It has been really fun watching the Commonwealth Games (CG) in Glasgow. It has shown that it’s still relevant and gives a lot of promising athletes a real chance to take part in a multi-game event under a degree of competitiveness. The Olympics or World Championships are really tough to win or even qualify for a final event. Athletes from minor countries like Scotland and others have shown that once they don their national colours, they are prepared to give it a real go. I really hope one day Singapore will host these Games. For sure it will go over Budget, even Scotland (Glasgow) has exceeded its initial cost, but the feel good factor and the improvements to infrastructure makes it beneficial (as stated by the Scottish Chamber of Commerce President). Most importantly, it gives a real shot in the arm to local sportsmen.
A silver lining - Joseph Schooling is all smiles with his well deserved silver medal (Photo: AFP)
If Singapore truly wants to be thereabouts in the medals at the Olympics and improve the standard of sports across the board, participating and even hosting either a CG or Asian Games is a good way to go about it. Anyway let’s turn now to the men and women who have represented Singapore at Glasgow 2014 and pay them the homage they deserve. It seems strange to start with Joseph Schooling, because he didn’t win a gold medal, but he is our most high profile athlete at the Games and the one most expected of.
He began with qualification for the 200m butterfly and made the final only to finish last. But it was good lesson for him. He had a chance to swim with some of the world’s best. He also made the 50m butterfly final, improving his national mark in the semis. Pardon the pun, but maybe ‘butterflies in his stomach’ saw him finish with a slower time in the final in 7th place. Just when question marks were beginning to be raised, he responded in a manner befitting of a champion, reaching the 100m butterfly final. He then became the 1st Singaporean swimmer to win a medal in swimming at the Games by finishing 2nd behind the awesome Chad le Clos. His time of 51.69 would have been enough to win gold at the last Games and if my memory serves me, even the last Olympic Gold.
The podium finish is just the tonic he needs to build himself up and get ready for the Rio Games in 2016. While overjoyed and pleased, he promised to not let it get to his head as he embarks on what has been a bridge too far for past Singapore swimmers – to win an Olympic medal. His coach believes he can, the nation believes he can. However I would also like to raise a note of caution and not to think it’s a must that he delivers a medal in Rio. The Olympics is the pinnacle of swimming, even greater than the World Championships (WC), and everyone gives their best. Only great champions swimming at their peak have gone on to win Olympic Gold and that too with a bit of luck. The great Michael Phelps needed a last ditch stroke to retain his gold at Beijing in the same event as Schooling, when it seemed certain that the Serbian swimmer had wrecked his 9 gold assault. He won in 100th of a second. That’s the fine margin between medallists and finalists in an Olympic Final.
While Le Clos, the Australians and the British were here for the CG and Schooling’s effort is definitely a highlight, it will be even harder for the same final in Rio. There you’ll have the Americans, the Chinese, the Japanese, the French, the Germans and whichever top swimmer from all the participating countries in the world. It’s more likely than not that he will fail than succeed. But he has proven that he can improve and has a chance. If he can qualify for a final event, like he did at the WC in Barcelona, that’s already a huge achievement. That should be his target and our expectation followed by as high a finish as possible. A bronze would be a huge cause for celebration but even a 5th or 6th place is something worthy of merit. Let’s wish Schooling every success and for a start let’s hope he can win some medals (preferably Gold) at the next Asiad (which I think is next year).
Golden girl Jasmine Ser with her gold medal after winning the 50m rifles position 3 event
Moving on, it has been a great Games for Singapore, with shooter Teo Shun Xie shooting her way to gold in the Women’s 10m air pistol event. She won in a Games record of 198.6 points, a marked improvement from her 14th place finish in the Delhi Games in 2010 and her 2nd place in last year’s SEA Games. This is not an easy event even in the CG, the Indians are very good at it and at the Olympics, the Chinese are the dominant force. Shun Xie has shown she can compete with the best and hopefully with form and some luck, she can repeat the trick at Rio. She was followed to the top of the podium by Jasmine Ser who the Women’s 50m Rifle Positions 3 event. Our gals have done us proud and I’m sure 1 of them will be crowned Sportswoman of the Year.
Finally on to Table Tennis, this is a sport that attracted a lot of controversy because of the ‘foreign talents’ imported to make us a medal winning country. Like many, I wasn’t really beaming from ‘ear to ear’, when we finally broke our medal duck in the last few Olympics and other Games. Question marks were raised about the level of loyalty that these Chinese born players had for their new country. But to be fair, this time around, I saw a greater effort by the players to show their ‘Singaporeaness.’ We struck gold in the Women’s team event and there was a concerted effort by the girls to sing the National Anthem - ’Majulah Singapura.’ Overall it really looked throughout table tennis and even badminton, that these players understood and were thankful for being able to represent Singapore. That’s all we ask and they delivered, good on them, I say. Moreover even if the debate rages on about the status of ‘importing glory’, no real blame should be attached to any of the athletes. They were given a job to do, they were paid well to do it and they delivered. Winning is not as easy at it seems, we aren’t the only ones ‘importing Chinese players’, even the Australians and British are doing it. The same goes for the world stage, you get Chinese born players representing Holland, Denmark, the USA etc. It requires a lot of hard work, training and dedication to succeed at the highest level, and there’s no guarantee of success given the playing field. These men and women who represent us deserve the congratulations, praise and support of all Singaporeans. (The men’s team also won gold in Glasgow).
As it stands we’ve won 4 golds, 1 silver and 1 bronze (men’s badminton) and lie in 13th place in the medals table at the time of writing today (Friday), with more to come in the final 2 days of competition. This is an enormous achievement for a country of our size. Of the other Asian countries participating in Glasgow, only India and Malaysia (same number of gold, but more silver and bronze) are ahead of us. It’s a statistic we all can be proud of. That said, even to those who represented us in the various sports and didn’t win, it’s alright, we are still proud of you. We know you trained hard, prepared yourself and made a lot of sacrifices at a personal level. We hope that the experience you gained in Glasgow and the level of competition will benefit you and spur you on to greater heights at the next major event. Majulah Singapura!
Sir Nelspruit
*The author blogs at Anyhow Hantam.