Singapore qualify for Underwater Hockey World C’ships with bronze at intercontinental meet

SINGAPORE – The Republic’s women’s underwater hockey team have booked their place in the world championships for a third time, after previously gaining direct entry in 2016 and 2023.

This time, they had to earn their place through a qualifying competition, the inaugural Asia/Oceania Intercontinental Championships in Malaysia, where they clinched a bronze medal by defeating the Philippines 5-1 in the third-place play-off on Aug 9.

At the Arena Sukan in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore beat Malaysia 7-0 and the Philippines 3-2 in the round-robin group stage of the women’s elite category, but lost to Australia (11-0) and New Zealand (11-0) to be seeded third out of five teams.

After losing 12-0 to second-seeded Australia in the semi-finals, the Republic won the third-place play-off via goals from Pin Cheoh, Pamela Loh, Christina Tham, Lim Min and Liu Huiling, with Margarita Diaz replying for the Philippines.

New Zealand won the gold by defeating Australia 1-0 in the final, with Singapore clinching the third and final berth for the world championships, which are likely to be held in 2027 with the venue to be announced.

Tham, the oldest member of the Singapore team at 56, said of their qualification: “Absolutely delighted to win the bronze and it’s great to have an intercontinentals where we can compete at such high levels against the Australia and New Zealand teams. It gives us more opportunities to compete as the worlds is held only every four years.

“We wanted to win. The night before, we reviewed the video of our round-robin match against the Philippines and made the necessary tweaks to our game. They are a strong team and have a proven track record of coming from behind to win, so we made sure not to be complacent and we were quietly confident.”

Coach David Lambert said he had set a third-place target for both the Singapore men’s and women’s teams, with the men falling short after losing 5-0 to the Philippines in the third-place play-off.

He said he was proud of the players, adding: “(I wanted them) to play in a way that was adaptable to any team. My review of teams was based on the last Asian Cup and a format that was played by Singapore previously but building on it based with adaptations to counter how other countries played.”

Looking ahead, Tham said: “We will rest for a while after this competition and come back with renewed faith and confidence in the style of game we play. We will be training for the Asian Cup in Indonesia and world championships and hopefully the SEA Games in 2027.”

Underwater hockey

made its debut at the biennial SEA Games

in the Philippines in 2019, which has remained its only appearance at the regional multi-sport meet.

But Tham hopes that underwater hockey will be featured at the 2027 and 2029 editions. The retired lawyer added: “We very much hope that our sport authorities will be persuaded by our results to re-include our sport into the SEA Games in 2027 in Malaysia and in 2029 in Singapore.

“We really look forward to another opportunity to repeat our performance at the SEA Games in 2019 when we swept all four golds in our sport.”

In the meantime, Tham has set her sights on the World Aquatics Masters Championships in Singapore, where she is competing in the 50m freestyle, 200m individual medley, 50m and 200m breaststroke and four relays (4x50m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle, 4x200m freestyle and 4x50m medley).

Tham, who won silver medals in swimming at the 1981 and 1983 SEA Games, said: “It was a very tough decision to come to this competition, because it would mean risks of injury and fatigue for my swim competition.

“But I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to play in elite women’s. Whereas for the swim masters, the more I age, the more chances I have to podium because it’s based on age group.”