SINGAPORE — Team Singapore’s 183 gold medallists from the 28th SEA Games were honoured at the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) multi-million dollar awards programme (MAP) presentation and appreciation dinner last night, as the athletes picked up a total of S$1 million for their efforts at the Games, hosted here from June 5 to 16.

National swimmers Joseph Schooling and Quah Zheng Wen emerged as the joint top earners yesterday, cashing in S$31,250 each for their performances in the pool. Schooling, who won a bronze in the men’s 100m butterfly at the FINA World Championships earlier this month, had reaped a total of nine gold in the individual and relay events, while Quah was the most bemedalled athlete at the Games with 12 medals, including seven gold.

Singapore swimming was the most successful sport at the MAP awards, with national swimmers Tao Li, Amanda Lim and Quah also among the top 10 winners.

While the local sports fraternity celebrated its Games record haul of 84 gold, 73 silver and 102 bronze yesterday, the onus is also on Team Singapore to keep the winning momentum going beyond the 2015 Games.

Athletes and officials told TODAY the key to maintaining their success at future major Games lies in developing an eco-system to support local athletes in the long-term. This includes continued financial backing from the national sports associations (NSA) and the government, sports science support, development of local coaches, and building a local sporting culture.

“There was the Final Push programme and increased funding to NSAs, which were critical to the good performance by our athletes at this year’s SEA Games, and it has reaped rewards and proved that with enough funds for training, our athletes can do well,” said Singapore Athletics president Tang Weng Fei.

Other sports, such as basketball, are hoping for more funding to help their athletes train for major competitions. “The FIBA Asia Championship in Hunan is coming up, and some of our players, like Wong Wei Long, who is doing very well, may not even compete in that because of work commitments,” said Hoo Boon Hock, deputy president of the Basketball Association of Singapore.

“It is a very challenging situation about getting athletes to view sports as something they want to do for the long-term, so they must be rewarded sufficiently for their commitment to the sport, and also have that moral support system to take them through.”

Schooling also said yesterday that support was important to keep athletes going in their sport. Post-SEA Games, the 20-year-old has now set his sights on a medal at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro next year.

The race to the podium is expected to be a hotly-contested one, with American legend Michael Phelps and South African Chad le Clos in the mix, but Schooling has no fear. “I’m so young, and I don’t think age really matters, but I like to see it as I’m going into my prime,” he said, “whereas, those guys are kind of in their prime, and coming down ... Michael can’t be swimming ’til he is 40, so I like to look at it that way.”

10 biggest winners:

1 (Tie) Joseph Schooling and Quah Zheng Wen (swimming): S$31,250

Schooling (men’s 100m freestyle, 50m freestyle, 200m butterfly, 4x200m & 4x100m freestyle,

4x100m medley)

Quah (men’s 100m & 200m backstroke, 400m individual medley, 4x200m & 4x100m freestyle,

4x100m medley)

3 Tao Li (swimming): S$23,750 (women’s 50m butterfly, 50m backstroke, 100m backstroke, 4x100m

medley)

4 (Tie) Amanda Lim and Quah Ting Wen (swimming): S$21,250

Lim (women’s 50m freestyle, 4x100m & 4x200m freestyle, 4x100m medley)

Quah (women’s 100m freestyle, 4x100m & 4x200m freestyle, 4x100m medley

6 Gao Ning (table tennis): S$20,500 (men’s singles, doubles, team)

7 Stephanie Chen (canoeing): S$17,500 (women’s K1 500m, K2 500m)

8 (Tie) Peter Gilchrist (billiards and snooker), Tessa Neo (shooting), Sasha Christian (waterski): S$15,000

Gilchrist (individual English billiards singles 500 and singles)

Neo (women’s air rifle team, 10m air rifle)

Christian (women’s wakeboard, slalom)

Individual gold medallists at the SEA Games are rewarded up to a maximum of three gold, with S$10,000 for the first gold, followed by S$5,000 each for the second and third gold medals. Gold medal winners in the team events will get S$15,000, and S$30,000 for team sports.

It is compulsory for athletes to contribute 20 per cent of their MAP Awards from the SEA Games to their national sports association. The Tote Board and Singapore Pools are sponsors of the SNOC MAP.