After a thousand gold medals, Team Singapore eyes at least 50 more at SEA Games in Bangkok
The Republic is sending a total of 930 athletes to compete in 48 sports
[SINGAPORE] Since hurdler Tan Eng Yoon won Singapore’s first gold medal at the Southeast Asian Peninsular Games – as the Southeast Asian Games were known then – in 1959, the Republic has claimed gold at the regional meet a thousand more times.
The country aims to clinch at least another 50 gold medals at the 33rd edition of the SEA Games, which kick off in Bangkok on Tuesday (Dec 9) with the opening ceremony.
No matter how many times a Singaporean athlete reaches the pinnacle of their sport, one never grows tired of hearing the national anthem played at the victory ceremonies.
Over the decades, Singapore has groomed and produced champions in many different sports at the SEA Games.
One name that comes to mind is Patricia Chan – Singapore’s first “Golden Girl” of swimming – who won 39 gold medals at the regional games during her illustrious career in the pool.
The biennial event, after all, is the best regional sporting playground where Singaporeans get to compete against athletes from 10 other countries.
Of course, there are a handful of Singaporean athletes who have gone on to achieve much more than regional success – most notably Joseph Schooling, who won gold at the Brazil Olympics in 2016, and kitefoiler Max Maeder, who claimed bronze at the Paris Games last year.
In Schooling’s case, his ascendancy started with the SEA Games in 2011, bagging gold in two events.
There are many other swimmers who have done well outside the regional games – the likes of Joscelin Yeo (40 SEA Games golds) and Ang Peng Siong (20 golds) back in the day, and Quah Ting Wen, Quah Zheng Wen and Gan Ching Hwee of the current generation, among others.
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On the track, Singapore had Canagasabai Kunalan, who won a sprint double at the SEAP Games in 1969 and went on to claim Asian Games honours after some famous battles with Malaysia’s Mani Jegathesan.
In boxing, Singapore saw Syed Kadir and Cyril Jeeris strike gold in the 1970s before the sport suffered a lengthy lull.
Weightlifting brought the country a haul of gold medals through Olympic silver medallist Tan Howe Liang, Chua Phung Kim, Chua Koon Siong and Tan Ser Cher.
And whenever bowling and sailing were included in the SEA Games, Singaporeans raked in the medals at will.
One sport for which Singaporeans would love to see a gold medal is football. But that remains out of reach, as Singapore’s under-22 team disappointed with a sobering defeat to minnows Timor-Leste last week, and are all but out of the competition with a very tough game against perennial favourites Thailand on Thursday.
The statistics don’t lie: Singapore has never won a football gold at the SEA Games, though it came agonisingly close on three occasions as the runner-up.
As things stand, many sports fans here will be following the SEA Games in Thailand closely to see how Team Singapore performs, especially in certain key events. In total, Singapore is sending 930 athletes who are set to compete in 48 sports.
Will Shanti Pereira clinch a historic sprint double? Can the water polo team cling to the gold medal after having lost only once in the series to Indonesia in 2019?
Can former world badminton champion Loh Kean Yew emulate Wong Shoon Keat’s heroics in 1983 and deliver another historic singles victory?
Will Maeder do us proud once again in the waters as kitefoiling makes its SEA Games debut?
And can Singapore’s home-grown table tennis players show us that they are ready to take over the mantle from the naturalised foreign players who did us proud at the Olympics?
The answers to these questions and much more will be revealed over the coming fortnight.
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