Young Lions and distance runner Soh Rui Yong win appeals to be part of SEA Games contingent
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Singapore's Soh Rui Yong (No. 242) en route to winning a silver medal in the SEA Games men's 10,000m final at the Morodok Techo National Stadium in Cambodia on May 11, 2023.
ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI
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SINGAPORE – After successful appeals, the national men’s Under-22 football team and two-time marathon champion Soh Rui Yong are set to be part of Team Singapore’s contingent for the Dec 9-20 SEA Games in Thailand.
In a media statement, the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) said that its appeals committee met on Aug 28 to consider additional nominations submitted by national sports associations for the biennial meet. Following the review, 218 athletes from 29 sports were approved for selection.
They will join the 762 athletes selected earlier this month, taking the total number of athletes in the Singapore contingent to 980 across 48 sports – the Republic’s largest in SEA Games history.
The SNOC added in the statement: “The final contingent will be confirmed and announced closer to the Games, after the completion of the entry-by-name process set out by the SEA Games organisers.”
Despite meeting the 2hr 35min 49sec qualifying mark by clocking 2:27:49 at the Houston Marathon in January, Soh was omitted from the initial list of athletes
The SNOC said then that its selection committee did not support Soh’s nomination and highlighted its commitment to sending athletes “who not only meet the performance benchmarks but also uphold the values and behaviours expected of Singapore’s national representatives”.
Soh, who won SEA Games marathon gold in 2015 and 2017, was previously not selected for the editions in 2019 and 2022, as well as the 2018 Asian Games, following clashes with the SNOC.
However, he was picked for the 2023 SEA Games, where he did not compete in the marathon but won the 10,000m silver in Cambodia.
But he missed the Asian Games later that year for failing to “honour commitments which he had provided to the SNOC, including on occasions following his participation at the Cambodia 2023 SEA Games”, as the organisation noted that he had “continued to make disparaging and derisive remarks about others in the public domain”.
But on Aug 28, an SNOC spokesperson said its appeals committee is satisfied with Singapore Athletics’ (SA) assurance that Soh will uphold his responsibilities in representing the nation at the Games.
The 34-year-old has been nominated for the men’s marathon, 10,000m and 5,000m events.
This means there are now five athletes being considered for the men’s marathon – the others are Aaron Tan, Richard Heng, Caleb Hia and He Yong – and SA can pick only two.
Speaking to The Straits Times following the latest announcement, Soh said that he will have conversations with SA and fellow athletes in the coming days before SA makes a decision on which events the athletes will compete in.
Soh added that he is looking forward to his fourth appearance at the Games, 10 years after his debut at the 2015 edition on home soil.
He said: “I am very grateful for SA president Lien Choong Luen and deputy general manager Bastian Dohling for putting up a strong appeal case. And I’m very grateful to SNOC for the chance to compete in my fourth SEA Games.
“I think there are not many athletes who compete in a SEA Games 10 years apart and especially for a very demanding sport like marathon. I look forward to Thailand.”
Like Soh, the Young Lions had missed the initial cut. It is understood that they were omitted earlier as they did not produce any international results that met the SNOC’s qualifying criteria of matching the third-placed finishers of the previous edition.
But since then, the team have played some friendly matches, where they were understood to have beaten Malaysia 1-0 and drawn 0-0 with the Philippines in closed-door matches. Those results, which were not made public, were used as part of the appeal.
The SNOC spokesperson said the Young Lions have been included after meeting the “benchmark”.
Before the latest reprieve, the Young Lions were facing the ignominy of being the first men’s team from Singapore to not compete in the football competition at the Games since 1969.
The Republic first played in the SEA Games men’s football tournament in 1965, before sitting out in 1967 and 1969. They have featured in every edition since, winning three silvers and four bronzes when it was a senior competition until 1999. After it became an U-23 tournament from 2001, the Young Lions won three bronzes in 2007, 2009 and 2013.
After the age limit was further lowered to 22, Singapore have not made the podium and reached a nadir in 2023, when they finished bottom of their group and were thumped 7-0 by arch-rivals Malaysia.
The bulk of the Under-22 team who will now compete at the year-end SEA Games will tune up with competitive matches in the U-23 Asian Cup qualifiers from Sept 3 to 9.
Singapore have been drawn in Group C with hosts Vietnam, Yemen and Bangladesh. The 11 group winners and the four best runners-up will qualify for the final tournament in Saudi Arabia.
Other than the Young Lions and Soh, a slew of silat and muay thai athletes were also included in the latest list. Others whose appeals were successful on Aug 28 include the men and women’s kabaddi teams, women’s dragon boat team, men’s sepak takraw side and men’s indoor volleyball team.
The national polo, handball and woodball teams also got the nod. Woodball, which is played with a wooden mallet and wooden balls and is similar to putting in golf, is making its debut at the biennial Games.
