SEA Games 2025: Football, badminton under fire in review, as Singapore score 52-gold haul

BANGKOK – Even as Team Singapore celebrated a record 202 medals and its third-best haul of 52 golds, 61 silvers and 89 bronzes for an away SEA Games, local sports administrators acknowledged the rising regional threat, and the need to improve if they want to be among the top three nations at the 2029 edition on home soil.

At the Team Singapore review held at the Grand Fourwings Convention Hotel on Dec 20, Singapore chef de mission Lawrence Leow commended the Republic’s record number of 926 athletes – close to 60 per cent of whom were SEA Games debutants – across 48 sports for competing with resilience, discipline and pride.

Their performances helped the nation place fifth on the medal table among 10 competing nations, behind hosts Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia – an improvement from the 51-43-64 haul for sixth position in 2023.

The Republic’s best away SEA Games performance was in 2017, when they won 58 golds, 58 silvers and 72 bronzes and finished fourth out of 11 countries. Their best-ever ranking was second at the 2015 Games at home, where the athletes reaped an 84-73-102 result.

In Thailand, Singapore’s aquatics contingent did the heavy lifting as usual by contributing 22 golds – 19 from swimming, on the back of breaststroke specialist Letitia Sim’s five golds and five Games records, and one each from artistic swimming, diving and water polo. Fencing had a record haul of eight golds, while sailing and table tennis also delivered four golds each.

Leow said: “The number of medals won by debutants definitely bodes well for Team Singapore, and it signals that our young athletes are ready to take over from their seniors, and it is a change of guard in the making.”

The youngsters who shone included 14-year-old Julia Yeo, a reserve who stepped up for the women’s 4x100m medley relay and contributed to a meet record, 18-year-old fencer Elle Koh who won gold at three consecutive Games, and 19-year-olds Izaac Quek retaining his table tennis triple gold and Marissa Hafezan ending Singapore’s 32-year karate gold-medal drought.

At the other end of the age spectrum, 57-year-old Peter Gilchrist continued to impress with his eighth English billiards individual gold, while 35-year-old shooter Jasmine Ser and 32-year-old swimmer Amanda Lim enjoyed golden swansongs. Quah Ting Wen, 33, won three golds, a silver and a bronze to take her swimming career tally to a record 65 medals.

There were also notable firsts and long-awaited podium finishes, including Singapore’s first 3x3 basketball medal when the

men’s team stunned powerhouses the Philippines

to win silver, and the ending of 60-year gold-medal droughts through

Calvin Quek (men’s 400m hurdles)

and

Avvir Tham (men’s 1m springboard)

.

High Performance Sport Institute chief Su Chun Wei called it “a dazzling display of youthful promise and veteran excellence”. But he also noted that having Singapore’s largest SEA Games contingent does not necessarily translate to a record gold-medal haul.

He said: “The region is getting very much better, very quickly. It is no longer easy to win gold medals and break meet records at the SEA Games.

“We will continue to invest in our youth, believe in our systemic structures and processes to nurture budding athletes early and keep them competitive for longer. We want many of these young athletes to change their colours upwards from bronzes to silvers, silvers to golds, and the golds to continue to have multiple golds.”

Just over half of Singapore’s Games debutants won medals, which is encouraging ahead of the 2029 Games.

Highlighting their target for “extraordinary performances” in four years’ time, Dr Su said that these Games provide “invaluable exposure for these emerging athletes” to build on for future success.

While there was praise for some teams and athletes, Singapore National Olympic Council secretary-general Mark Chay also cautioned against complacency.

Citing how Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines have made inroads in swimming, the former national swimmer added: “We would be naive to think that across South-east Asia, in boardrooms as well as in pool decks, they don’t want to take us down for many of these events.

“Singapore Aquatics needs to go back and do their homework. They have their sights set on the Asian Games as well as Olympic performances... Hopefully they’ll be able to continue maintaining their strength in the next few years.”

In a candid hour-long session, Singapore Badminton Association president Leow acknowledged that his sport failed to deliver, as they brought home just

two team bronzes

. The likes of

men’s singles top seed Loh Kean Yew

and Jason Teh did not live up to expectations, while

Yeo Jia Min did not feature in the women’s singles and team event

s due to injury.

Chay also lambasted the

national men’s under-22 football team

for their lack of quality and sportsmanship as they

crashed out of the group stage for a sixth consecutive edition

, and he noted their lack of acknowledgement for their supporters at the stadium.

In Bangkok, Team Singapore continued to struggle in team sports, with disappointments after

silvers for the netballers

,

men’s softball team

and

women’s water polo squad

.

As the SEA Games move to Malaysia in 2027, before Singapore play host in 2029, Chay said that sports such as athletics need to help contribute to the medal tally. The

39-strong track and field team won three golds out of the 47

on offer in Bangkok.

He also urged improvements from others that did not deliver medals such as extreme sports, pentathlon, sepak takraw, tennis, volleyball and weightlifting.

He said: “There are two compulsory sports at the Southeast Asian Games – aquatics and athletics. Swimming delivered 50 per cent of the gold medals (from 38 events), but for athletics, there are three golds out of 47.

“I think a lot of work has to be done there if we really want to chase medals, if we really want to consistently be top three in South-east Asia, and if we want to have a strong home Games showing.”