Sport

Marathoner, Soh Rui Yong, understandably, has a bone to pick with the Singapore Athletics Association (SAA).

He wasn't picked to represent Singapore in the upcoming SEA games. 

Now, the managment team of SAA is making him even more furious.

Ostensibly, Soh has been removed from all whatsapp groups involving SAA officials. 

In response, Soh sent a snarky retaliation through his won Facebook page. He sarcastically congragulated them "for being great role models for the standards of Childishness and Cowardice".

1) Childishness - When an athlete disagrees with you, block them on WhatsApp and all social media platforms with no reason given rather than sending him an email/text/calling him, communicating and working it out together.

2) Cowardice - Ordering your junior staff to remove me from the WhatsApp group and block me from social media, rather than doing it yourself. He who passes the sentence should swing the sword.

Singapore's new football darling and local footballing prince, Ikhsan Fandi, has scored in the third successive game for his Norwegian second-tier club. Ikhsan scored the opening goal in his club's Norwegian Football Cup tie against third-tier side Fram Larvik.

His 33rd minute goal ensured that he has managed to find the net in his last three games for his club. He had scored his first competitive goal for Raufoss IL on May 12th with the winner in the 89th minute, scoring with a spectacular bicycle kick with which his father, Fandi Ahmad is famous with. He also scored a consolation goal four days later when his club was defeated 5-2 in a league match.

For his third goal in as many games, his club went on to lose on penalties, with Ikhsan one of the players to miss the spot kick. While he was disappointed that he missed the penalty, he was stil delighted that he had managed to score his third goal in 11 days, and that he managed to play the full game. Ikhsan has said that he needs to improve on his fitness in order to be make more of an impact for his team.

It does look like that his fitness is improving, and the results are there to see. Ikhsan's 3 goals have come in just 247 minutes of playing time. Long may his scoring streak continues.

Singapore's one and only Olympic champion, swimmer Joseph Schooling, has bagged his 6th Sportsman of the Year Award, the most number of wins from any individuals for the award for both men and women since the award started.

The 23 year old Schooling first won the award in 2012, and then again from 2015 to this year, 2019. The award had no winners in 2013. The closest anyone has come to winning as many as Schooling are former national swimmer Patricia Chan and Table Tennis queen Li Jiawei. Both won five times, and both have since long retired. 

Schooling is the reigning Olympic 100m champion, and also won he men's 50m and 100m butterfly titles at the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia, and also two bronzes in the relays. He is expected to defend his Olympic title next year in Tokyo. 

The Singapore National Olympic Council has dropped legal action against marathoner Soh Rui Yong. The athlete was previously served a lawyer's letter by SNOC and fellow marathoner Ashley Liew for disputing their version of the story. 

Back then, Liew was praised for waiting for other rivals, who took a wrong route, to catch up despite being in the lead. His actions had won him the International Fair Play Committee's (CIFP) Pierre de Coubertin World Fair Play award. 

It was a while later that Soh disputed the feel-good story by saying that it was not what had happened. He disagreed that it was a respectable act as the leaders who took a wrong turn actually had to run an additional 100m. The extra distance would have allowed Liew to gain 20-30 seconds. 

Soh was served a lawyer's letter because he disputed the facts. However, he refused to back down or withdraw his account as that is what he claims to be true. 

His efforts paid off as legal actions were dropped yesterday. 

"Moving forward, it would better serve all of Singapore sports if the SNOC chose to engage in dialogue with all parties involved instead of continuing to spend public resources on legal means.

In yet another proof that the Football Association of Singapore is a joke of an organisation, they have announced that the Singapore national team coach will only be announced in June. This despite the fact that the post of national team coach had been vacant since December 2018, and the despite FAS announcing to everyone who was interested that the post will be filled up by January 2019.

Obviously, no such appointment had been made by March 2019, and football fans are no closer in finding out whether anyone had actually been interviewed for the post. And to make things more comical, Singapore will play their 2022 World Cup qualification round in June. So, coach appointed in June expected to do miracles within the same month?

Stop being a joke lah, FAS! And stop taking us fans for fools!

The FAS is still undecided about who to appoint as the Singapore national team coach, a full three months after Fandi Ahmad was told to vacate his post and concentrate on the U-23 squad instead. And yet, they have committed the national team to a tournament taking place in Malaysia later in March. Which is why,they have announced Nazri Nasir, who was assisting Fandi for the national team in the AFF Cup, as an interim coach. He is there just to plug the gaps in FAS succession planning.

This indecision shows just how poorly managed the Lions are under the stewardship of the FAS, who obviously had no game plan when they moved Fandi to another post. In any other walk of life, when a leader vacates his post, there will be someone waiting in the wings, and he will assume that role before a big event comes up. Apparently not Singapore football.

And we wonder why Singapore football have fallen so far from grace, that it has become a joke. Thank you, FAS, for destroying the national team of Singapore's most favourite sport.