SINGAPORE: The Singapore men’s under-22 football team and distance runner Soh Rui Yong are now set to compete in the Southeast Asian Games later this year, following successful appeals to the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC).
The appeals committee met on Thursday (Aug 28) to consider additional nominations submitted by the various national sports associations (NSAs).
According to the updated list of athletes, Soh is set to compete in the men’s 10,000m and 5,000m races.
SNOC has also approved his name for the men’s marathon. But this is subject to a decision by Singapore Athletics (SA), which will have to select two out of five athletes for the final list.
Soh was initially left out of a provisional SEA Games list, along with the men’s football team.
SNOC said earlier this month that the selection committee had not supported Soh’s nomination, noting that apart from performance benchmarks, it also considers the need to “uphold the values and behaviours expected of Singapore’s national representatives”.
On Thursday, an SNOC spokesperson said: “The committee is satisfied with Singapore Athletics’ assurance that Mr Soh will uphold his responsibilities in representing the nation at the Games.
“We extend our best wishes to all athletes in their preparations for the Games.”
Speaking to CNA, Soh said that he wanted to give “huge thanks” to Singapore Athletics president Lien Choong Luen and deputy general manager Bastian Dohling for their help in doing a lot of the “heavy lifting” and putting in a “good case” with the appeal.
Soh added that competing at the Games will be “quite a cool full circle journey”, given that he made his Games debut at the 2015 edition in Singapore where he won the marathon.
“Bangkok is where my wife is from so it will be pretty cool to compete in front of my wife’s side of the family,” he added. “My family should also go up, so it will be a nice little family reunion.”
The 33rd SEA Games will be held in Thailand from Dec 9 to 20.
