SINGAPORE – Singapore’s optimist sailors have not won a gold medal at the SEA Games since 2015, but their latest results in Mumbai have put the wind in their sails as they aim to end the Republic’s title drought at the Cambodia Games in May.
Competing in the Dec 13-20 International Optimist Dinghy Association (IODA) Asian and Oceanian Championship in India, the squad of 10 junior sailors won the overall team title, with five finishing in the top 10 among 101 competitors.
Nicole Quek, 13, was champion of the Girls’ division ahead of Thailand’s Prin Subying and United States’ Isabel Veiga Thiesfeldt. Nicole was also third in the Open category.
Ethan Chia, 12, finished second in the Open category. Teammates Amos Tham, 14, was fourth with 13-year-old Ian Goh and 14-year-old Yap Swee Dean eighth and ninth respectively. Thailand’s Chanatip Tongglum claimed the top spot.
This is Singapore sailing’s best performance at the IODA championship since 2017, when Daniel Kei and Faith Toh won the Open and Girls’ titles respectively in Hong Kong.
The results were testimony to the work put in by the sailors and outgoing national coach Somkiat Poonpat, who ends his four-year stint with the Singapore Sailing Federation (SSF) in December.
Assistant coach Sherman Cheng, a multiple Asian and SEA Games gold medallist and 420 world champion, will assume the role of Optimist head coach from January.
He said: “The results are a validation of the hard work over the last four years put in by national coach Somkiat Poonpat.
“This was a good event to test our standards to see how we fare against the top young sailors from other countries and we are glad to see the results we have achieved.
“With the whole Covid-19 situation and the lockdowns that we had, it was tough for the optimist junior sailors. It put a stop to the momentum that started four years ago and we could not get proper training going.
“The results from this competition will surely boost their confidence.”
The May 5-17 Cambodia Games will see the return of sailing after it was excluded at the last edition in Hanoi.
In 2019, Team Singapore’ sailors won one gold and five silver medals. Their last optimist gold was won by Jodie Lai at home in 2015.
Stanley Chan, chairman of the SSF Olympic Pathway Taskforce, said that in order to build a “champion’s culture” among the sailors, they have to “taste success as junior sailors, then to repeat success and build confidence as youth sailors, before stepping up to an Olympic campaign”.
