More than 500 Team Singapore athletes selected for the 32nd SEA Games
The Republic will be represented by more than 500 athletes across 27 sports at the May 5-17 SEA Games this year.
Among those shortlisted to travel to Cambodia are Singapore’s first Olympic gold medallist Joseph Schooling, who has 29 golds at the SEA Games, and fellow swimmers Teong Tzen Wei and Amanda Lim. The trio were embroiled in a drug controversy in 2022 after admitting to consuming cannabis.
Former silat world champion Sheik Ferdous Sheik Alau’ddin, who made headlines on Monday after he was charged with drink driving, is also included in the list.
In a statement to The Straits Times on Tuesday morning, Sport Singapore said it is aware of his drink-driving charge.
Its spokesman added: “As a spexScholar and Singapore’s sport ambassador, Ferdous is expected to uphold the highest standards of conduct in and out of the competition arena.
“SportSG takes a very serious view of the matter and will conduct an internal review after the court proceedings have been completed, and determine the appropriate actions to be taken thereafter.”
This will be the first time Cambodia will host the biennial Games, where there will 38 sports. Competitors will take part in a record 608 events with the previous high coming in 2019 in the Philippines when there were 530 events.
Among the sports listed were martial arts such as karate, judo, taekwondo, pencak silat and a group of traditional and local disciplines such as kun bokator arnis, jujitsu, kick boxing, vovinam and kun khmer.
New and unfamiliar sports such as jet ski, obstacle race, floorball and teqball, a sport that is played on a curved table combining elements of football and table tennis and is a demonstration sport, have been included.
At the last edition in Vietnam in 2022, Singapore’s contingent of 424 athletes across 33 sports returned with a haul of 47 gold, 46 silver and 71 bronze medals.
The 2015 edition on home ground remains Singapore’s best performance at the regional affair (84 gold, 73 silver and 102 bronze medals) while the 2017 edition in Kuala Lumpur (58 gold, 59 silver and 71 bronze medals) stands as Singapore’s best away Games.
The SNOC said that athletes who have yet to meet the qualifying criteria have until February 2023 to meet the selection criteria for the appeals committee to consider.
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