After a ‘challenging’ Commonwealth Games, Team Singapore aim for Asian Games glory

SINGAPORE – Smaller in scale but larger a challenge, the Glasgow Commonwealth Games presented a tough test for Team Singapore even before the action kicked off on July 23.

After the Scottish city stepped in as a last-minute replacement for original hosts Victoria in Australia, which pulled out in 2023 citing high costs, the Games were scaled down from 19 to just 10 sports, with Singapore’s traditional heavyweights badminton and table tennis excluded.

This left a big gap for the 53-strong contingent to fill, as those two sports accounted for 10 of their 12 medals at the 2022 Birmingham Games.

In a review of the Republic’s performance at the Games on Aug 3, Team Singapore’s chef de mission Lau Kok Keng noted that the athletes rose to the occasion despite the increased pressure, while High Performance Sport Institute (HPSI) chief Su Chun Wei added that they “performed within expectations”.

The contingent wrapped up their campaign on Aug 2 with two silver medals, placing 28th out of 74 countries and territories. Australia topped the table with 70 gold, 45 silver and 56 bronze medals, while England and Canada finished second and third, respectively, with 29-45-36 and 19-20-23.

Lau said: “Having a smaller and leaner Games means there are fewer sports to spread across, as a result of which, the challenge becomes sharper and simpler – those competing will have to measure themselves directly against the best in the events that remain, with nowhere to hide.

“Our athletes in Glasgow were therefore not able to rely on our table tennis and badminton players to bring in the medals in these sports, and had to try to make up for these missing medals by doubling their efforts in their own respective sports.”

In Scotland, Commonwealth Games debutante Amanda Yap, 16, put up a stellar performance in the balance beam final, clinching silver in a field that included several world championships medallists to end Singapore’s 12-year medal drought in gymnastics.

Para-swimmer Toh Wei Soong retained his men’s 50m freestyle S7 silver, bringing his medal tally at the quadrennial event to three.

Although there were no other medals in swimming – 2022 silver medallist Teong Tzen Wei did not qualify for the men’s 50m butterfly final – Lau noted that there were still creditable performances in the pool.

These included national records from Gan Ching Hwee in the women’s 400m freestyle and 16-year-old Russel Pang in the men’s 1,500m freestyle, with both placing fifth in their respective finals.

Gan, 23, also made the finals of the 800m and 1,500m freestyle, placing fourth in the latter, while Mikkel Lee qualified for the men’s 50m freestyle final.

Singapore’s weightlifters Chua Jiin-Linn and Melissa Yee also notched national records at the event.

In athletics, Shanti Pereira became the first Singaporean to feature in an individual track event final – the women’s 200m – at the Commonwealth Games, while Gabriel Lee also advanced to the men’s triple jump final.

There were also season’s best times from Pereira (100m, 200m), Marc Louis (100m, 200m) and the women’s 4x100m relay team.

Lau said: “That, to me, is the truest measure of this group of athletes. Not merely what they won, but how far they reached, and how well they carried themselves in doing so. They have done Singapore proud.”

Su also praised the performance of the 3x3 basketball teams, who faced “very competitive and physical” teams in their Games debut.

The men’s side progressed out of the pool round before losing to New Zealand in the play-off for a semi-final berth.

Team Singapore also competed in lawn bowls and cycling at the 2026 Commonwealth Games.

Among those who paid tribute to the Singapore contingent was Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, who wrote in a Facebook post: “Beyond the medals and milestones, you have inspired Singaporeans to dream bigger and aim higher!”

Su noted that the showing in the UK bodes well for Team Singapore ahead of the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, which take place from Sept 19 to Oct 4.

He added: “Team Singapore is very resilient, so despite this year’s very packed competitive schedule, we have made all preparations after Commonwealth Games.

“Many of the teams will go in training camps and then we will proceed into Asian Games preparations and Asian Para Games... We are also preparing to make sure that our athletes transit into Japan in the best performance, in the best mode that they can perform, and I expect to see good performances in Japan.”

Pereira, the reigning 200m Asian Games champion, is excited to tackle the Asiad “head on” after an encouraging showing in Glasgow.

The 29-year-old said: “It does take a lot of planning to find competitions where there’re good conditions, good wind, good competitors, so I think we managed to do that.

“I’m really just in a period of competing, recovering... and that was quite essential to be ready for this, and it’s a really good preparation for the Asian Games.”