SINGAPORE — A store room at the Toa Payoh Sports Hall doubles up as a makeshift office, and committee meetings are usually held in the open on portable wooden tables and plastic chairs.

Despite the humble resources at its disposal, Sports Boules Singapore has set the national petanque team, which comprises four men and five women, an ambitious target at next month’s SEA Games — win at least one of the 10 gold medals on offer. In the Games’ history, Singapore has won only three bronze medals in the sport, with their last podium finish the Women’s Triples event in 2007.

Video: Raj Nadarajan/TODAY

This optimistic outlook is a far cry from the troubles that Sports Boules Singapore faced in 2013, when a lack of funding and support almost led to the closure of the 26-year-old national sports association (NSA).

Led by president Anthony Ho, the Sports Boules Singapore committee managed to convince several companies, including FBT and adidas, to come on board as sponsors for the national team. This, along with the additional funding provided by Sport Singapore for smaller NSAs to better prepare their athletes for the Games, has allowed Ho and his team to hire Dumrong Boonrowd, the former head coach of the Malaysian squad, on a part-time basis to help transform the national team into genuine medal contenders.

Ho noted that the current squad — with an average age of 22 — had undergone several training camps in Thailand and will be the “best prepared team they’ve ever had at the SEA Games”.

One genuine contender would be the team captain Cheng Zhi Ming, 20, who is aiming to win a medal in all five events he will compete in, with the men’s shooting and men’s doubles events representing his best prospects for winning gold.

“We have been training hard for the past year, so we’re at a good level now in terms of technique,” said Cheng, who is the reigning Asian Beach Games Shooting champion.

“We now need to ensure that we are mentally prepared. I think we’re doing well so far and as long as we focus on the correct processes, we’ll be able to manage the pressure and perform to the best of our abilities.”

Regional powerhouses Thailand and Laos are once again the favourites to dominate the medal tally — they won three and four gold medals, respectively, at the 2013 Games — but women’s captain Leck Wan Qing believes the team are capable of causing a few upsets this year.

“I’ve seen the team progress quite a bit over the past few months,” Leck said. “We used to get thrashed quite badly by the local teams during our trips to Thailand, but we’re now able to make it a competitive affair and even beat them.

“The level of these teams are similar to that of the Thai national team, so this gives us the belief that we can do well at the SEA Games.”

Moreover, Ho is hoping that a good showing at the Games will help increase the popularity of the sport among the younger generation and attract more sponsors to their cause.

“The SEA Games is not an end point for us,” said Ho, 41. “I view it as a starting block.

“This is one of the rare times when the sport gets more publicity. We’re going to use the Games as a springboard to develop the sport. In particular, we hope to reach out to youths and change their perception ... Most of them think that petanque is an ‘old-man’ sport, which could not be further from the truth.”