Nesbitt blames himself for Youth Olympics heartache

Nesbitt was hotly-tipped to be one of the chief medal prospects in the Far East but he failed to live up to his pre-tournament billing – not making it beyond the last 16 stage.

The Banbridge youngster has an impressive CV containing two gold medals claimed in the searing heat of Australia at their Youth Olympic Festival two years ago.

But the 16-year-old was the first to accept the Singapore heat – and partisan home crowd - got the better of him as local favourite Abdud Dayyan Bin Mohamed Jaffar triumphed in the Lion City.

“I’m very disappointed because I felt the pressure a little bit,” said Nesbitt – a member of Ballyvally Archery Club. “It was difficult with the home crowd and everyone cheering for the other guy and I didn’t deal with that pressure very well at all.

“I was a bit nervous coming into it because it is a really big event and something I really wanted to do well at and maybe that made a difference.

“I felt like everything was going pretty well early on and I was going pretty well. Then I had one bad arrow in the middle and after that it was a real struggle.

“It’s very disappointing because after that it was very hard to come back from and I couldn’t do it for some reason.

“The crowd were very loud and cheering for my opponent and I didn’t deal with it that well.”

Nesbitt looked well placed to progress into the quarter-finals, opening up a comfortable 1-0 lead against Mohamed Jaffar, but the Singapore star fought back to take the victory 2–1, with two sets ending in a tie.

But despite coming up short in Singapore, Nesbitt wasted no time in setting his sights on banishing his Youth Olympic Games struggles – at October’s Commonwealth Games in India.

“I have the Commonwealth Games later in the year so I will have to go home and regroup for a while now,” added Nesbitt.

“Hopefully I can learn from this and come back stronger for the Commonwealths and do well there.”

Lloyds TSB, proud partner of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and supporter of Team GB on their journey to the 2010 Singapore Youth Olympic Games. Visit LloydsTSB.com/London2012