Send best athletes to SEA Games: Ang Peng Siong
National swimming head coach Ang Peng Siong has weighed in on the recent debate on sending younger athletes to the SEA Games versus sending only potential medal winners.
“Putting things in perspective, the SEA Games is about doing it for national pride. I think we always have to remember that and when we go out to compete we want to win,” said the former Olympian.
Speaking to Yahoo! Singapore at the sidelines of a press conference on Sunday morning, Ang said the SEA Games plays a big part for sports in Singapore and while it is good to see younger athletes taking part, the situation has to be different when there is a large number of potential Olympians.
With regard to swimming, he said there are other events where younger athletes can gain experience, and they do not have to rely on the SEA Games.
“For the younger athletes, we can gear towards some of the age group programmes that are available around the region and in Australia. So, that would be a nurturing ground for the younger swimmers. At the SEA games level for swimming, we want to send our best representatives,” he added.
The debate on sending younger players versus medal prospects came about after a spat between the Singapore Table Tennis Association president Lee Bee Wah and SEA Games Chef de Mission Tan Eng Liang last week.
Lee had disagreed with Tan’s assertion that young athletes should not be sent to the SEA games for the purpose of exposure.
Writing on her Facebook fan page on Thursday, Lee responded that the STTA has been grooming all of its athletes to meet qualifying standards and head to major Games.
Separately, she reiterated her stance on fielding young homegrown talent. In a post published on Wednesday afternoon, Lee voiced her encouragement to 16-year-old paddler Isabelle Li, writing, “I am sure Isabelle is keen to prove her critics wrong… (her not being ranked second or third) in Singapore does not mean that we should not give her a chance.”
Lee’s and Tan’s comments also follow a separate controversy that ensued earlier this year between the STTA and the SNOC, after both were unable to agree on the lineup of table tennis players to field for this year’s SEA Games.
