GOING PLACES: Olympic-bound sailors like 470s pair Chung Pei Ming (left) and Roy Tay will need more monetary help to boost their performance against the world’s best.

THEY never have enough and it is always on their minds, but April is the time of month when National Sports Associations (NSA) in Singapore really get anxious over money.

Sometime this month, each of the 58 NSAs will find out how much funding they will receive from the Singapore Sports Council (SSC) for the next financial year. Two of Singapore’s top NSAs, SingaporeSailing and the Singapore Bowling Federation (SBF) have each put in an application for at least twice the amount they received the previous year.

In a recent interview with TODAY, SingaporeSailing chief executive officer Andrew Sanders said: “We would require approximately $7 million to run at full capacity.

“Sailing is in a new dimension now. The sport has grown over the years, in numbers and standards.

“Our sailors are now competing at a higher level and there is also a growing pool of sailors capable of competing at the Olympic level. To sustain performance and push for an Olympic medal, we need to be funded on par with other major sailing nations in the world.”

Similarly, SBF president Jessie Phua revealed that the national bowling body had applied for $4 million for the upcoming year from the SSC.

“The cost of everything has gone up. Fees to rent bowling alleys for our national squads’ training sessions have risen 20 to 25 per cent,” said Phua, who saw her bowlers win three gold medals at last year’s SEA Games. “Furthermore, professionals can now compete in all competitions, so the standards have gone up and we need more funds to make sure our bowlers are as best prepared as they possibly can be.”

Grants for NSAs are distributed based on three criteria. Said SSC chief executive officer Oon Jin Teik: “Grants for NSAs are allocated based on their programmes, which are aligned to the SSC’s three strategic thrusts of high performance, high participation and industry development.

“They are also accorded additional financial resources to maintain their secretariat when necessary, and they also receive subsidies for facilities.”

Over the last 12 months, a total of $31.9 million — an increase of $800,000 from the previous financial year — was disbursed by the SSC across the 58 NSAs.

For the second successive year, SingaporeSailing were the highest funded, receiving over $3 million, followed by the Singapore Badminton Association, which received between $2 million to $3 million (see box for best-funded NSAs).

The biggest jump last year was Singapore Gymnastics, which received $700,000 — $400,000 more. Shooting and table tennis are expected to receive an increase in funding after some great results over the last financial year. At December’s SEA Games in Thailand, Singapore’s shooters exceeded all expectations by bagging eight gold medals.

Not to be outdone, the Republic’s men’s and women’s table tennis teams made a clean sweep of all seven events at the Games. Last month, the women’s team clinched a silver medal at the World Table Tennis Team Championship, losing 3-1 to powerhouses China in the final. And last week, China-born paddler Feng Tianwei — who received her citizenship in
January — shocked reigning world champion and world No 1 Zhang Yining of China 4-2 in the quarter-finals of the Asian Cup women’s singles event, before losing to China’s Guo Yue in the final. Team-mate Li Jiawei came in third.

Table tennis’ success bodes well for Singapore’s medal hopes at the Olympics in Beijing in August. But SingaporeSailing are once again expected to bank the biggest cheque from the SSC. Apart from clinching four golds at the 2007 SEA Games, the Republic’s sailors
have qualified for three events — the men’s 470 and Laser Standard and the women’s
Laser Radial — at this year’s Olympics.

With major tournaments like the men’s World Championship, World Youth Championship
and Asian Championship this year, Phua expects the road ahead to be a tough one for bowling, which received about $1.7 million last year.

“We cannot run away from inflation and I’m anticipating a difficult year ahead for us. We applied for $4 million, but I’m expecting just a little more than what we got last year,” she said. “Seventy per cent of our funds goes into high performance, and if there is a shortfall, our performance
will be affected. We are very concerned.

“Not only do we have to support the top echelons, we also have to support our second and third tier national teams to ensure they are ready to step up.

“That is why we’re looking for alternative sources of funding.”