Three former coaches charged with conspiring to submit falsified finswimming results
The allegedly falsified results led to six athletes being selected to participate in the 2023 SEA Games.
From left: Former coaches Gary Lee Quan Hua, Ho Ho Huat, and Muhammad Faiz Suhaimi. (Photo: Facebook/Singapore Underwater Federation)
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SINGAPORE: Three former coaches were charged on Thursday (Mar 12) with conspiring to submit falsified finswimming results, which led to six finswimming athletes being selected for the 2023 Southeast Asian Games.
The three former coaches with the Singapore Underwater Federation charged on Thursday are Singaporeans Muhammad Faiz Suhaimi, 33, Ho Ho Huat, 56 and Gary Lee Quan Hua, 35.
Faiz and Ho received three charges of forgery for the purpose of cheating each while Lee was given two charges.
According to charge sheets, the three men conspired to commit fraud, with Faiz making a false electronic record sometime before Jan 18, 2023, named "1st Malaysia fin swimming championship".
The record contained falsified results of several events at the 1st Malaysia Fin Swimming Championship 2023, and was allegedly intended to deceive the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) into selecting athletes to represent Singapore in finswimming events at the 2023 SEA Games.
Sometime before Feb 1, 2023, Faiz allegedly entered falsified results of the same events into the SportSync portal, intending to deceive SNOC into believing that the electronic record reflected the results at the 1st Malaysia Fin Swimming Championship.
Around Feb 5, 2023, Ho allegedly altered the result sheet of the same event by inserting the falsified results of the events.
According to a police statement, the falsified results led to six athletes being selected to participate in the 2023 SEA Games, and they would not have been selected had the results not been falsified.
Finswimming is split into several categories, with swimmers using monofins resembling fish tails and others wearing bifins or stereofins - those typically used by scuba divers.
According to an archive of the 2023 SEA Games website and a copy of the finish sheet uploaded online by Sportalsub.net, a team comprising Bernice Ting, Jamie Ang, Vanessa Ong and Jovita Ho represented Singapore in the 4x200m surface relay at the 2023 SEA Games in Cambodia.
They finished last in the four-team final, about 50 seconds behind winners Vietnam.
If convicted of forgery for the purpose of cheating, the men can be jailed for up to 10 years and fined.
