done one thing for my family: they (yes, they. I don't eat junk stuff) have all stopped eating the rubbish biscuits, cookies, wafers they used to. With the economy the way it is and everyone in fat- and cost-cutting mode, it is not necessarily a bad thing.