Hangzhou 2022: Mission accomplished for Team Singapore’s skaters on Asiad debut

By Jeremiah Ong

Team Singapore’s skaters wrapped up their Asiad debut on Thursday (Oct 5) at the Qiantang Roller Sports Centre with youngster Keenan Brunkard competing in the men’s inline freestyle skating speed slalom.

The ASEAN Inline Freestyle Championship Speed Slalom bronze medallist started strong in the preliminaries, finishing ninth of 17 with a 4.348sec run to qualify for the final stages.

In the first knockout round, he suffered a fall in his second run and lost 0-2 to Iranian opponent Amirmohammad Savari Jamalouei.

Brunkard finished ninth in the preliminaries but lost out in the eighth-finals. (Photo: SNOC/ Kong Chong Yew)

The 15-year-old was proud to make his Asiad debut despite bowing out early.

“I feel that it is an amazing opportunity where I am one of the few youngest to come with the contingent for this Games,” he said.

“I have been to quite a few Asian-level competitions but this is my first major Games and I felt that it was exciting yet nerve-wracking at the same time.”

Despite hitting a new personal best, Brunkard saw room for improvement in his performance.

“I think I could have done better in the (knockout rounds against Iran) and perhaps a faster timing in time trial too. I hit my personal best this time … and I feel great about that but I still feel I can do better.”

On his opposition, Brunkard said: “They are extremely fierce, this is the hardest competition that I have been to in my life. There were multiple world records set today.”

But the teenager, who will feature at the Inline Freestyle World Championship in Shanghai next month, recognises that the high-level competition will only stand him in good stead going forward,

“I believe more exposure to different types of competitors and competitions with different floorings etc can help me learn more about myself as an athlete in this sport, to obtain new knowledge and to learn how to adapt.”

Despite the sport making its third appearance at the Games, this was the first time Singapore’s skaters would be present and the three events they competed in (1000m sprint, 3000m relay and inline freestyle skating speed slalom) would be featured.

Earlier on Sunday (Oct 1), former short track speed skater Lucas Ng and teammate Ryan Chua opened the team’s Asiad account in the men’s 1000m sprint tournament.

This was another notch on Lucas’ illustrious belt which includes appearances at multiple SEA Games and the 2011 Asian Winter Games in ​​Astana and Almaty.

Despite competing in the same discipline, Lucas was quick to point out the differences between all three competitions.

“First would be the participating countries, (the) SEA Games has less competition compared to Asian Games. And the level of competitive racing is also on a different level from Taiwan (and) Korea (who have) mostly world-level skaters. (Also), the climate is one major difference between this and the Asian Winter Games, (with) heat and cold on the extreme ends.”

In the 1000m sprint heats, Chua wasted no time in making an impact, coming in a credible fourth out of sixteen skaters in 1:34.405. Ng, who competed alongside him in the same heats, was seventh overall (1:34.652). 

Chua and Ng competed in the same heats where they finished fourth and seventh respectively. (Photo: SNOC/ Kong Chong Yew)

The pair then competed in separate semifinals where Chua was cruelly robbed of a spot in the finals after a heavy stumble.

The 25-year-old got off to a flying start, keeping pace with the much-favoured Chinese Taipei pair of Chao Tsu-Cheng and Huang Yu-Lin for most of the first two laps.

However, nearing the halfway mark of the race, Chua appeared to slow down and flung his left leg back before stumbling and crashing onto the track, ending his hopes of a final berth.

Chua did not complete his semifinal race after sustaining a fall. (Photo: SNOC/ Kong Chong Yew)

Commenting on his race, Chua said: “My first two laps started off ideal and my position was within the pack. Afterwards, I had a very minor contact with the Japanese skater and I think it threw me off mentally slightly and I started to feel like I needed to rush and catch up. And in doing that, I first lost balance on the corner but I caught myself in time, but due to that, the pack started drifting away and I felt (an) urgent (need) to catch up so before my body could reset and rebalance myself, my mind just told me to go and therefore I lost balance again and flipped forward.”

Also posing a difficulty for the skaters was the parabolic track used for the race.

“I think I could have done better. In all honesty, this parabolic track is relatively new to not just me but my team, we have only been consistently training on banked tracks which is quite different as the slopes are higher for parabolic tracks too. Due to the nature of our sport being pretty small in Singapore and with the lack of proper training facilities like a banked track in Singapore it is quite tough and I spent the last few months training full-time in Korea,” Chua added.

The team was based in South Korea since April as their search for a 200m banked track led them to the east Asian nation known for its world-class speed skaters.

Teammate Lucas, the SEA Games silver medallist in short track speed skating, hit a time of 1:31.895 which put him in 13th overall and also did not progress to the final. 

Despite the result, Lucas was proud of the team’s progress in such a short time.

“We have many (skaters), talented skaters, in Singapore who have the potential to grow into something bigger, (but) we lack the opportunities and exposure to a proper training venue and racing experience in the region or continent. Having only come together as a team the past one-and-a-half years, being able to put (together) a relay team and qualify for the Asian Games was a big win for us,” he said.

For the young roller skating team which was set up less than two years ago, participating in the Asiad gave them a taste of major Games, which only made them hungry for more.

“This was truly a great learning experience, not just with what I experienced on the track myself during the race but also what I watched in terms of how others performed in the race. In fact, I think that with everything that happened here, it has only fueled me more to want to do better, train harder and prove to myself that I can do it too,” Chua said.

Team manager and Singapore Rollersports Federation (SRF) secretary-general Shermaine Lim hoped that the team’s Asiad debut would spread the word about rollersports.

“I hope with our debut in the Asian Games, more people can know our sport better, how exciting and how fascinating it is. I truly wish for more awareness and growth in our small inline speed skating community and to hopefully groom new and young talents for the future of this sport!” Lim said.

On the team’s goals, Lim added: “Being here is already a win for us. When we began this journey to try to qualify for the Asian Games, I never expected (us) to get selected, I only wanted to try my best to ensure the team had a chance and little did we know we did. So being here is a huge win. But of course, coming here we had set a goal for ourselves which is to be top six in the Asian Games for (the 3000m) relay which we did achieve.”

The men's relay team finished sixth out of seven in the 3000m relay heats and did not advance to the final. (Photo: SNOC/ Kong Chong Yew)

In the men’s speed skating 3000m relay race heats on Monday (Oct 2), Lucas was joined by Ng Ping Siang and Chua Qi En as they finished in 4:42.712 to finish sixth out of seven, missing out on the final.

The 19th Asian Games are held in Hangzhou, China from 23 September to 8 October 2023. For the latest Team Singapore coverage and news, follow Team Singapore on their social media channels (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok) or visit the official Team Singapore website.