SINGAPORE — The minimum target is to win a bronze medal in the women’s team event, but given Thailand’s track record and pedigree, anything more than that will be an uphill task, said Singapore women’s team captain Quek Soo Teng.

The SEA Games women’s team volleyball competition starts on June 10 at the OCBC Arena, with Singapore grouped with Thailand and Myanmar, and must win at least one match to reach the semi-finals.

But Quek insists they are realistic about their medal chances, and a silver, let alone the gold medal, would be a huge bonus and surprise.

“That particular Thailand team have been playing together for 10 years and over and they are playing for clubs in Thailand and Europe so they are definitely more experienced than us,” said Quek, 28.

“For us, we need to have a better system because most of us now are training part-time whereas in Thailand they have their own professional league and they play full time.”

Thailand’s men’s and women’s volleyball sides are 36th and 12th respectively in the world rankings, while Singapore’s national men’s volleyball team last took part in the SEA Games in 1993, while the women’s team last featured in 2005.

Singapore’s best results at the SEA Games were bronze medal finishes in 1981 (women’s) and 1993 (men’s). Recent visits to Thailand last week, Japan, Myanmar and Malaysia have reminded the men’s and women’s teams of the challenge they will face next month. The men’s team, who are grouped with Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia for the SEA Games, lost 3-2 to Thailand’s under-23 side last week, while the women’s team won eight of their 11 games against under-23 club sides in Thailand.

“We are struggling with different elements, skill-wise and technical-wise, we know we are far behind Thailand,” said men’s team coach Teo Siew Lan. “We need to do something else to play this game and that is the fighting spirit.” Shanjayan Muniappan