SINGAPORE – The past three months have seen Singapore Athletics (SA) come under the spotlight for all the wrong reasons, as the ongoing internal strife among the association’s committee members became public and caused a rift within the local athletics fraternity.

From the calling of a snap elections, which was eventually cancelled, to a leaked screenshot of a private Whatsapp group chat message that called for ways to get disciplinary action taken against some local coaches, the issues arising from the infighting in SA has cast a pall over the state of the sport here.

It eventually led to national governing sports body Sport Singapore (SportSG) and the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) stepping in to take over the management of the South-East Asian (SEA) Games athletics squad.

But while SA’s issues with infighting have yet to be resolved, the SEA Games athletes TODAY spoke to say they will not be distracted by the recent problems besetting the sport, and are simply focused on preparing for Kuala Lumpur (KL) Games.

Speaking on the sidelines of SA’s major games attire launch at the 2XU performance centre in Suntec City on Friday (Aug 4), national men’s 4 x 100m relay runner Khairyll Amri said: “For us, it’s important that we don’t get distracted by the negative news surrounding SA. What we do is to go for every training fully switched on and ready to do our best.

“Whatever happens (in SA)...that is not within our control. We can only control how we train and how we prepare (for the SEA Games), so that’s what we focus on.

“Our job is to compete at the Games, and we won’t let (the recent sagas) affect us.”

Men’s 400m runner Zubin Percy Muncherji also backed his fellow athletes to be mentally prepared for the Games.

“I know the athletes in the athletics fraternity are mentally strong, and I’m sure they can differentiate between what’s happening in the association and what they need to do as an athlete,” said Muncherji.

“So I’m sure the recent negative news about SA won’t be a factor…all the athletes are training hard, and we’re all looking forward to the Games.”

One of the major issues that SA’s committee was divided about was over the location of the SEA Games squad’s centralised training camp.

SA technical director Volker Hermann had initially proposed to hold the camp in Taiwan last month. But his idea was met by opposition from SA president Ho Mun Cheong as well as Margaret Oh, who is the coach of reigning SEA Games 200m champion Shanti Pereira.

Following a vote on the issue by SA’s 26-member management committee in June, it was decided that the training camp would be held in Singapore instead.

Khairyll’s 4x100m relay team-mate Lim Yao Peng admitted that he was ‘disappointed’ to find out that the training camp would not be held in Taiwan.

However, the 28-year-old insists that it has not stopped him and his teammates from giving their 100 percent in training here.

“Initially we were all looking forward to the Taiwan training camp because being in a different environment can help us focus better,” Lim explained.

“As a team, we’ll also have more opportunity to bond...and it would have helped us to better mentally prepare us for the SEA Games.

“So of course we were disappointed when we found out we weren’t going to Taiwan. But we all stayed objective and continued training hard as a team.

“Even if the best plan we can have is to train locally, we’ll still give our best at every session…we make sure that we turn up for every relay training, and we’ve also adjusted our individual training accordingly as well.”

Nonetheless, national sprinter and Rio 2016 Olympian Timothee Yap urged SA to resolve their issues following the SEA Games for the sake of the athletes.

“We hope that the association will fix their problems. It’s not a very good image for our sport, and for sport in Singapore as a whole,” said Yap, who will be competing in the 100m, 200m, and 4x100m relay in KL.

“It’s quite disappointing and embarrassing that so much negative news has been affecting our sport in all facets. Although we might not be directly involved (in their disputes), we will somehow still be affected (by it).

“After all, when you join the SA committee, it should be because you want to help the athletes and grow the sport, and not because of your own personal pride. So hopefully after the SEA Games, the association will clean up their act.”