Bowling, wushu, climbing among sports reinstated to SEA Games 2025
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Singapore bowlers Darren Ong and Jaris Goh winning the gold and silver respectively at the 2023 IBF World Bowling Championships in Kuwait.
PHOTO: SINGAPORE BOWLING FEDERATION
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SINGAPORE – Over the past year, Singapore’s bowlers have blazed the lanes at the continental and global levels, winning titles at the World Bowling Championships, Asian Tenpin Championships and World Youth Championships.
They will be looking to take that form into 2025, when the sport returns to the SEA Games in Thailand from Dec 9 to 20, after its omission from the 2023 edition.
On Sept 26, the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) confirmed with The Straits Times that the SEA Games Federation (SEAGF) has approved the inclusion of tenpin bowling, wushu, sport climbing, ju-jitsu and cricket for the upcoming Games.
Karate will also be reinstated to the regional event, said a Bernama report.
It is understood that the SNOC had appealed for the five sports to be part of the Games roster, after wushu, ju-jitsu, karate, lawn bowls, and weightlifting were dropped in June. Hosts Thailand had then proposed for 40 sports to be contested in Bangkok, Chonburi and Songkhla. Lawn bowls and weightlifting are still not part of the 2025 programme.
An SNOC spokeswoman said: “The final programme will be officially confirmed after the SEAGF council’s endorsement at their upcoming meeting in late October.”
At the Hanoi Games in 2022, Singapore’s bowlers topped the medal tally with three golds, a silver and three bronzes, before the sport was dropped from the Phnom Penh event the year after.
Singapore Bowling Federation (SBF) president Valerie Teo welcomed “fantastic” news of the U-turn as Thailand, Malaysia and the Republic – respective hosts of the next three editions of the biennial Games – have committed to a standardised programme to help regional athletes better prepare for the Olympics and Asian Games.
This means the national bowlers can also look forward to competing on home soil in 2029.
She added: “SBF has been deliberate in growing the sport, ensuring the talent pipeline, and strengthening our position among the world leaders in bowling. We can see our young charges learning from the seasoned keglers and also working well with our coaching team.
“This cohesiveness augurs well for Team Singapore as it ensures SBF can compete at the SEA Games with talents featuring both familiar and new faces. We are indeed grateful for the support from our sports village that enables us to look forward to the SEA Games with hope and promise.”
Singapore’s wushu exponents will also be gunning for honours at the 2025 SEA Games, with world champions Jowen Lim and Zeanne Law heading the charge. At the 2023 edition, the Republic were third in the region with two golds, three silvers and a bronze, behind Indonesia and Vietnam.
Singapore Wushu Dragon and Lion Dance Federation president Ang Mong Seng shared that behind the scenes, the Wushu Federation of Asean-China (WFAC), supported by wushu federations in the region, had appealed to the National Olympic Committee of Thailand (NOCT) to reinstate the sport in the 2025 programme.
He said: “The outcome is welcoming, given that wushu is also included in the Youth Olympic Games for the first time in 2026.
“Since the 2023 SEA Games, our athletes have been training very hard for good results at the 2025 SEA Games. Thanks to NOCT for the good decisions and the efforts of the WFAC and member federations, the efforts of our athletes and stakeholders are not in vain.”
Lim, a men’s daoshu and gunshu champion and changquan silver medallist at the 2023 Games, added: “I was a little worried but I believed wushu would be reinstated for the 2025 Games, and the confirmation gives a sense of relief.
“As athletes, what we want the most is to represent our country, on any stage. The SEA Games are one of the biggest stages to compete in for us and having wushu in the SEA Games also helps promote the sport in Singapore and motivate the younger generation to possibly reach this stage one day.”
Meanwhile, the Karate-Do Union of Singapore (KUS) is looking forward to having a local karateka compete at the SEA Games for the first time since 2017. The Republic’s last SEA Games karate medal was a men’s kumite 55kg bronze won by Tay Qin Yuan in 2011.
KUS honorary secretary Ng Gim Kai said: “We have been sending athletes out to compete regularly in regional and continental championships. We hope to get our athletes ready to compete in the future SEA Games and to make Singapore proud.”
