Love of the game inspires Singapore Police Force officers to pursue sports

SINGAPORE – As the first responders to high-risk incidents, the Singapore Police Force’s (SPF) Emergency Response Team (ERT) are trained to handle armed threats and terror attacks.

The role demands exceptional physical endurance and mental resilience, qualities that Assistant Superintendent Marah Ishraf, a team leader in the ERT, embodies both on and off duty.

The 31-year-old is also a senior member of the men’s national rugby team, who won a silver in rugby sevens at the 2025 SEA Games last December. He was one of 27 police officers who were part of Team Singapore in Thailand competing or serving as officials across sports such as cricket, cycling, hockey, indoor volleyball, rugby, shooting, silat, sport climbing, swimming, taekwondo and tug-of-war.

In an interview on Feb 23, Marah – who has been with the SPF for five years – said that in the lead up to the Games, he was training four times a week on top of his shift work. Juggling his career, sport and family commitments meant little to no personal time, but he would not have it any other way, noting that it is “an honour and privilege to be representing Singapore”.

Marah, who made his first national team appearance in 2013, added: “Not many athletes or even Singaporeans can say that they have represented Singapore in a certain capacity.

“As athletes, we only get older, and we have that ‘end date’ to represent your country for the sport. So with this, I feel that with every opportunity I get to represent Singapore, I will grab it with two hands, and I will appreciate it as much as I can.”

It helps that Marah – who was making his fourth Games appearance – sees transferable skills from his police work to what he does on the field as a rugby player.

He said: “Being an ERT officer, there are a lot of values that are very transferable to the rugby field – commitment, discipline, composure.

“So when I transfer that to the rugby field, it applies the same as well. I need to be committed to my training, committed to the play and have discipline to be on time for training and on the field, I need to have that composure when making certain decisions.”

Other members of the SPF also won medals at the Games, including Special Constabulary Sergeant Nicholas Khaw, who clinched Singapore’s first gold medal of the Games alongside Diyanah Aqidah Dian Khudhairi in taekwondo’s mixed recognised poomsae pair, and Sergeant Affiz Zakri, who won a silver in the silat men’s seni regu (artistic team) event.

The Singapore team who won bronze in tug-of-war – a demonstration event at the Games – in the mixed 560kg class featured six police officers in the group of eight.

One of them was Sgt Melrize Ng.

The 32-year-old, who is part of the Police Coast Guard, picked up the sport in 2017.

Ng, who shared that her superiors and teammates in the SPF were very supportive of her sporting pursuits, may have suffered physically for the sport but it has only strengthened her commitment to it.

She said: “Our hands will have blisters and I can lose my toenails but overall, it is quite a fun sport, because... you don’t have to be very fit.

“It’s (more on) technique. So you can be small (physically) or be very, very big and have no muscles, but if you have the proper technique, you can win. This is what makes it interesting.”

Officers who competed for Singapore at the Games were hosted to an appreciation lunch by the Police Sports Association on Feb 6.

Police commissioner How Kwang Hwee thanked them for their efforts, contributions and commitment. “It’s not easy for you to achieve excellence at the national level for sports,” he said at the event.

“And at the same time, to continue to do the work that you do, every day, every night, to keep Singapore safe and secure. I want to congratulate all of you once again and we are honoured to celebrate your successes with you.”