SINGAPORE — Just like their swimming counterparts who are dominant in the South-east Asian (SEA) region, the Singapore national diving team wants to one day establish itself as the region’s top diving nation, and have their divers compete at the world’s biggest stage in the Olympics.

This could happen sooner rather than later, judging by the team’s healthy growth of late.

“Not only do we want to rival Malaysia, we want to be able to beat them. Right now, we are already a strong second,” William Lee, vice-president of diving at the Singapore Swimming Association, told TODAY.

Already, Singapore has been catching up with Malaysia — which boasts Olympic bronze medallist Pandelela Rinong and Commonwealth Games gold medallist Ooi Tze Liang in their team — in terms of SEA Games golds since the Republic’s debut in the 2013 Games.

In 2013, Malaysia had 12 medals to Singapore’s four. This year, the gap narrowed to 11-7.

But beyond the regional level, the long-term aim of Singapore diving is to have one of its athletes qualify for the Olympics for the first time. That is what the four Singapore female divers who are competing at the FINA Diving Grand Prix this weekend are attempting to do.

Fong Kay Yian, Myra Lee, Freida Lim, and Ashlee Tan are on an Olympic pathway, and will be using the experience of competing at the Grand Prix to prepare for next February’s FINA World Cup in Rio de Janeiro, which is an Olympic qualifying event.

At the World Cup, the top four teams in the team events, and the top 18 teams from the individual events will book their Olympic slots Lee is hopeful of a Singapore diver qualifying for the Rio Olympics.

“So the girls are going to the World Cup to try to qualify, (and) that’s the last opportunity for qualification (with the other qualifier being the FINA World Championships this year),” he said.

“As for our chances of qualifying ... Anything can happen. As long as our divers stay focused, and (are able to) execute what they have trained well during competition day, there is always that possibility.

“We only started diving in 2009, but we’ve gone a very fast track as a diving nation by bringing in top-level coaches and having a very intensive programme.

“We really highly accelerated the pace (of improvement) compared to other nations. For other nations to reach this level of ability, usually it’s a 10-to-15-year cycle, whereas we did it in five to six years, (so) it is actually quite good.”

As for the male divers, TODAY understands that twins Timothy and Mark Lee have enlisted in national service after the SEA Games and are trying to put in training time whenever they book out, while Jonathan Chan is taking a break to focus on his exams.

Fong, a double-medallist at June’s SEA Games, who also qualified for last year’s Asian Games and this year’s World Championships for the first time, said she never thought she would reach her current level in diving in such a short time.

“Now I realise it’s not impossible to compete at the world level. You just have to trust your goals,” said the 19-year-old.

“I really hope I can qualify for the 2016 Olympics. (National diving coach) Wan Jun spoke to me and said there is a chance. She is quite positive that we can make it.”

The Singapore divers’ efforts will also be boosted by the pending appointment of a top national diving head coach, said Lee. “We have already narrowed it down to a few (candidates),” he said. “And because once you bring somebody in ... how he runs the programme can greatly affect our divers because our pool is very small, (so) we have to make sure we get the right guy.”