Disappointment for Singapore athletes after cancellation of Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games

SINGAPORE – Following their recent squad announcements for the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games (Aimag), Singapore’s floorball teams were eagerly anticipating the Nov 21-30 multi-sport meet, which was supposed to be held in Thailand.

But the hammer blow fell on Aug 20, just a week after they had unveiled their teams on social media, as the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) cancelled the quadrennial event, citing the organisers’ inability to satisfy the criteria in the host city contract by the Aug 19 deadline.

The next edition will be in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 2026.

This means the Singapore men’s floorball team will not have any more major tournaments in 2024 as they had failed to qualify for the year-end World Floorball Championship in Sweden.

Calling the Aimag’s cancellation a “huge disappointment”, men’s team captain Kumaresa Pasupathy told The Straits Times: “It was one of the major events we had been preparing for all year, and the team had put in countless hours of hard work with the goal of representing Singapore and doing well.”

While he was looking forward to the Games, the 28-year-old added that there must be “good reasons” for the cancellation.

Originally scheduled to take place in May 2021, the event was postponed four times due to reasons ranging from the Covid-19 pandemic, political uncertainty following the 2023 Thai general election to the proximity to the recent Paris Olympics.

Over 100 Singapore athletes across 22 sports were set to participate in the Games, where sports such as floorball, netball and cheerleading were in line for their debuts.

When contacted, the OCA said it “expresses its sincere sympathies” to the affected athletes, adding: “Despite numerous attempts made by the OCA to ensure the Games could go ahead, it was clear that it would not be possible and the OCA cancelled the event in the best interests of the athletes and all stakeholders.”

Several of the Republic’s bowlers were set to make their major Games debut at the Aimag, including Arianne Tay, Nur Irdina Hazly, Ning Tay, Aiman Lim and Peter Khor.

Singapore Bowling Federation (SBF) technical director Jason Yeong-Nathan said: “We’ve seen a lot more of such uncertainty since the Covid pandemic and at Singapore Bowling we take these in our stride.

“For this Indoor Games edition, SBF selected a team hungry to show that they are ready to step up for Singapore in an adult major. They’re still young and will have more opportunities to represent Singapore in future majors.”

The tournament would have rounded off a busy second half of the year for the Republic’s netball team, who have the Sept 1-7 Mirxes Nations Cup coming up, followed by the Asian Netball Championship from Oct 18 to 27 in India.

While admitting that they are “a little bit disappointed”, co-captain Khor Ting Fang added: “Actually, this is quite a busy year for us, so I guess in a way, it gives us a bit more of a break to reset ourselves again before we go hard again for next year, to go for the gold medal at the 2025 SEA Games.”

Netball Singapore president Trina Liang-Lin said: “It was an incredible opportunity to showcase the growth of netball in Asia on a major international platform. Each postponement brought with it a renewed sense of hope, and this final cancellation is a tough blow.”

Cheerleader Pee Hai Rou also expressed her team’s disappointment at missing a chance to compete at a major event. She said: “Last year, the team was actually set up because of Aimag.

“It was supposed to happen in February but it got pushed back and the world championship happened earlier instead.

“A lot of our athletes were just very excited to wear the Singapore blazer, because all this time we weren’t really recognised as a sport in Singapore.”

Singapore National Olympic Council secretary-general Chris Chan said: “This event would have been a good opportunity for our athletes to compete against Asia’s best, and more importantly to achieve valuable data points towards qualification for SEA Games 2025.

“I am confident that our NSAs will adapt and identify alternative strategies to ensure our athletes remain on track to achieve their training and performance goals.”