SINGAPORE: At the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Singapore were crowned the continent's best sailing nation after the team returned with five gold, three silver and two bronze medals.

While the medal target for this year's event has not been finalised, SingaporeSailing president Low Teo Ping is confident Andrew Sanders' decision to step down as the sport's chief executive officer will not affect their preparations for the Games, which will be held in Guangzhou, China, from Nov 12-27.

SingaporeSailing announced on Monday that Sanders, 38, will relinquish his post next month but stay on as a consultant until May.

Secretary-general Edwin Low will head the national sports association as their new executive director.

"It will not affect our preparations for the Asian Games," Low told MediaCorp on Monday.

"Besides, our high performance unit is under the purview of Mark Robinson, and all the necessary infrastructure is already in place."

Sanders, the association's high performance chief from 2002 to 2005, agreed. "We're very much on track for the Asian Games," said the former sailor.

The geologist from Perth, Australia, thinks the time is right to move on. He said: "SingaporeSailing now has an enduring, sustainable infrastructure where everyone knows their roles intimately."

"I've also had offers in the past year, including from the mining sector, and spoken to Teo Ping over the past seven, eight months about a succession plan. I felt it was the right the time to move on."

As if to reinforce the point that sailing remains in a robust state, Singapore's sailors tasted further success at the Australian Laser National Championships on Monday, with Koh Seng Leong and Today Athlete of the Year nominee Elizabeth Yin winning the men's and women's radial titles respectively.

Sherman Cheng and Justin Liu had won the boys' 420 event on Sunday.

Yin, 18, the byte (2007), Laser 4.7 (2008) and Laser Radial (2009) world champion, was also the regatta's overall top female sailor.