By Les Tan
The basketball team made it to the quarter-final round of the AYG Basketball competition – the furthest advance of any Singapore teams. (Photo 1 © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports file photo)
Question: Which team sport did Singapore do best in at the Asian Youth Games (AYG)?
Answer: Basketball.
Their progress received little attention from the national media even though they were the only team sport to progress the furthest at the AYG.
The team of Jabez Su, Russel Low, Larry Liew and Goh Kong Tat progressed to the quarter-final stage, going further than the beach volleyball team (Round of 16) and the much-written-about-but-went-nowhere football team (preliminary round).
Yes, there are also designated team events in bowling and swimming, but those are essentially individual sports.
The maddening thing about team sports like football and basketball is that it’s so hard to gel on the day because so many players are involved.
The beach volleyball guys made the Round of 16 where Oman stopped them from qualifying for the quarter-finals. Prior to that game, the Singapore duo of Melvin Goh and Qing Shan beat Japan and Saudi Arabia, and lost to Sri Lanka. Their overall record of 2 wins and 2 losses comes in a tournament that saw 15 boys’ teams take part.
The football team lost all their three preliminary round games against Iran, Thailand and China. They conceded 9 goals and scored 2 for a 0-3 win-loss record. 12 countries took part in football.
The basketball boys’ team of Jabez Su, Russel Low, Larry Liew and Goh Kong Tat lost their opening game against China, then went on to beat Uzbekistan and India to ensure qualification for the quarter-finals where they then fell to South Korea. Their overall record is 2-wins-2-losses in a tournament that saw 16 teams.
One New Paper writer even seemed genuinely surprised that basketball has such a strong following in Singapore.
“They appeared to genuinely enjoy the sport of basketball, regardless of who was playing,” wrote the writer in describing the crowd at Anglican High School, the venue of the AYG FIBA 33 basketball games (FULL HOUSE, The New Paper, Thursday, July 2, 2009).
It’s an odd statement to make, akin to saying, when there is a full crowd to watch Singapore play football at the National Stadium, “The crowd that showed up at the National Stadium to watch Singapore take on Liverpool appeared to genuinely enjoy the sport of football.”
Why else would people go and watch a game?
There is no record of any stories in the English media about the games involving the AYG basketball and beach volleyball team.
Melvin Goh (left) and Qing Shan represented Singapore in Beach Volleyball during the Asian Youth Games and made it to the knockout round of 16. (Photo 2 © Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports file photo)
The AYG football squad did not make it out of their preliminary round group and most painfully of all, lost to regional rivals Thailand 1-4. (Photo 3 © Les Tan/Red Sports file photo)
Beach vball shld deserve more funding… ive seen so many talents at sentosa and yet no one takes notice… sucha waste… same goes to basketball… haiz…
I think for soccer many asian countries are also focusing their funding on this sport. Look at the middle eastern countries, they spend millions of their petrol money in their leagues as well as attracting foreign talent, yet the furthest they have gone in the World Cup is in the 2nd Round. If Singapore spend $10 million on soccer, Saudi Arabia and UAE can easily spend $200 million without blinking. We can have 1 foreign coach (handling everything from the national team to all teh youth teams)….they can easily hire 10 foreign coaches to assist in their soccer development plans.
The hype you mention can be a double edged sword as the soccer boys in ayg are only 14 years old and may not be able to handle the pressure. I think they did relatively well against Iran ( a two time World Cup finalist and only lost by a single goal). By the way the Sports Council look at many factors before deciding on funding, namely performance in major events (Olympics, SEA Games, World Cup Qualifiers etc not only AYG), Quality of Asministration of the NSAs, popularity of the sport(I think Basketball and and especially volleyball need to touch base with more people)
Let’s not argue anymore about funding. I think as Singaporeans, we want all our sports teams to do well and that Singapore will eventually be recognise as a sporting nation(look at all the empty venues). Once this can be achieved, more funding will be available for all sports in Singapore and maybe we will finally see a singapore team competing in the World Championships Final Round for basketball, volleyball and soccer.
and bball and vball is not as popular as soccer worldwide, soccer is played by all countries. plus, soccer involves more players, unlike bball and vball which involves 2 or 3 players.
singapore soccer is not a powerhouse in asia so you have to give them a break, at least they tried their best.
lala is obviously a bballer. hahaha
and its not about results, its about how you play.
The topic now is not which sports will generate profits man. Its which sports will GET RESULTS. Bball vball proved they get results with LITTLE FUNDING compared to the obscene amount and media attention put inside soccer. Fund them. Nuff said.
“why would investors invest in something which there will be no profit ??”
if you cant even make it past the first round, got use meh. lol. i’d rather invest money into boosting the swimming and table tennis sports.
haha .. come on ..
you’re thinking things too simply ..
a little success wont make much difference ..
soccer is the most POPULAR sport in the world ..
it generate the most money in sports for the sport industry ..
why would investors invest in something which there will be no profit ??
i’m not making a baised report cos i’m a baller myself ..
i play for club too ..
but it’s the fact ..
unless people in singapore starts attending to live matches ..
but the thing is, if vball and bball gets the extra funding, pple are gona say tt soccer dun perform cos they dun get enuff funding. think this thing is nvr gonna end..
maybe bball and vball may have even won a medal.
soccer is overated . thats why. people are hyping them up so much and they got knocked out in first round. while potential athletes like the vball and bball team, who went all out to do sgpore proud by going far, receieved no attention. Shows alot about the biasness of the sports council. if they had been bias towards a winning team, it wld have make sense. but why not try to invest more effort in teams with potential, like bball and vball. they PROVED they had the potential. unlike soccer. where ppl hype them up, and they failed, and when so much money more was pumped into the sport. bball and vball apparently DID NOT had as much or anywhere near the funds nor the support as soccer. DO SOMETHING SPORTS council. who knows, if the money had been spent on the vball and bball team, maybe they would have progress even further. alas, it shows the sports system in sg, no wonder sports in sg cant succeed.