Singapore’s 3x3 basketball teams set to make Commonwealth Games debut

SINGAPORE – Fresh off their

historic men’s silver at the 2025 SEA Games

, Singapore’s 3x3 basketball teams clocked another milestone by qualifying for the July 23-Aug 2 Commonwealth Games in both the men and women’s events in Glasgow, Scotland.

On Feb 3, Games organisers confirmed that Singapore are among the 12 men’s and 12 women’s teams, which is an expansion of the eight-team competition when the sport made its debut at Birmingham 2022. Their participation will be subject to approval by Commonwealth Games Singapore.

Glasgow 2026 will feature 3,000 athletes from 74 nations and territories competing in 10 sports and six para sports.

In December 2025, the men’s team comprising Ching Zhen Yu, Liam Blakney, Nur Aufa and Xu Duanyang made it out of the SEA Games group stage with wins over Myanmar and Indonesia sandwiching a defeat by hosts Thailand.

In the semi-finals, they stunned powerhouses the Philippines 21-20, before losing 21-18 to Thailand in the final. The Filipinos had previously made the quarter-finals of the 2022 Asian Games.

Skipper Aufa told The Straits Times: “The Commonwealth Games will be a great test for us. As big as the SEA Games were, the Commonwealth Games introduce a different set of teams, so there’s more variety we have to put ourselves up against.

“It will be good for us to see where we are at and what kind of improvements we can pursue moving forward.

“I don’t think we have ever discussed the targets. But personally, I know that whenever we go for competitions, the goal is always to win and at least make the podium, one, two or three.

“So we’ll put expectations there, but we’ll see. The SEA Games silver gave us confidence that we can go out there and win games and medals.”

The women’s team of Lydia Ang, Matilda Lai, Jermaine Lim and Tang Choy Ting whitewashed Laos 21-0, but lost 19-12 to Thailand and 21-16 to Vietnam in the group stage to miss out on the semi-finals.

Basketball Association of Singapore president Seah Liang Bing was delighted with the teams’ achievements.

He said: “This is a significant milestone for the development of basketball in Singapore.

“We hope this opportunity will inspire our national teams to continue striving for excellence.”

The Singapore men are the third-highest world-ranked team among the Commonwealth federations at No. 31, behind Canada (17th) and New Zealand (21st), while the women are 20th, which also puts them third behind Canada (fifth) and Australia (17th).

At the 2022 edition, England won the men’s event by pipping Australia 17-16 as Canada took bronze. The same three nations filled the podium in the women’s event as Canada edged out England 14-13 in the final while Australia claimed bronze.

Fiji will make their 3x3 debut alongside fellow Pacific Island first-timers Papua New Guinea and Tonga, who qualified in the women’s event.

Aside from Singapore, the Cayman Islands and Jamaica will each field men and women’s teams for the first time, while Guyana, Malaysia and Nigeria will make their debut in the men’s competition and Uganda in the women’s event.

Natalie Cunningham, Glasgow 2026’s director of sport, said in a statement: “3x3 Basketball is going to be unmissable this summer. We saw in Birmingham just how electric the atmosphere can be; the speed, the intensity of the competition and the entertainment value had fans hooked...

“With new nations making their debut and experienced teams back for another shot, Glasgow 2026 will showcase 3x3 at its very best.”

Singapore’s men’s and women’s 3x3 teams could be in for even more major Games action in 2026, as ST understands that they are in the running to compete at the Sept 19-Oct 4 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan.

The men’s team are fifth in Asia, behind Mongolia (10th), China (11th), Japan (14th) and Qatar (28th), while the women are also fifth, behind China (third), Mongolia (10th), Japan (12th) and the Philippines (19th).