SingaporeSailing target two extra classes for London Olympics and 11 more elite sailors

FOR the 2008 Olympics, Singapore’s sailors have qualified for three events — Laser Standard, Laser Radial and men’s 470 — while the women’s 470 team booked their ticket through the Unused Quota Position.

Laser Standard ace Koh Seng Leong will be team captain of the sailing squad in Qingdao, Lo Man Yi will represent the country in the Laser Radial event, Xu Yuanzhen and Terence Koh will be the pair in Singapore’s men’s 470 boat, while Toh Liying and Deborah Ong will be the women’s team.

What a difference four years makes.

Stanley Tan (Laser) was the first Singaporean to qualify for a sailing event at the 2004 Olympics.

Before that, Singapore’s sailors only ever made it to the Games via wildcard entries.

Much of the improvement is down to the fact that approximately $2.5 million was spent on 14 Olympic sailing hopefuls over a 15-month period — January 2007-March 2008 — specifically with the 2008 Beijing Games in mind.

While SingaporeSailing do not completely rule out the possibility of a medal next month, they feel 2008 may be too early and their big target is a medal in 2012 in London.

For that to happen, they estimate they will need to spend $10 million to $12 million.

Said SingaporeSailing’s chief executive officer, Andrew Sanders, on Tuesday: “That figure factors in our plans to expand our participation from four classes in 2008 to six in 2012, as well as inflation and possible changes in exchange rates.This is where we need corporate sponsorship to kick in on top of the government funding that we’re receiving.”

For the fiscal year of 2008, the sailing association will receive about $3.5 million from the Singapore Sports Council (SSC), making them the highest funded of all 60 National Sports Associations (NSA) here.

Of the $2.5 million spent on the 14 sailors, 60 per cent was funded by Project 0812 and 40 per cent from the SSC. The 14 were among a group of 27 elite athletes selected for the $7 million project, which was initiated by the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) and the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports to help them win medals at the 2008 and/or 2012 Olympics.

For their Olympic programme, SingaporeSailing spent $1 million (40 per cent) for overseas training and competitions, including airfare, accommodation and transport.

Specialist coaching, sports medicine and sports science, and related operating costs accounted for about $750,000 (30 per cent).

Equipment, freight and fuel amounted to about $500,000 (20 per cent), while the remaining $250,000 (10 per cent) was used to directly support the 14 sailors.

SingaporeSailing made public the monies spent for the sake of transparency.

Said president, Low Teo Ping: “We must be totally transparent for the stakeholders and general public to understand and appreciate why we’re putting good money to drive an investment for Singapore in sports.

“But it’s not the money that makes the difference, it is the quality of the programme and the structure established to support it.”

For London 2012, SingaporeSailing are planning to compete in two more classes — windsurfing and the 49er. They also intend to expand the number of sailors in their Olympic squad to 25, with the likes of Sherman Cheng, Justin Liu, Lo Jun Hao, Low Wen Chun and Colin Cheng ready to step up.

The association also plan to increase their total base across 10 national squads from about 1,100 now to 5,000.

The average age of the 14 sailors singled out as prospects for this year’s Games was 17, and Sanders said: “The peak ages of medal-winning sailors are between 25 to 35, so it means the athletes have at least four Olympic cycles ahead of them ... The combined investments from Project 0812, the SSC and the athletes themselves have produced a healthy base standard which will allow Singapore to continue to leapfrog in performance for more Olympics to come.”