Braving new waters, from left: Daniella Ng, Luke Tan, Russell Kan, Darren Choy & Rachel Lee are out to make a splash in Pattaya.

SINGAPORE’S sailors ruled the waves off Subic Bay, hauling in seven gold medals to become the top nation in sailing at the 2005 SEA Games.

It was the springboard to the conquest of Asia, as Singapore plundered five golds in the 2006 Asian Games in Doha and were crowned the top sailing nation on the continent.

SingaporeSailing are dreaming of an Olympic peak in August 2008 in Beijing. Eight months before the big one, Singapore’s sailors will be doing battle in the 2007 SEA Games in Thailand, scheduled from Dec 6 to 15.

Based on previous success, the expectations would have been high for the 25-strong Singapore team, the biggest in the history of the Games.

But SingaporeSailing’s target set for the team is four gold medals.

While some may accuse the national sports association of setting a conservative target, SingaporeSailing’s chief executive officer Andrew Sanders points to the youthfulness of the squad as the reason for the four gold mark.

With an average age of 18, this year’s team is the youngest ever assembled for the SEA Games, and the Aussie said: “We want to give opportunities to more young sailors. That way, SingaporeSailing will have more strength in the team in the years to come.

“Looking ahead, we’re developing young talent for future events like the 2010 SingaporeSailing’s SEA Games team will be the youngest-ever and their target is 4 golds
Youth Olympics, 2010 Asian Games, 2011 SEA Games and 2012 Olympics.

“This is a different group from the Asian Games and about 75 per cent of the team are new to the SEA Games. As a result, we’ve downgraded our expectations to four golds.”

The likes of Toh Liying and Deborah Ong (470 Women), Maximillian Soh (Laser) and Victoria Chan and Lo Manyi (Laser Radial) will all miss the SEA Games due to training and competition schedules, as they try to qualify for the Olympic Games.

Out of the team of 25, 18 — 16 sailors and two windsurfers — in the team will make their debut in Pattaya.

The youngest is 13-year old Darren Choy, who is part of the Optimist team.

Speaking at the SEA Games sailing team simulation camp at SAF Yacht Club yesterday, the Singapore Sports School student said: “I’m nervous as it’s my first SEA Games, but also really excited about participating. “The Optimist team have been training together since September last year …we’ve gotten really close.

“I really want to do well.”

Of course, it will not be all about SEA Games rookies in Pattaya.

Roy Tan and Chung Pei Ming, the 470 men’s pair, have already qualified for the Beijing Olympics and will be favourites for the gold in December.

The 420 Boys’ pair of Sherman Cheng and Justin Liu are Asian Games champions and the leading contenders in the event have been hard at work at the camp.

“We’re doing small fleet racing here, which will be the same situation as the SEA Games with about four to five boats competing,” said 16-year-old Sherman.

Justin, also 16, added: “We’re not thinking much about the expectations, we’re just going to go out there and do our best.

Read more stories on the 24th SEA Games here.