The first ever Asian Youth Games (AYG) was officially launched by Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Monday evening.

Some 7,000 spectators, athletes, and officials attended the two-hour gala ceremony at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

The inaugural Asian Youth Games is a showcase of multi-sport event, involving 45 Olympic committees and about 1,400 athletes.

The opening ceremony of the Asian Youth Games

Torchbearers of local know sports figure, swimmer Tao Li, bowler Remy Ong and shooter Jasmine Ser opened the games by lighting of the AYG cauldron.

Local students then performed to the theme of “Asia’s Youth, Our Future”.

Following that there was the usual marchpast of athletes.

Frasia, the Asian Youth Games mascot

Before the opening ceremony, earlier in the day, Singapore Education Minister Ng Eng Hen officially lit the torch at the Games Village around 7am to kickstart the torch relay which was brought to 45 schools across Singapore.

Some 135 torch bearers was involved passing through three routes which was named after the Olympic values; Friendship, Respect and Excellence.

Asian Youth Games 2009 Preview (with official theme song playing)

On the current condition of the Influenza A (H1N1) virus within the games, so far there has been no further cases of athletes contracting the virus since 20th June.

Singapore is pulling out all the stops by accommodating the athletes at the posh Swissotel The Stamford as its Games Village.

So do support the eight day long games, as only seven per cent of the 52,000 Asian Youth Games tickets has been sold so far.