KUALA LUMPUR — Every athlete remembers his first SEA Games. For local football legend Fandi Ahmad, it was the year 1979 in Jakarta, Indonesia, where he first donned the Republic’s national colours as a 17-year-old.

Over three decades later, the 55-year-old has not forgotten that moment when he first slipped on that red Singapore jacket, as the father-of-five told TODAY in an earlier interview: “I still remember my first SEA Games. All I wanted was to wear that jacket, and it was a huge honour for me at such a young age to be representing the country and to do the march past during the opening ceremony with everyone watching. 

“I’ll always cherish that Games because that was when my international career started to take off.”

Singapore’s football hero went on to compete in eight more SEA Games before hanging up his boots after the 1997 Games in Indonesia. The 2015 SEA Games in Singapore gave Fandi and his family yet another special memory, as he and his eldest son Irfan, who was making his Games debut, were handed the honour of lighting the Games cauldron together.

YOUNG ONES AT THE GAMES

As Team Singapore’s 569-contingent enters the Tigers’ den in Kuala Lumpur this week to compete across 35 sports for the 2017 SEA Games, some of the Republic’s future sports stars will be getting their baptism of fire in South-east Asia’s biggest multi-sports event. 

Over the past 12 days, TODAY has profiled some of the up-and-coming young athletes – most of whom will be competing in their first SEA Games – who will be gunning for glory this month.  

One such member of Singapore’s largest-away contingent is paddler Ethan Poh, the boy who once stood in the Singapore Table Tennis Association’s Toa Payoh training hall, staring wide-eyed at the seniors going through their training paces, wishing he could be just like them one day.

There is also Nur Zuhairah Yazid, a timid, quiet girl who was once bullied in primary school but who has since transformed into a silat warrior ready to take on the best in her quest for gold in the women’s tunggal (individual artistic). 

Some have travelled far just to be able to compete close to home.

She told TODAY: “It’s really great that speed skating is getting representation from the tropical countries. It’s a fun sport and everyone will enjoy watching it.

“It’s a bit strange to have winter sports events at the SEA Games…I’m excited to be taking part because they’re so many different sports and events and I’m really looking forward to it.”

Among the young warriors are some who have overcome personal adversity to compete and excel in their sport.

Two years ago, Amita Berthier and her family were hit by a family tragedy after her father, 51-year-old Eric Berthier, died following a fall at his workplace. The young fencer ploughed on through her grief, winning an individual cadet foil gold and team gold at the Asian Junior and Cadet Fencing Championships just three weeks after her father’s death.

Since relocating to Boston to pursue her athletic dreams, the 16-year-old has parried and thrusted her way to more achievements on the world stage, winning a cadet bronze at the World Junior and Cadet Championships in Bulgaria in April. 

Others like swimmer Francis Fong have had to overcome personal fears in order to compete. In December 2004, Francis and his family were holidaying in Krabi, Thailand, when the Boxing Day tsunami hit the shores of the resort they were staying at. While his family survived with some injuries, he developed a crippling fear of water that took time – and swimming lessons – to overcome. 

Bushy-tailed and bright eyed as they walk into the Games’ competition arenas around the Malaysian capital, this will be a first taste of international competition for a number of Team Singapore’s young ones. Not for water skier Mark Leong though. Even though he is only be 19, the teenager already has a men’s slalom gold medal from the 2015 Games under his belt.

Leong’s first SEA Games experience was also unforgettable, as he told TODAY: “Winning that gold medal in Singapore was absolutely amazing with all my friends and family there on the shore to support me. Seeing their smiles almost as big, or bigger than mine was just amazing and surreal.”

Quah Jing Wen, who won a medal in her sole event – the 400m individual medley – will be taking a big step up this time as she guns for honours in seven events. The youngest of the Quah siblings – her sister Ting Wen and Zheng Wen are Olympians – Jing Wen will be joined by a young squad of swimmers looking to make a big splash in the pool alongside Singapore’s Olympic hero Joseph Schooling. 

