Home advantage as Team Singapore looks to rule the pool at World Aquatics Championships
Nearly half of the 72-strong contingent are making their debut at the global meet
MORE than 2,500 athletes from over 180 countries have registered to take part in this month’s World Aquatics Championships in Singapore.
Many of the world’s top swimmers are expected to be in town, including the likes of two-time Olympic gold medallist Strahinja Rasovic from Serbia, American Olympic silver medal winner Claire Weinstein and Scotland’s most decorated Olympian Duncan Scott.
The WCH, as the competition is called, is the sport’s flagship international meet and is being held in South-east Asia for the first time. It runs from Jul 11 to Aug 3 and there are six aquatic sports: swimming, artistic swimming, water polo, diving, high diving, and open water swimming.
Singapore will be represented by its largest-ever contingent at the WCH with 72 athletes – of which nearly half (32) are making their debut – in all the disciplines except for high diving. At the 2023 championships in Fukuoka, Singapore fielded 27 athletes in four disciplines.
The line-up this year includes 16 swimmers, 10 divers, nine artistic swimmers, eight open water swimmers, as well as the men’s and women’s water polo squads.
Swimming and artistic swimming events will take place at the new 4,800-seater WCH Arena, which was built earlier this year on a former open-air car park next to the Leisure Park Kallang mall, a short walk from the National Stadium.
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The other two competition venues are the OCBC Aquatics Centre, where diving and water polo will take place; and Palawan Green in Sentosa, where spectators can catch the open water and high diving events.
‘Purpose and pride’
Distance swimmer Gan Ching Hwee said that nothing can beat the feeling of competing for one’s country in front of a packed home crowd.
“I’ve had the privilege of representing Singapore at major events like the Olympics, but standing on the blocks in front of a home crowd is something I’ve dreamed about for a long time,” noted Gan, who turns 22 later this month.
She finished ninth in the 1,500-metre freestyle heats at last year’s Paris Olympics, setting a national record for that event as well as the 800-metre freestyle.
“It gives you an extra sense of purpose and pride. This is a milestone not just for us as athletes, but for Singapore sport, and I hope our performances will inspire more young Singaporeans to believe in themselves and chase their goals,” she added.
Lee Kai Yang, the captain of the men’s water polo team that is making its first appearance at the WCH, said he is ready to go full throttle and show what the team can do on the world stage.
The 29-year-old is a goalkeeper who has already helped Singapore win several medals, including gold at the Southeast Asian Games in 2015, 2017 and 2023.
“Many of us have grown up competing at the regional level, and now we finally get the chance to represent Singapore on the world stage,” he explained. “We know we will be up against some of the best in the world, but we are ready to step up, give everything we have got, and show what Singapore water polo is capable of.”
While it is a first outing for the men’s team at the WCH, the women’s water polo team is competing at the global meet for the second time, having made their debut in Doha last year.
Some of the other members of Team Singapore to watch out for in the pool are Teong Tzen Wei, who was a silver medallist at the last Asian Games in Hangzhou in 2023.
The 27-year-old also claimed a silver at the Commonwealth Games in 2022 in the 50-metre butterfly, becoming just the third Singaporean to win a swimming medal in that quadrennial event.
Over in diving, among those to keep an eye on are synchronised springboard divers Max Lee and Ayden Ng, winners of the Sportsboy Team of the Year (event) at last year’s Singapore Sports Awards.
In artistic swimming, Debbie Soh leads a nine-member team that includes Yvette Chong and Kiera Lee. The trio recently secured a bronze medal in the overall duet category of the 2025 World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup Series, which was Singapore’s first ever medal in the circuit.
Singapore Aquatics president Kenneth Goh said the fact that so many of the Republic’s athletes are making their WCH debut “speaks volumes about the depth of talent” today.
He added: “We have established ourselves as a powerhouse in aquatics in the region, consistently competing against the best in Asia. But to become the best in the world, we must challenge ourselves against the very best, and we will not shy away from that.”
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