SINGAPORE — Months of fierce lobbying will culminate in an election battle at Hotel Royal on Monday evening, as the two teams contesting the top posts at the Singapore Athletic Association (SAA) face off at the annual general meeting to earn the mandate from the national sports association’s 22 affiliate clubs.

While incumbent Tang Weng Fei — who took over the helm from long-serving chief Loh Lin Kok in 2010 — and his 13-man team are banking on a mix of familiar names and new faces, opposing leader Sng Sze Hiang, co-founder and chief executive officer of Akira Corporation, has assembled a team of veterans with eight ex-national athletes in their midst, including Sng himself.

Notable names in Sng’s team include former SAA vice-president Ho Mun Cheong, and current vice-presidents Loh Chan Pew (competitions organising) and Steven Lee (training and selection), all of whom have fallen out with the SAA management after the latter two were suspended for rule infringement, and later reinstated.

Dubbing themselves Team Achievers, Sng’s team has called for a revival of Singapore athletics, pointing to the golden era in the ’60s and ’70s when athletes such as sprinter Chee Swee Lee, Heather Siddons-Merican (hurdles) and 1966 Asian Games silver medallist Canagasabai Kunalan dominated the regional track and field scene.

“The revival of Singapore athletics is a noble mission which must combine knowledge, experience, passion, good processes, teamwork and a strong sense of fairness and transparency,” said presidential-hopeful Sng in a statement published in their campaign booklet.

“These are the qualities that my team and I hope to bring to the SAA to achieve a transformation of the athletics scene in Singapore. Among them (the team) are four members of the current SAA management Committee … that they have decided to join this new team signals the dire need for change.

Sng ran the 400m at the 1983 SEA Games in Singapore before going on to establish himself in the business community, founding TT International — which owns consumer electronics brand Akira — in 1984. The 52-year-old continues to be involved in sports, giving out cash sponsorships to national high jumpers Hoe Aik Teng and Michelle Sng, and contributing S$300,000 in sponsorship via Akira to S-League side Geylang United in 2003.

The team also wants to bank on Sng’s extensive business contacts to attract new sponsors for the SAA, which currently gets S$1.08 million in annual funding grants for FY2014/2015 from Sport Singapore.

Its manifesto is also focused on better engagement with the affiliates, organisations and community, and pledged an athlete-centric approach in their goal for Team Singapore to clinch five gold medals at next year’s South-east Asian Games.

Added Ho, who is running for the post of honorary secretary: “I believe that, with our experience and passion in track and field, we know the ground well and are in touch with the athletes, coaches, officials and we want to work closely with them and find out the problems.”

With the SAA election dividing former team-mates, Ho acknowledged that the “in-fighting” was not good for the sport but the 66-year-old professional engineer added: “Both teams have the same aim, it’s about who can do a better job. We ask the affiliates to support us, as we can serve them better.”

Team Achievers:

President: Sng Sze Hiang, Akira Corporation CEO *

Vice-president (training & selection): Steven Lee, President Club MR25

Vice-president (competitions organising): Loh Chan Pew, national coach *

Vice-president (finance): R Rajandran, Chartered accountant

Honorary secretary: Ho Mun Cheong, engineer and businessman *

Assistant honorary secretary: G Balasekaran, Associate Professor / Deputy head of Physical Education & Sports Science, National Institute of Education *

Honorary treasurer: A Alagirisamy, businessman *

Statistician: C Jeyapandiyen, Exco Singapore Masters Athletics *

Women’s representative: June Koh, Director business development *

Chairman (cross country & road running): Tan Ming Jen, Associate Professor, School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University *

Chairman (race walking): Dr Leong Lee San, retired medical practitioner

Chairman (officials): Joe Yap, businessman

Chairman (technical & equipment): Ong Choon Poh, logistic executive

Chairman (tug of war): Tan Wei Leong, president Club Zoom

*former national athlete