SINGAPORE UPDATED. Singapore’s national sprint kayaking team is living proof that pure effort truly – and literally – pays off.
Since the turn of the century, the Republic’s representatives in the sport had never won anything higher than bronze at the bi-annual Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.
That was until the 2011 edition, when the kayakers emerged as Singapore’s surprise package with an impressive bounty of two golds, five silvers and three bronzes.
Then, barely a year later, Geraldine Lee made waves as the first-ever Singaporean kayaker to qualify for the Olympics.
Their heady progress has made the powers that be sit up and take notice, according to national coach Balazs Babella.
“We’ve had more support from the Singapore Sports Council (SSC) since they recognized our achievements,” the 35-year-old Hungarian told Yahoo Singapore earlier this month. “We can do more professional training now.”
This includes local and overseas training camps paid for by SSC, and access to nutritionists and psychologists from the Singapore Sports Institute.
In September this year, six female kayakers – Lee among them – bagged the Sports Excellence (spex) Scholarship, while seven of their male teammates were earmarked with future potential for the award, which grants up to S$90,000 on top of additional funds for sport-relevant areas.
Their next big test is December's SEA Games in Myanmar, and with support flowing in on all fronts, Babella has set a modest target of “doing better than they did previously” in 2011.
Crazy passion
Ask the coach for the primary factor behind Singapore kayaking’s rise to prominence, and he’ll point to the athletes without hesitation.
“Their passion for the sport, it’s like crazy,” said Babella, himself a two-time world champion in the K4 (four-man) 200m event.
The epitome of such dedication might just be 26-year-old Lee, who took unpaid leave from work to train fulltime for this year’s SEA Games.
It is the third time she’s doing so – after the last edition, when she struck gold in the K1-500, and the 2012 Olympics, when she battled to the semi-finals in the same event.
Lee is even prepared to quit her job at the Land Transport Authority once she signs off on her spex scholarship and dives headfirst into training for the 2015 SEA Games in Singapore and the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.
“I want to keep paddling, as long as I can take it,” laughed the bubbly athlete. “But if I can still go for 2016, it will be my last Olympics. After that I will be a bit too old!”
Her teammate, Lucas Teo, is also placing kayaking front and centre of his life.
The life sciences student at the National University of Singapore has been taking fewer modules for the past year, to cope better with the demands of training up to 11 times a week.
Teo, 22, will graduate later than his cohort, and has to pay the cost of an additional semester.
But the 2011 SEA Games K1-1000m silver medallist said, sheepishly: “My paddling career is slightly more important than studying sometimes, so I skip lessons just to train anyway.”
Driving force
Aside from their sheer love for the sport, the kayakers also credit Babella as a major reason for their success.
“Ever since coach came here, the scene has improved a lot,” said Lee. “He really helped us in a lot of ways.”
Babella’s appointment in 2008 has seen him leverage on his experience and expertise to take the team on training trips to Europe as well as impart fresh techniques and methods.
But beyond the tangibles, observe the smiling, curly-haired coach in the company of his charges, and it is obvious that his belief in them is nothing short of inspiring.
Aside from their sheer love for the sport, the kayakers also credit Babella as a major reason for their success.
“Ever since coach came here, the scene has improved a lot,” said Lee. “He really helped us in a lot of ways.”
Babella’s appointment in 2008 has seen him leverage on his experience and expertise to take the team on training trips to Europe as well as impart fresh techniques and methods.
But beyond the tangibles, observe the smiling, curly-haired coach in the company of his charges, and it is obvious that his belief in them is nothing short of inspiring.
“What we achieved in previous years was mainly without much support from SSC,” said Babella. “Now we have it, and if we have enough heart, it will be good enough to produce a world champion... It is possible.”
It’s been a remarkable journey for the man himself, who admitted that when he first came to Singapore, he “was not planning to stay for so long”.
“I never thought that after being here for less than four years I would have an Olympian (in Lee), and it happened,” Babella reflected. “That was my coaching dream, to achieve that once in my life, and I did.”
“Now I must have a new target, and the new one is very simple: I want to achieve that (a Singaporean at the Olympics) again and again, and with more and more people.”
