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Team Singapore's team sports continued to draw a blank at the 2026 Asian Games, with only 3x3 basketball offering hope, as authorities study a full-time competitive environment to close the gap.
NAGOYA - While there were several fine individual performances from Team Singapore's athletes at the 2026 Asian Games, the Republic's team sports have continued to draw a blank at the continental meet.
Only water polo has delivered team sport medals for Singapore at the Asiad since the inaugural 1951 edition. But since their last medal - a men's bronze in 1986 - no team from the Republic have stood on an Asian Games podium.
Team Sports Medal Drought Continues
At the Team Singapore wrap-up conference on Oct 4, High Performance Sport Institute (HPSI) chief Low Jia Ren acknowledged the challenges faced, adding that the sports authorities are looking at how to narrow the gap for team sports at future Asiads. Having formerly captained the men's national basketball team, the 47-year-old is aware of the differences between the nature of individual and team sports.
Noting team sports' need for a bigger talent pool, he said: "When you are racing or shooting, this is something you can control (on your own). In team sports, there are opponents opposite you, there are teammates alongside you, and you need everyone in the team, whether it's three or four in 3x3 basketball, or more in rugby sevens and water polo. Everything needs to click at the same time to win at the Asian level, and it's difficult.
" At the Aichi-Nagoya Games, most of Singapore's team sports did not have a good outing. The water polo teams, who were aiming to improve on their encouraging performances at the previous Asiad and inch closer to the podium, were overtaken by more rivals instead.
The men's team, which have contributed one gold, three silvers and three bronzes in past Games, slipped from fifth to seventh out of eight nations, while the women's team slid from fourth out of seven countries to last out of six. Other team sports Singapore competed in include field hockey (women's team finished 10th out of 12), rugby sevens (women's and men's teams respectively placed seventh out of eight and 11th out of 12) and softball (women's team finished seventh out of eight).
The 2026 Games did not include sports such as bowling, which has reaped 24 medals for Singapore at the continental showpiece. Kitefoiling, in which Olympic bronze medallist Maximilian Maeder won a gold medal in China, was also omitted from the sailing competition this time. Despite that, the Republic's two-gold haul in Japan was its lowest at the quadrennial event in 28 years, highlighting the increasingly competitive landscape on the continent.
While the 18 medals (2-9-7) won at the Sept 19 to Oct 4 Asiad exceeded the haul of 16 (3-6-7) from Hangzhou three years ago, Singapore claimed one less gold than they did in China. Low acknowledged that the medal return was lower than in recent Asiads, but pointed to the exclusion of sports that the nation is traditionally strong in as a factor that could influence these numbers.
He said: "Notwithstanding this, of course, the goal is for Singapore and all our athletes to do their best. Whatever the event or sport being featured, our role is to help provide them with the best environment to be able to thrive and when we get to the start line, it's game on and all of us then will be cheering for them and rooting for them.
Asian Sports Level Rapidly Progressing
" Singapore also ranked 21st out of 46 nations and territories in Japan, marking their lowest placing since the 1994 Hiroshima Games, when the quadrennial event began featuring at least 40 countries and territories. Su Chun Wei, Sport Singapore's sport development group chief, noted that the level of Asian sports is also rapidly progressing, citing the performance of Thailand's athletics contingent as an example.
Thailand were fourth in the athletics medal table with three golds, two silvers and a bronze, with sprinter Puripol Boonson making a statement at these Games as he claimed the sprint double in record-breaking style. The 20-year-old broke two Games records en route to clinching the 100m crown, while he won the 200m title in an Asian record-equalling 19.88 seconds.
Su said: "A learning point for us is that at this particular Asian Games, we have got to go back and (look at) what we need to do to prepare ourselves for the next four years as the competition level has changed significantly - there's no way else to say this (and we have) to keep pressing on.
" While the overall performance dipped compared to previous years, there were still bright sparks, including multiple firsts from the Republic's 300-strong contingent, which competed across 26 sports. Singapore's fencers delivered their best showing at the Asiad with a historic silver by epee fencer Kiria Tikanah Abdul Rahman, as well as bronzes by women's foilist Maxine Wong and the women's epee team.
There were also unprecedented medals for golfer Shannon Tan and taekwondo exponent Darren Yap, who won bronzes in their respective events. Ten national records across swimming, athletics and sport climbing were also broken in Japan, alongside 23 personal best and five season's best performances. The local contingent also brought home a record nine silvers, surpassing the previous best of seven earned at the 2010, 2006 and 1951 Games. There were glimpses of hope in 3x3 basketball.
Despite a 20-16 loss to last edition's bronze medallists Mongolia during the play-ins for the quarter-finals, the men's team gave South Korea their biggest test in a 19-14 pool defeat - the most the eventual champions conceded. The women's team went one step further to reach the last eight before losing to eventual runners-up Philippines.
Lack Of Professional Leagues Hinders Team Sports
Low noted that unlike the continental powerhouses, Singapore lacks professional leagues in many team sports which would provide opportunities for these athletes to pursue their sport full-time and create an environment for them to reach a higher level. However, studies are being conducted to see what can be adapted for the Singapore context to bring about more improvement.
Citing 3x3 basketball, where Singapore teams are supported on the FIBA 3x3 circuit, he said: "What made the difference was that they came together, trained at a full-time level, went overseas and competed regularly. Almost every weekend, they had competitions against the best in the world, and then worked on what it takes to be competitive.
" While the 3x3 basketballers have the opportunity to train full-time and play regularly in global tournaments, most of the other team sports have at best ad-hoc training and competition tours to prepare for major meets and a handful of players attached to foreign clubs. Low added: "We need to now study this across all team sports because for every team sport, their environment and leagues are different.
If what it takes is a full-time and competitive environment, whether locally or overseas, we need to start to move towards that.
" Su said: "Converting the colour from silver to gold is what we continue to want to have that winning touch so we'll work on that. " While medal targets were not revealed publicly ahead of the Games, Low said Singapore's athletes "have met our internal medal projections".
Many of Asia's top sporting nations and those from South-east Asia who placed above Singapore in the medal table - Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam - had publicly announced medal targets ahead of the Games. When asked about the possibility of disclosing medal targets in the future, Low said: "Never say never, we don't want to say very sure that we won't or will.
Projections are important... and at a system level, it makes it a bit difficult because as you've seen at these Games, some athletes perform, some didn't, others exceeded their performance and as a system, our role is to help them succeed. As a high performance sport institute, of course we want to have systems, of course we want to have accountability and this is why we want to have accountability.
" But he also stressed that there are various considerations, adding: "The question is, if we come forth publicly with medal targets, does it help to serve our cause? This is a question that has trade-offs... the trade-off is that for some athletes and coaches and even sports, the pressure they face is multiplied when the targets are made public.
" With the SEA Games set to return to Singapore in 2029, Low believes that the performance shown by the Republic's young athletes at the Asiad bodes well for the future. He noted that many of the personal bests and national records registered by Singapore's athletes in Japan came from teenage athletes. Low said: "It gives us a lot of hope for 2029 and in three years' time, there will be more athletes coming on.
Hopefully some of our senior athletes (will continue to lead the way). "
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straits_times:Singapore’s team sports continue to struggle at Asian Games; authorities explore ways to improveThis story was compiled and edited by the HeadTopics newsroom and HT AI from the reports above.
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