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SEA Games: Singapore’s track & field athletes say they have done well despite pre-Games distractions, lack of support

KUALA LUMPUR — Singapore’s athletics contingent crossed the finish line at the 29th SEA Games on the last day of competition on Saturday (Aug 26) with an overall haul of two golds, two silvers and four bronzes

Soh Rui Yong with his marathon gold medal at the 2017 SEA Games. Photo: Jason Quah/TODAY

Soh Rui Yong with his marathon gold medal at the 2017 SEA Games. Photo: Jason Quah/TODAY

KUALA LUMPUR — Singapore’s athletics contingent crossed the finish line at the 29th SEA Games on the last day of competition on Saturday (Aug 26) with an overall haul of two golds, two silvers and four bronzes.

Three new national records were set and one equalled, while there was one personal best registered as Dipna Lim-Prasad broke Chee Swee Lee’s longstanding 400m hurdles mark and Michelle Sng won the Republic’s first high jump gold in 52 years.

Soh Rui Yong became the first Singaporean man to win back to back marathon crowns to account for the other gold, though it is less than the three that came on home soil two years ago.

Despite Shanti Pereira and Zhang Guirong falling short in their bid to retain their women’s 200m and shot put titles, Singapore Athletics (SA) president Ho Mun Cheong told TODAY he could not find much fault with the performances.

“Overall, I’m satisfied,” he said. “Zhang Guirong did not perform to expectations as we expected her to at least get a medal and she came in fourth… (but) the rest (are) okay, at least they tried their best.”

With the Vietnamese looking unstoppable on the track as Singapore remain stagnant in recent times, there appears to be cause for concern over the Republic’s ability to win gold medals at future editions of the Games.

But Ho chose to stay upbeat and believes that the association is capable of bringing up younger stars to vie for glory.

“Owing to her work and family commitment in China, she (Zhang) has slowed down,” he explained.

“Shanti needs to increase on her anaerobic and aerobic training and (receive) more international exposure, hopefully her university study will not affect her training. As for Michelle, her target is to jump 1.90m. For Rachel (Rachel Yang who won a bronze in the pole vault), she also has work and family commitments, and has mentioned that it's not easy to juggle both especially now that her son needs her attention.

“We have Nur Izlyn (Zaini), who won a bronze medal in the women’s 100m hurdles and we hope to groom her for higher performance. Our focus is for youth development and we hope to do well in international youth Games (while) we also need to build up a pool of throwers starting from the National Schools competition.”

Internal strife in the association did not aid preparations either and the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) and Sport Singapore (SportSG) had to form a major games preparation committee in June to manage the SEA Games athletics team, after a series of disputes between officials, coaches and athletes broke out.

Shanti was caught up in a dispute between SA and her coach Margaret Oh over her involvement in the 4x100m relay side – which set a new national record on Thursday – and admitted she had been affected.

“I’d be lying if I said it didn’t, but I got over it and found a way to push through,” the 20-year-old said after her 4x400m relay race on Saturday. She won bronze in both the 100m and 200m earlier in the week.

“I think we all had a job to do here, (which was) reaching our personal goals and goals as Team Singapore… when it comes to the Games, we have to put on our game face and perform for ourselves and our country.”

That sentiment was reiterated by others, like Soh and Lim-Prasad, who also alluded to the less than ideal support for the athletes in the build-up to the Games, apart from the in-fighting.

“To a certain extent, the athletes were definitely affected by everything that was going on, but it definitely shows their tenacity and the strength,” said Soh, 26.

“I know for a fact that Michelle Sng didn’t get a lot of support leading up to this Games. She applied for gold-medal campaign support and didn’t get it and she got a gold medal anyway.

“It shows that the athletes don’t take no for an answer (and instead) just find a way to make it work.

“It’s a hell of a performance especially since two years ago, I definitely think that under the previous regime there was a lot less disruptions coming in.”

Lim-Prasad admitted she had questioned whether it was worthwhile to continue her passion, but had no regrets after a stellar showing that brought two silvers and two national marks. 

“Ultimately, it’s not a career I can sustain being full-time because I’m not financially independent and it comes to a point where I have to evaluate whether I’m being selfish… so to have done this well and overcome so much is obviously very heartening,” the 26-year-old said.

“We (the team) have been talking about our (personal) struggles and I’m just very proud for each and every one of us, I think we surpassed expectations and overcame a lot of demons.”

Former national waterpolo player Yip Ren Kai, the chairman of the SNOC Athletes Commission, who was appointed team manager of the SEA Games team, paid tribute to them for staying focused.

“We tried to shield them from all the distractions that are outside of their training and they have kept their end of the bargain by training hard and preparing hard,” he said. “They’ve done what they needed to do, they were sure of their direction.”

Soh described Yip as a “calming influence” and expressed hope that SA can provide better more help and support for local athletes going forward, citing how there are no dedicated coaches and programmes for distance running, high jump and the throw events.

“So far, we seem to hit the news for all the wrong reasons, which is really sad,” he said.

“I do hope that we can have better athlete-association communication… We’ve got to decide what path we want to head down, because right now (most of) our medals are coming from athletes who are doing their own thing.

“It’s just some sense of direction, really, that’s what’s really lacking right now. I do think that everyone, in their heads, they are doing the best thing for the sport – key word being in their head – but you can’t have a bunch of individuals having separate directions and expecting it to work.”

He also expressed hope for more support from the public to help raise the profile of athletics in Singapore, which could in turn lead to openings for sponsors to come on board and offer athletes much-needed support.

“At the end of the day, sports right now for countries like Thailand and Vietnam, it’s their profession but for Singapore right now, it’s really a hobby,” Soh pointed out.

“Chances are unless something really goes right for you and wrong for them, they are always going to have the upper hand.”

Ho is insisted that SA will always have the athletes’ interests in mind, saying: “With the completion of the SEA Games, I would like to see changes in the association to bring athletics forward.  We always support the athletes to perform better.”

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SEA Games 2017

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