\n<\/p>\n
At the press conference, Mr Chay said that athletics need to \u201ccome to the party\u201d, noting the three golds in athletics compared with the 19 in swimming.<\/p>\n
He said: “I think a lot of work has to be done there if we really want to chase medals, if we really want to consistently be top three in Southeast Asia, and if we want to have a strong home game showing because we know what the events are.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “<\/span>We need to chase those events, and we need to get our athletes in athletics up to par with the rest of the region.”<\/p>\n Mr Chay noted that athletics is a sport at every major Games, and Singapore “needs to have more athletes at the world-class level”.<\/p>\n At this year\u2019s Games, Shanti Pereira retained her titles in the 200m and 100m events, while Calvin Quek won Singapore\u2019s first 400m hurdles SEA Games gold since 1965.<\/p>\n Singapore Athletics president Lien Choong Luen told CNA on Tuesday night that he had met Mr Chay and SportSG on Tuesday morning to discuss their next steps.<\/p>\n He said Mr Chay was \u201cnot technically wrong\u201d, but athletics is \u201cstructurally quite different\u201d from swimming, especially in Singapore\u2019s context.<\/p>\n For one, athletics is a \u201clate-developing\u201d sport, he said, giving the example of Quek, who won gold at 29.<\/p>\n \u201cI think this aspect of late-developing means that there is a lot more commitment, a lot more faith, a lot more belief, a lot more investment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He added that athletics has many different disciplines that require \u201cspecialised coaching, facilities and equipment\u201d.<\/p>\n Singapore Athletics is working on \u201cbridging support\u201d for young athletes. The 2029 SEA Games in Singapore is his \u201copen call\u201d to coaches and athletes, Mr Lien said.<\/p>\n \u201cFor those that are in, stay in, and for those that are knocking on the door, please, we will support you. We will walk with you to 2029 and beyond,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He added that they have a \u201cgood pipeline\u201d and the priority is to focus on fundraising so that they can support a greater number of athletes.<\/p>\n Among those who took issue with Mr Chay\u2019s comments was marathoner Soh Rui Yong.<\/p>\n He said Singapore was sending \u201ca bunch of full-time students, software engineers, teachers, government employees, and corporate workers\u201d to the Games.<\/p>\n While highlighting several Singaporean athletes, he said they had to compete against several full-time professional athletes who are sponsored, such as Thailand\u2019s Puripol Boonson and Kieran Tuntivate, as well as Indonesia\u2019s Robi Syianturi.<\/p>\n \u201cSingapore has the resources to fund a proper high-performance athletics program if this country wants to, but those resources don\u2019t seem to be flowing into the sport. Till then, don\u2019t expect to win many gold medals bringing knives to a gun fight,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n Soh, who finished seventh in the men\u2019s 10,000m, said athletics is not a \u201crich man\u2019s sport\u201d and that competition is \u201cdeeper and comes fast and furious from more sources and directions\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cFixating on medal count to me is not a holistic way of measuring success at the Games,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n