Singapore sends youngest team to Netball World Cup, eyes tournament as stepping stone to regional success
The tournament begins on Jul 28, and the Singapore team will kick off its campaign against world number eight Uganda in their first match.
Home support for the Singapore netball team was strong during the Asian Netball Championships 2022 which was held on home soil. (Photo: Netball Singapore)
SINGAPORE: Singapore has assembled its youngest team ever for the Netball World Cup in South Africa next week.
The country is one of just two Asian teams, along with Sri Lanka, to qualify for the 16-team championship starting on Jul 28.
The team will kick off its campaign against world number eight Uganda in their first match.
At 28th in the world, Singapore is the lowest-ranked team in the tournament, and the young cohort of players are using it as a stepping stone to future glory.
GETTING READY FOR THE WORLD STAGE
Eight out of the 15 players in the squad are aged 23 and below, making it Singapore's youngest roster ever for the tournament held every four years.
The youngest in the team is 21-year-old centre Rachel Ling, who will be making her World Cup debut.
Ling is taking a gap year to focus on the sport, after having completed her Diploma in Business Studies in Ngee Ann Polytechnic.
“I think every one of us has different paths and we shouldn't feel pressured to go in a route that we don't want to. So I think for me right now, this is the best decision,” she told CNA, adding that it was not an impulsive choice to put her further studies on hold.
“I still want to explore and put myself out there for many things and also focus on netball, because it's a very important year (and) we are going to many competitions.”
For guidance, the youngsters will turn to veteran players such as 28-year-old Kimberly Lim, who has played 112 times for Singapore, including in two World Cups.
"I want the team to enjoy themselves. It's not often we get to be on such an international platform. And to really just play with the passion that they have,” said Lim.
While winning the World Cup may be too ambitious a target for Singapore, Lim hopes the team can take lessons away from the outing, and bring them to the upcoming string of Asian competitions.
The Nations Cup will be held in October this year, with the Asian Netball Championships happening next year.
“I hope that we get to this level and we keep building from there,” said Lim.
STEPPING STONE TO REGIONAL SUCCESS
The team wants to achieve regional dominance, especially with netball making a return to the 2025 Southeast Asian Games in Thailand, after being omitted from the past two editions.
The team currently trains six times a week on top of their full-time jobs or studies.
Outside the court, they also do strength and conditioning work.
Five Southeast Asian teams — Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Brunei and Vietnam — are also using Singapore as a training hub this year.
Thailand and Brunei were here for the Netball Super League 2023 in February and March, while the Philippines team was here for a training tour in April and May.
Malaysia also stopped by in mid-May, while the Vietnamese team is currently training here.
This is part of Netball Singapore's efforts to level the playing field in this region.
The association’s executive director Cyrus Medora told CNA: “Growing the sport in the region will help us to get more established, and therefore maybe attract more people (and) more kids here to want to play as well.”
He added that as sporting culture grows in Singapore, he hopes people will also start to appreciate the quality of the local netball team.
Mr Medora shared that netball is currently the largest female team sport in the National School Games, according to the Ministry of Education.
“One of our aspirations of course is to get bigger and stronger athletes. Like all other sports, we also compete for the best athletes. Obviously if the sport is more and more popular, then it tends to get the better athletes wanting to play their sport,” he said.
“Our national team and our national players are the key to all this, because their success in Asia and their success on homeground helps us to build the popularity. Everyone loves a winner.”
