Singaporean Games Postponed, Athletes Dissapointed
Singapore’s floorball teams were excited for the Nov 21-30 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games (Aimag) in Thailand after their squad announcements.
Olympic Council of Asia
The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) canceled the quadrennial tournament on August 20, a week after they presented their teams on social media, citing the organizers’ failure to meet host city contract requirements by August 19.
The 2026 edition will be in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In 2024, Singapore’s men’s floorball squad won’t play any major competitions after missing the World Floorball Championship in Sweden.
Team captain Kumaresa Pasupathy told The Straits Times that the Aimag’s cancellation was a huge disappointment since “it was one of the major events we had been preparing for all year, and the team had put in countless hours of hard work with the goal of representing Singapore and doing well.
While he was excited for the games, the 28-year-old said there must be good reasons for the postponement. The Covid-19 pandemic, political uncertainty after the 2023 Thai general election, and the Paris Olympics delayed the event four times, originally slated for May 2021.
Possible Reasons of Cancellation
Over 100 Singapore competitors from 22 sports were expected to compete at the Games, where floorball, netball, and cheerleading would debut.
The OCA said it to the affected athletes and cancelled the games in the best interests of the athletes and all stakeholders after numerous attempts to make it happen.
Arianne Tay, Nur Irdina Hazly, Ning Tay, Aiman Lim, and Peter Khor were slated to make their major games debuts at the Aimag. Singapore Bowling Federation (SBF) technical director Jason Yeong-Nathan said: “Since the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve seen more uncertainty, but we take it in stride.
The Republic’s netball squad had the Sept 1-7 Mirxes Nations Cup and the Oct 18-27 Asian Netball Championship in India. Co-captain Khor Ting Fang said they are a little bit disappointed, but that this is a busy year for them.
Pee Hai Rou, a cheerleader, voiced her team’s sadness about missing an important event. She said: Aimag set up the team last year. The world championship took place earlier than planned in February.
Singapore National Olympic Council secretary-general Chris Chan said that this event would have been a good opportunity for our athletes to compete against Asia’s best and gain valuable data points for SEA Games 2025 qualification.