SEA GAMES SPECIAL FOR MANY

It is sometimes mockingly referred to as the “Kampung Games”, particularly when the likes of shuttlecock kicking, fin swimming, and chinlone make their way into the sports roster – the first two sports featured at the 2003 Games in Hanoi, while chinlone featured in Myanmar in 2013 and made a return this year – but there is no doubt that the SEA Games holds a special place in many athletes’ hearts,  both seasoned veterans and first-timers alike.

Myanmar athletics legend Jennifer Tin Lay, who is considered one of the Games’ all-time greats with a total of 16 gold medals in the shot put, discus, and volleyball, was happy to welcome the regional event to her country in 2013 after years of reaping glory away from home. 

One of the torch bearers during the Games opening ceremony at the Wunna Theikdi Stadium, she told TODAY in an interview then: “I am so proud we are hosting it. My friends from Singapore and Malaysia have been asking me for years about when Myanmar is going to host the SEA Games.

“It is a great feeling, because by the time we host our next one, I would have kicked the bucket!”

Likewise, Mr Khairy Jamaluddin, Malaysia's Youth and Sports Minister, bristled at criticisms of the Games being of kampung standard.

He told TODA in an exclusive interview: "It's a very important sports tournament because it allows for younger athletes to come through, and also athletes from more obscure sports. Some of these sports may not be Olympic sports, but they have a strong following in the region. That's why the SEA Games accommodates sports which are not traditionally in multi-sports tournaments.

"So it gives an opportunity for athletes who are involved in sports which really sometimes will not get much coverage to have their day in the sun. Some people say the SEA Games is not as high level as the Olympics, but it's important for athletes who are at the development stage. 

"But at the same time, you have top athletes coming. You have Jun Hong, a world champion, she's going to be diving. We have Azizulhasni Awang, whose a world champion, he's going to be racing. Joseph Schooling is an Olympic champion.

"Our badminton champion Lee Chong Wei's not playing because we're sending him to the world championships. Nicol David, our 10-time world champion is not coming to play squash because we feel that we can win even without her.

"So countries make decisions about sending their world champions, their top athletes or developmental athletes, but you still do have top athletes coming to the SEA Games, so it's not a low-level competition."

Like Fandi, former national swimmer Mark Chay and shooter Lee Wung Yew – who are the assistant chefs de missions for Team Singapore at the 2017 SEA Games – also have fond memories of their first outing at the regional event.

Lee, 51, had missed out on the 1983 edition after failing to qualify for the national team. The missed opportunity made his debut in Bangkok two years later all the more special, and he had this advice for the young athletes at these Games.

“I want them to really just have fun, enjoy themselves. That’s what was told to me by my seniors then. It was really something exciting for me at that time,” he said.

For Chay, who first competed at the Games in Jakarta in 1997 alongside multiple-gold medallist Joscelin Yeo, the SEA Games was where the swimmer cut his teeth before making a bigger splash outside of South-east Asia.

Chay went on to compete in two Olympic Games, and he told TODAY: “It is great exposure for any kid…if you qualify for the SEA Games, that puts you in the top three in the region (based on qualifying criteria of a third-placed finish), which means you’re going for a medal.

"Qualifying for meets, being in the hot lanes, that’s something you won’t experience until you become a SEA Games swimmer.”

For young Singaporean athlete like Poh, a debut at the SEA Games is the perfect stepping stone to a bigger dream for the future.

Poh, who wants to win a table tennis medal at the 2024 Olympic Games, said: “The SEA Games is definitely a milestone for me, and hopefully the start of more major competitions to come. 

“Hopefully I can make it to Tokyo 2020… A medal at the 2024 Olympics is my dream.”

READ MORE OF OUR COVERAGE OF TEAM SINGAPORE AT THE SEA GAMES

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