Funny, Gary Mark Ng didn't look like a guy who had just stood before an Uzi firing squad. In fact, the Singapore goalie had a pretty balanced outlook after absorbing a 16-0 loss at the world inline hockey championships. He was cool because he was, well, cool.

"The air is different than we're used to," the 21-year-old chef said after Spain had set up shop in the Singapore end for the barrage. "In Singapore, it's humid and here, it's cold."

The Western Fair Sports Centre air conditioning wasn't a factor in the wipeout, he was quick to point out. Nor did coach Carl Kuechler or team captain Gerald Wee seek excuses. Their team simply isn't very good.

Lack of inline hockey atmosphere at home, not atmospheric conditions, is the problem. There's not enough of it.

"It's a bit stagnant," said Kuechler, who played for the German national ice hockey team at the Calgary Olympics in 1988. "We've had 10 teams only for some time now. The emphasis in Singapore is more on business and education than on sport."

The modest number of participants doesn't provide a very large pool from which to select a team making its first appearance in the world wheeled hockey championship.

You have to walk before you run but in this case, Singapore has walked into a propeller of flashing enemy sticks in the 17-nation tourney.

"It's what you can learn that counts," said Ng, who was bowled over late in the game but shook it off and continued.

So far, he hasn't learned he'd like to consider another sport although at times yesterday nobody could have blamed him. It almost came to a question of which would tire out first -- the Singapore goalie or Spanish players.

Screened shots, breakaways, blasts out of the air, Ng faced every conceivable shot. He said the ones from in close represented the majority of the shots as their opponents patrolled the Singapore zone at will.

Singapore learned there isn't any mercy at this level. The Spaniards never let up, scoring their 16th goal with 19 seconds remaining and punctuating the result with a shot off the goalpost at the buzzer while Ng scrambled for his stick behind the net.

All this is part of a growth sport enjoying only its 10th world championship. Janis Cookson of the organizing committee has been involved in world championships in other sports before this and says the growth will alter future world championships.

This tournament, largest ever, involves 15 men's and 12 women's teams from 17 nations along with five junior teams. She expects there will soon be separate men's and women's championships.

A Saunders grad, Cookson knows a bit about world championships. A former University of Arizona sports scholarship student (softball), she played shortstop for Canada in major championships throughout the world.

The highlight of her career was helping win the 1983 Pan American Games gold medal in Caracas, Venezuela, with this nation's first victory over the U.S.

Last year the veteran sports administrator was event director of the 600-competitor world cycling championships in Hamilton.

You don't have to ask her about inline growth.

Upcoming are the world junior inline championships, which will be played June 29-July 4; the Can-Am Cup during July 2-4, followed by the World Inline Cup, a club championship, July 5-11.

Whenever you're transporting a great number of people from around the world into a single city, the scope for miscues is enormous. This one went off smoothly.

"Oh, there was a flight delay involving the Koreans, and we couldn't find one athlete at (Pearson International Airport), but we didn't lose anyone and eventually everyone was in bed sleeping," she said with some relief.

Which brings us back to the Singapore team's poor little goaltender, Ng. Nightmares, not sleep, come to mind.