SEA Games: S’pore contingent gets mixed reviews from chef de mission Tan Eng Liang

Jakarta, Monday, November 21, 2011 — Singapore’s performances at the South-east Asian (SEA) Games in Indonesia were given a frank assessment by chef de mission Dr Tan Eng Liang.

Dr Tan had both public praise and criticism for the contingent.

The outstanding performances of the young athletes during the Games were very satisfying for the chef de mission.

“We have seen many young stars at these Games who have risen to the challenge and did very well for themselves. This bodes very well for sports in Singapore and I am very excited for their bright futures,” said Dr Tan.

“My heartiest congratulations to all our athletes for outdoing themselves, many of them have exceeded their expectations despite the high level of competition here in Indonesia,” said Dr Tan.

However, he also did not mince words about the contingent’s overall performance.

“As the CDM, if the question is if we had done well, then I am sorry to say that it is, at best, satisfactory,” Dr Tan was quoted as saying by The New Paper (Tue, Nov 22, 2011, p.50).

When compared with their performances in Laos two years ago, shooting, golf, archery, karate, judo, silat and shooting have done worse in Indonesia.

Singapore sent 414 athletes to compete in 33 sports in Indonesia and the contingent won 42 gold medals, one less than the record 43 won for an away games at the Korat edition held in 2007. However, Dr Tan’s reference point for comparison was not the overall medals won, but how a sport had performed relative to the Laos SEA Games. Singapore sent 195 athletes to Laos in 2007 where they contested a reduced offering of 19 sports because the country is landlocked and lacked the infrastructure for some sports.

While the respective national sports associations (NSAs) nominate the athletes, the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) is the governing body that approves their participation for four major games: SEA Games, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and the Olympics. The SNOC selectors based their approval on whether the nominated athletes meet the bronze medal marks of the previous games.

For the first time, the SNOC also used the sports performance in the immediate past games as a selection criteria to help give the selectors context, according to The New Paper (Tue, Nov 22, 2011, p.51). However, the bronze medal mark of the previous games will still remain the major criteria.

During the press conference, SNOC secretary general Chris Chan had warm words for the men’s basketball team, according to Yahoo!.

“I, for one, never had such high regard for the men’s basketball team; I thought they played so well,” Chris Chan was quoted as saying by Yahoo!, referring in particular to the team’s efforts in the game against Indonesia.

Dr Tan singled the swimmers out for particular praise, while shooting, silat and fencing came in for criticism because they were expected to do much better.

Swimming, table tennis and sailing were Singapore’s top three sports. They contributed 26 out of the total of 42 gold medals (62%) and 56 out of the 157 medals (36%) won by Team Singapore.

The swimmers won 17 out of the 38 gold medals 38 on offer, bringing our total medal haul for swimming to 39 (17 gold, nine silver and 13 bronze) – our best away medal haul to date in the sport.

Singapore’s Tao Li was the top performing athlete at the games out of the 5,000 athletes from 11 countries. No one could match her haul of seven gold and one bronze.

There were some welcome surprises for Singapore at the games. Shuttler Fu Mingtian won an unexpected badminton women’s singles gold with her 2-1 victory over an Indonesian opponent in front of a hostile home crowd. Mingtian’s victory is only Singapore’s second SEA Games badminton singles title after Wong Shoon Keat’s in 1983 .

The canoeing team also delivered several pleasant surprises with their 10-medal haul (two gold, five silver, three bronze) at the Games, a testament to the efforts of the canoeists who have aspirations for Olympic glory.

In Waterski, 18-year-old Sasha Christian and her teammate, 16-year-old Kalya Lee, made waves when they gave Singapore a one-two finish, winning the gold and silver medals respectively in the women’s wakeboard event.

Gary Yeo’s 100m timing of 10.46s brought home Singapore’s first silver medal in the athletic event since 2001.

Sports climbing made an emphatic debut, winning a total of eight medals, almost a third of all the medals on offer in the sport.

Also debutants at the games, the six-man roller sports team brought home a total of nine medals, with everyone winning at least one medal.

SEA Games 2011 — Singapore Medal Tally (Team Sports)

SEA Games 2011 — Singapore Medal Tally

SEA Games 2011 Final Medal Tally

	G	S	B	T
INDONESIA	182	151	142	475
THAILAND	107	100	120	327
VIETNAM	96	90	101	287
MALAYSIA	59	50	81	190
SINGAPORE	42	45	73	160
PHILIPPINES	36	56	77	169
MYANMAR	16	27	35	78
LAOS	9	12	36	57
CAMBODIA	4	11	24	39
TIMOR LESTE	1	1	6	8
BRUNEI	0	4	7	11

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