SNOC chief’s SEA Games criticism draws mixed reactions from football and athletics fraternities

“COME TO THE PARTY”

At the press conference, Mr Chay said that athletics need to “come to the party”, noting the three golds in athletics compared with the 19 in swimming.

He said: “I think a lot of work has to be done there if we really want to chase medals, if we really want to consistently be top three in Southeast Asia, and if we want to have a strong home game showing because we know what the events are. 

“We need to chase those events, and we need to get our athletes in athletics up to par with the rest of the region.”

Mr Chay noted that athletics is a sport at every major Games, and Singapore “needs to have more athletes at the world-class level”.

At this year’s Games, Shanti Pereira retained her titles in the 200m and 100m events, while Calvin Quek won Singapore’s first 400m hurdles SEA Games gold since 1965.

Singapore Athletics president Lien Choong Luen told CNA on Tuesday night that he had met Mr Chay and SportSG on Tuesday morning to discuss their next steps.

He said Mr Chay was “not technically wrong”, but athletics is “structurally quite different” from swimming, especially in Singapore’s context.

For one, athletics is a “late-developing” sport, he said, giving the example of Quek, who won gold at 29.

“I think this aspect of late-developing means that there is a lot more commitment, a lot more faith, a lot more belief, a lot more investment,” he said.

He added that athletics has many different disciplines that require “specialised coaching, facilities and equipment”.

Singapore Athletics is working on “bridging support” for young athletes. The 2029 SEA Games in Singapore is his “open call” to coaches and athletes, Mr Lien said.

“For those that are in, stay in, and for those that are knocking on the door, please, we will support you. We will walk with you to 2029 and beyond,” he said.

He added that they have a “good pipeline” and the priority is to focus on fundraising so that they can support a greater number of athletes.

Among those who took issue with Mr Chay’s comments was marathoner Soh Rui Yong.

He said Singapore was sending “a bunch of full-time students, software engineers, teachers, government employees, and corporate workers” to the Games.

While highlighting several Singaporean athletes, he said they had to compete against several full-time professional athletes who are sponsored, such as Thailand’s Puripol Boonson and Kieran Tuntivate, as well as Indonesia’s Robi Syianturi.

“Singapore has the resources to fund a proper high-performance athletics program if this country wants to, but those resources don’t seem to be flowing into the sport. Till then, don’t expect to win many gold medals bringing knives to a gun fight,” he wrote.

Soh, who finished seventh in the men’s 10,000m, said athletics is not a “rich man’s sport” and that competition is “deeper and comes fast and furious from more sources and directions”.

“Fixating on medal count to me is not a holistic way of measuring success at the Games,” he added.