THE TEMASEK REVIEW

By Damon Yeo

As the year draws to an end, Temasek Review recaps the year in local sports, highlighting the major events which had shaped the local sporting calendar this year.

Football

For our Lions, it can be said that the team had started the calendar in a low but had ended it with a flourish. In their first competitive game of the year, our national football team travelled to Tehran in Iran and was thrashed 6-0 in 2011 AFC Asian Cup qualification game.

Spirits were lifted after a 2-1 win over Jordan later in January, only for hopes to be dashed again when Thailand came to the Kallang National Stadium and walked away 3-1 winners. However, in their last competitive match of 2009, the Lions upset the odds after Aleksandar Duric headed in the winner over Thailand in Bangkok, ending a barren spell of 34 years in the Thai capital.

The six points amassed from four matches in this tight Group now put the team in a favourable position to qualify for the actual tournament – and if the Lions do make it, it will be their first participation since 1984 (when we qualified as hosts).

Domestically, SAFFC won their fourth S-League title in a row, finishing 11 points clear of their nearest rivals. However, the 2009 season was tinted by expulsion of Bruneian club side DPMM from the competition when five games left to go by FIFA. DPMM had already made a good impression in the S-league, winning the Singapore League Cup in June and registering good crowds for their home games in Bandar Seri Bengawan. The league organisers will now find it difficult to find a replacement of similar quality for the 2010 season.

On a more positive note, SAFFC made history by being the first local club to participate in the Group Stages of the revamped AFC Champions League. The gap in standard between them and the Chinese/Korean/Japanese clubs was evident, but the Warriors did manage to earn one point from their six outings.

Inaugural Asian Youth Games

Singapore made history by hosting the inaugural Asian Youth Games over a period of nine days straddling June and July. The event did not get off the best of starts as a footballer from the Filipino football team was diagnosed with swine flu and all his team had to be quarantined, missing out on the competition as a result. Because of this, our neighbours Malaysia withdrew most of their athletes from the event.

Attendances for the games were generally poor and it failed to generate much media interest. However, this event had no doubt provided the organisers with the best possible experience as they gear themselves up for the hosting of 2010 Youth Olympics. Our team fared well in terms of medals, winning nine gold medals in all, a majority of them from swimming and bowling as China topped the table as expected with 25 gold medals.

The Singapore Slingers

The Singapore Slingers took local basketball standards to the next level as they became one of the six teams to play in the first season of the ASEAN Basketball League. Each of the teams could only register four foreigners, meaning that local players would provide the core of the 12-men roster.

The Philippines Patriots were expected to dominate the league, but the Slingers proved to be no pushovers. At time of writing, our boys sit third in the table, with every chance of making the play-offs (top four). They also produced one of the shocks of the season thus far, a convincing 74-69 victory over the hot favourites Patriots at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on 18 October.

SEA Games 2009

Team Singapore arrived in Laos for the 25th SEA Games without a huge expectation in terms of medals. After all, the organisers had included several non-Olympic events where Singapore did not field any competitors at all. Some of these events included Muay Thai, Shuttlecock Kicking and Fin Swimming.

Otherwise, Singapore performed more or less to expectation. There was no official medal target, but the media had projected 30 Gold medals for the team. All in all, the haul was 33 Gold medals and the team finished sixth in table of eleven participating nations.

Badminton was one sport where the team disappointed, returning with only one silver in the women’s doubles. Our Under-23 football team also failed to shine, finishing with just a bronze medal. With defending champion and perennial powerhouse Thailand eliminated from the Group Stage, Singapore produced an unconvincing performance in the semi-finals to lose 4-1 to Vietnam. The nation’s wait for the first ever SEA Games gold medal in football continues.

On a brighter note, our national water-polo team won gold again, their 23rd consecutive victory. In table-tennis, our paddlers won six of the seven gold medals at stake and 40-year-old veteran James Wong claimed his eighth SEA Games gold in discus. Our swimmers maintained their regional dominance, winning 14 Gold medals. 19-year-old Tao Li capped a great outing with five gold medals to her name.

The Other Bits

The Sports Hub saga continues as delays drag on. At time of writing, construction work at the proposed Kallang site has yet to begin. The nation’s worst fears were confirmed when the government suggested that the Hub is unlikely to be completed before 2013 or even 2015. Singapore will thus miss out on hosting the SEA Games perhaps until the decade after next.

However, with the International Rugby Board (IRB awarding the rights to host the 2019 Rugby World Cup to Japan, Singapore is scheduled to host a couple of games then. That will be the first time our nation will host a truly international sport event. Hopefully by then we will have a Sports Hub that we can be proud of.

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