'Successful' Asian Games for Singapore, but room for improvement for likes of table tennis, badminton: Top sports official

HANGZHOU: Singapore's Asian Games outing was a "successful" one, but sports such as table tennis and badminton will need analyse how they can make a step up from doing well at the SEA Games level, said Singapore Sports Institute (SSI) chief Su Chun Wei on Saturday (Oct 7).

"This, in my view, is a successful Asian Games for Team Singapore and we have continued to set new highs," said Dr Su at a Games wrap up press conference.  

"Many of these performances that we have witnessed here in Hangzhou have inspired the Singapore spirit and united the people of Singapore together."

As of Saturday morning, Singapore's athletes have earned three gold, six silver and six bronze medals.

Singapore's sprint queen Shanti Pereira took gold in the women's 200m, while there were victories for Maximilian Maeder (men's formula kite) and Ryan Lo (men's ILCA 7).

"It is worthy to note that most of these medals were from Olympic events and sports. This demonstrates that we have the ability and strength and depth of capability to win beyond SEA Games at the Asian and world level," said Dr Su.

"I trust that the inspiring performances of our medalists here at the Asian Games will continue to spur Team Singapore towards being bold to dream and to win."

At the same time, there are sports with prior success at the SEA Games level which must to continue improve to be successful at the Asian Games level, he added. These include fencing, table tennis, badminton, shooting and hockey.

"For example, the badminton team (is) preparing for Paris (2024) and we could have done much better," said Dr Su, who reiterated the presence of external factors such as the tournament draw. 

"I hope - we still have time - that this campaign at the Asian level refocuses our mind on