Goalball team want to feel the crowd

The 8th ASEAN Para Games will be held here from Dec 3 to 9, with about 1,500 athletes from 10 countries competing for honours. As Team Singapore readies for the battle on home ground, TODAY takes a closer look at each of the 15 sports that will be contested, and the inspirational stories behind the local athletes participating in them. The focus today is on goalball.

SINGAPORE — The Bukit Gombak Sports Hall could have been a curious sight in the past few months if you did not know about the sport of goalball. Onlookers who popped their head into the venue were intrigued as the Singapore national goalball team trained in earnest ahead of this week’s ASEAN Para Games (APG).

“Isn’t that Project Superstar singer Chen Wei Lian (Kelvin Tan),” someone whispered to her friend. “What is he doing?”

Tan, who made his name as the blind singer who won a local Mandopop reality television singing competition in 2005, was at a corner with three other visually impaired teammates, repeatedly throwing his body to the ground at the sound of a whistle in an outstretched goal-keeping save.

In another corner, team captain Marc Chiang relentlessly hit a ball against a wall, with grunts accompanying each explosive throw.

In the middle of the hall, two teams of three alternate between throwing and rolling a ball — with bells embedded in it — to their opponent’s end of the court, and into a 9m goalmouth.

For the uninitiated, this is goalball — a game specially designed for blind athletes — and players use the sound of the bells to judge the position and movement of the ball.

“Whoever said para sports is not competitive?” said national goalball head coach Hansen Bay, a mental skills coach who helped out the Singapore national judo team in their preparations for June’s South-east Asian (SEA) Games. “The ball can travel at up to 60kmh or even more at the Paralympics level.

“Here, it is about 30 to 40kmh — still hard, and still fast, and the players must get used to the hard knocks.

“Preparations for the APG have been going well. We are aiming to gain 80 per cent accuracy by then, too. Medals-wise, I have no expectations, as the team are competing for the first time.”

The goalball team — only formed in January this year — train four times a week for up to two hours each time. But over the past month, as the days count down towards the APG, training intensity has tapered.

Bay, 39, was concerned that injuries are popping up among his charges and has reminded them that their well-being comes before a good performance at the APG. “I would say this is the most challenging project I have taken up,” he said.

Besides training a team of first-time athletes, the team of 10 visually impaired men and women have a diverse age range — the men’s team are aged 26 to 50, while the women’s team are aged 17 to 60.

“It is a challenge to get this diverse group of people to work together, and towards one common goal (a good performance at the APG),” said skipper Chiang, 35. “Everybody is unique, has his or her own story and background, so it is about getting everyone to gel with each other, and understand each other’s strengths and weaknesses on court, and off it. I try to be the leader in doing that, but it is a team effort as well.”

Chiang is the leader of the pack now, but was not always confident about himself. He could see until he was 31, when he was diagnosed with retinis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease that causes severe vision impairment.

When he started losing his vision, his world came crashing down.

“I battled depression for about three years,” said Chiang. “It was a period of self-discovery. Every day is a challenge. It is like I know what you can do last time, but now, I asked myself what else can I be doing.”

He found the answer in goalball, became quite good at it, and will now lead his team-mates in battle at the APG, flying Singapore’s flag on an international stage.

Team-mate Nazarudin, 37, is relishing the experience and cannot wait for the APG to kick off.

“I wouldn’t be able to see the crowd that turn up, or how the venue is like,” he said. “But I can feel the atmosphere and hear the cheers. And my team-mates here — all training very hard — want to feel it too.”

ASEAN PARA GAMES GOALBALL:

Goalball is a team sport designed for the visually impaired. Introduced in 1946, the game was devised by Austrian Hanz Lorenzen and German Sepp Reindle in an effort to rehabilitate World War II veterans.

The game is played in teams of 3. Athletes attempt to score by rolling a ball equipped with bells into the opposing team’s goal. The sound of the bells attached to the ball guide defenders who use their bodies to block against these shots.

All athletes (full blind and partially sighted) are required to wear eyeshades and eye patches to ensure a level playing field.

Classification

Visually impaired and partially sighted athletes who meet the International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) classification guidelines are eligible to compete.

Tournament Rules

A game will last for 24 minutes, divided into 2 halves of 12 minutes each. There are 3 field players in each team, and 3 substitute players are allowed. While play is in progress, complete silence is necessary to allow the players to instantly react to the ball. An audible warning is given 5 minutes before the start of the game and 30 seconds before the start of the first and second halves.

Team Singapore

Marc Chiang, Nazarudin, Tan Wei Lian, Muhammad Hidayat Bin Mohamad Yaakob, Ong Hock Bee, Grace Ng, Nurul Natasya Binte Idrus, Emily Lee, Norliana Bte Mohamed Ajam, Joan Hung

THE GAMES ON MEDIACORP:

On okto:

* Dec 3: Opening ceremony ‘LIVE’ at 8pm

* Dec 4-9: Daily action belt, 8-10pm

* Daily Highlights, ‘LIVE’, 10-10.30pm

On Toggle

* Visit Toggle.sg/APG2015