33 para athletes to represent Singapore in Asian Para Games, including 17-year-old Boccia player

Seventeen athletes will make their Asian Para Games (APG) debut for Team Singapore in October.

The list of 33 athletes selected to take part in the Games at Hangzhou, China, was announced on Tuesday (Aug 1) by the Singapore National Paralympic Council.

Singapore will take part in nine sports –  archery, athletics, badminton, boccia, lawn bowls, powerlifting, shooting, swimming and table tennis.

The 17 debutants are James Ethan Ang Kai Meng, Lionel Toh Jun Jie, Maisarah Mohamed Hassan, Maveric Lee Dong En, Muhammad Nur Ariq Yaakub, Shaman Pandian Jeyabalan (all Athletics), Ang Chee Hiong (Badminton), Aloysius Gan Kai Hong (Boccia), James Joseph Michael, Khirmern Mohamad, Mahendran Pasupathy (all Lawn Bowls), Chan Han Siong (Shooting), Colin Soon Jin Guang, Darren Chan Wei Siang, Jazlene Tan Shihui, Han Liang Chou (all Swimming) and Claire Toh Shu Min (Table Tennis).

The youngest member of the Singapore contingent is 17-year-old Aloysius, who won a silver and a bronze medal in Boccia at the ASEAN Para Games earlier this year. Last month, he was also crowned champion in the BC3 individuals (male) category at the inaugural World Boccia Youth Championships.

“Although I am the youngest in the contingent and there are many stronger players, I will do my best to make Singapore proud,” he said.

Other athletes to have made the cut include five-time Paralympic gold medallist Yip Pin Xiu and powerlifter Nur Aini Bte Mohamad Yasli.

At the recent ASEAN Para Games, Aini won Singapore’s first-ever medals – two bronzes – in powerlifting.

Team Singapore’s oldest athlete is 76-year-old lawn bowler Mahendran Pasupathy.

“As the oldest athlete in the group and someone who only took up the sport in my seventies, it fills me with a sense of pride and accomplishment to have come this far.”

At the last APG held in Jakarta in 2018, Team Singapore won 10 medals — three golds, two silvers and five bronzes – across 10 sports.

The forthcoming edition of the Asian Para Games was originally scheduled for Oct 9-15 last year, but was rescheduled to 2023 owing to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is the second time China will host the APG after the successful staging of the first edition of the Games in Guangzhou in 2010.