S’pore to field its largest-ever SEA Games team

SINGAPORE — The Republic will field its largest-ever contingent of 748 athletes for the 28th South-east Asian Games hosted here from June 5 to 16, as Team Singapore makes a bid for a record haul of more than 50 gold medals on home soil.

The number is a 54 per cent increase from the last Games held here in 1993, when a total of 483 athletes competed in 29 sports.

The initial shortlist of 985 athletes was announced by the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) last month, with the number trimmed down to 748 today (May 5).

Dr Tan Eng Liang, Singapore’s chef-de-mission for the SEA Games, attributed the significant increase to the “more generous” approach that national selectors had adopted to include athletes who are in good form or are close to the bronze medal qualifying mark for their events. With 402 gold medals on offer at the Games, this is also to allow more local athletes to compete in the 36 sports that will be contested. The SNOC’s qualifying criteria for the Games is usually pegged at the third-placed mark from the previous edition.

“As host nation, our selection criteria is more generous and a bit more relaxed, but this does not mean we compromise the quality of our squad to the Games,” said Dr Tan. “The leeway we allow varies from sport to sport, depending on potential and current form of the athletes.”

Leading the gold-medal charge for Singapore are swimming, water polo, sailing and table tennis, which combined to reap 21 gold of the 34 total haul at the 2013 Myanmar Games.

Swimming sensation Joseph Schooling will be one to watch among the 29-member swimming squad. The 19-year-old, who won six titles in Naypyidaw two years ago, is looking to match golden girl Joscelin Yeo’s nine-gold record feat from the 1993  Games. Local fans can also expect fierce rivalry between up-and-coming young swimmer Quah Zheng Wen — who is also competing in nine categories — and Schooling as they go head-to-head in the 100m free, 50m, 100m, 200m butterfly and 200m individual medley.

But Schooling is not intimidated. He told TODAY: “I like to set new standards for myself, and nine gold medals at the Games is definitely on my list. It is just about two events per day for me and nothing crazy. I took up more events than the last SEA Games in Myanmar because it is good to have more variety and weapons in my arsenal as I gear up for 2016 Olympics.

“I am feeling very excited and fortunate to race in front of a home crowd at the SEA Games.” 

While five sailing events face the risk of being dropped from the Games because of insufficient competitors, the sailors are still expected to feature strongly. “We will aim to top the medal tally again at this Games, but must be wary of Malaysia and Thailand because they have always been close to us (in performance) and know our waters well,” said Singapore Sailing Federation general manager Chung Pei Ming yesterday.

“If the five events in sailing are ... dropped, then our gold-medal haul will definitely be affected, so I am worried.” 

There was good news for the men’s floorball team, as the Singapore Floorball Association confirmed yesterday the men’s event with entries from five countries, but the women are still at risk with only three countries confirming their participation.

The SEA Games Federation rules state that a minimum of four countries must take part in a sport or event for it to be included in the Games programmes.