SSC adopt American system, which calls for multi-year battleplan from NSAs

SINGAPORE - Bowling, sailing and swimming are three sports that have consistently produced results for Singapore at major meets.

Bowler Remy Ong won three gold medals at the 2002 Asian Games, Tao Li became the first Singaporean swimmer to qualify for a final at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and Today Athlete of the Year, 2009, sailor Elizabeth Yin, finished at the head of the pack at the 2009 Laser Radial world youth championship.

The three sports are expected to deliver the bulk of Singapore's medals at the Asian Games in Guangzhou, China. from Nov 12-27.

As they continue to strive to produce champions, building a base to ensure long-term results is the main goal of the three national sports associations (NSA), as the Singapore Sports Council (SSC) tweaks their outcome-based funding requirement from an annual to multi-year programme, starting this year.

The changes, explained to NSAs last September by the SSC's sports development group chief Bob Gambardella, is modelled upon the United States Olympic Committee's (USOC) system.

The new model seeks to encourage NSAs to plan for medium and long-term goals. NSAs will also have to create a development pathway for young athletes and embrace "uncompromised professionalism".

All 64 NSAs had to submit their plans to the SSC by Dec 31 as part of the SSC's Annual Grant Exercise.

SingaporeSailing will build on their Athlete Development Pathway, the Singapore Swimming Association (SSA) aim to expand their base of athletes, coaches and officials, and SingaporeBowling will fine-tune their talent identification and training programmes.

SingaporeBowling president Jessie Phua said: "Increasingly, our bowlers' shelf-life is shortening to six to eight years as they will go on to pursue their studies and careers, like (2006 Asian Games gold medallists) Michelle (Kwang) and Valerie (Teo). So our programmes must be spot-on in tapping their full potential during their short shelf-life."

For the fiscal year 2009, a total of $58.8 million - $34.1 million in direct grants and $24.7 million in indirect grants - was disbursed to NSAs, up from $47.33 million for FY2008. For FY2009, bowling, sailing and swimming will receive over $1.5 million each in SSC grants.

All three NSAs declined to reveal the amount they seek from the SSC for FY2010, although MediaCorp understands SingaporeBowling needs at least $3 million.

Singapore's bowlers returned home from the 2006 Asian Games with one gold, two silver and two bronze medals and the target this year is for the entire team to medal in Guangzhou.

The NSA aims to become one of the world's top-10 bowling nations, but it needs a good sports medicine and sports science (SMSS) programme and a tactical expert to get there. "If we have all our needs met, we can take on any bowling team," said Phua.

SingaporeSailing outlined seven targets, including targeting medals at major meets like the world championships, Asian Games and Olympic Games.

Said president Low Teo Ping: "The idea has been to create a value system to nurture local talent by creating enjoyment in the sport of sailing, developing passion for it, and equipping them with the correct skill sets and techniques from the first day primary school beginner all the way to the Olympic Games and hopefully an Olympic medal. In doing so, we have a better chance of keeping the sailors in the sport."

The Singapore Swimming Association aim to at least match the one gold and one bronze from the 2006 Doha Games at this year's Asiad.

But secretary-general Oon Jin Gee said: "Our biggest challenge lies with the expectation to attend to the multi-farious needs of our aquatic disciplines with limited resources.

"Our purview includes a mixture of individual, team and team sport compositions, and the same approach cannot be used across the board."

He added: "There is a concerted focus on development for athletes, coaches and technical officials and to incorporate sports medicine and sports science, and apart from swimming, we're also extending it to the other four disciplines (open water swimming, diving, water polo, synchronised swimming)."

All three NSA chiefs lauded the SSC's move towards a multi-year funding programme, but Phua said: "The funds aren't disbursed until around June, and many NSAs spend the first half of the year not knowing what's in store," she said.

"So it would be useful if we knew the minimum level of support that we can expect, so that we can plan better." Tan Yo-Hinn