Singapore Sailing to the Top

by Kate Laven on 13 Jan 2009
Last July, one of Singapore's most talented young sailors Griselda Khng lined up alongside 17 other young sailors for the coveted 29er girls title in the 2008 Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championships.
They included Martine Grael, daughter of Volvo Ocean Race skipper Torben and although neither won, the 15 keenly contested races served to highlight the fact that both girls have burgeoning Olympic careers ahead of them - one because she comes from one of the most famous sailing dynasties in the world, the other because she is the product of one of the most successful development programmes in youth sailing.

Singapore Sailing is proud of its youth success, producing more champions at youth level than any other country. Griselda is one example, having been 2006 Optimist world champion and in 2005, Wee Chin Teo and Terence Koh were crowned 420 Boys World Champions.

At the last Asian Games in Doha, Singapore was the top sailing nation winning five gold, three silver and two bronze medals though Beijing proved disappointing.

'Before Qingdao, Singapore sailors had only ever competed in Olympics as wild card entries but at the 2008 Games, they earned qualification in four separate events which for a country as small as ours was a major achievement,' explained President of Singapore Sailing, Low Teo Ping

'What we lacked was experience of top class competition. We had a young team and we know now there were shortcomings in our preparations but our sailors were as technically competent as the others.

'We have already started our preparations for London 2012 and put into place our strategic plans for the next four years and beyond.

'We aim to qualify for at least four events which will give us much more time for preparations: in the 470 mens and women, Laser mens and laser radial classes.'

There are 120 members of the national sailing squad though none are full time and combine training and preparations with education. They spend their time either at the training centre in Singapore or at their base in Melbourne where the emphasis remains firmly on education.

Sailing is the highest funded sport in Singapore with $2 million (Singapore dollars - approx 1 million Euros) invested each year. But in a culture where sporting success is not yet as recognised or valued as it is elsewhere, the Sailing Federation has to work hard to entice youngsters into the sport and stay with it.

'There is no tradition of sailing in Singapore and there are only six sailing clubs so we have to make it attractive by other means,' explains Teo Ping.

'Our aim is to get good results and run a well-organised sport that people want to be associated with.'

Much of the Federation's effort is therefore targeted at working with schools to integrate sailing into education. Children who sail can earn ‘co-curricular academy' points which help them get into better schools and universities and initiatives such as a National Optimists Programme and more recently SailSmart are aimed at widening the net to get more kids on the water.

Under the National Optimist Programme, children start sailing aged seven. They become Oppie sailors then Oppie racers then hopefully Oppie stars. Around 600 children from around 200 primary schools have taken part in this initiative but according to Teo Ping, it was not producing big enough numbers.

'SailSmart is much broader with a bigger emphasis on education. Children can spend three or four days at the National Sailing Centre and learn about tides and currents, weather, marine ecology, protecting the environment and navigation. And then they go sailing. Five of them and an instructor in a Pacer boat and apply everything they have learned.

'Our aim is 5,000 kids in two years. If we aim at 5,000 and we get ten per cent coming back, our sailing programme will be much stronger for it. So far it has been wonderful.'

www.volvooceanrace.org