SINGAPORE – The Singapore Underwater Federation (SUF) submitted falsified results for the women’s 4x200m relay surface event during the selection for the 2023 SEA Games, said Sport Singapore (SportSG) and the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) in a joint statement on March 19.

A committee of inquiry (COI) was convened by the two organisations on July 1, 2024, to investigate allegations that the SUF had submitted falsified results for the relay team. The COI concluded its investigations in February.

A police report was lodged on March 18 and the Singapore Police Force confirmed that investigations are ongoing.

The committee was chaired by Lau Kok Keng, a partner at law firm Rajah & Tann and SNOC executive committee member, and comprised members from SNOC and SportSG.

In 2023, Singapore sent 11 fin swimmers to the Cambodia Games, including the relay team comprising Bernice Ting, Jovita Ho, Jamie Ang and Vanessa Ong. They finished last out of four in the women’s 4x200m surface relay final.

Fin swimming is an underwater sport involving swimming on the water’s surface or underwater using either monofins or bi-fins.

The SUF oversees all underwater sport and activities and competitions in Singapore. These include disciplines such as fin swimming, underwater hockey, freediving, scuba diving and snorkelling.

When contacted, SUF’s former vice-president of sport Desmond Ho – who is the father of swimmer Jovita – said he was only informed on March 18 of the suspension of his National Registry of Coaches (NROC) swimming licence and would wait to see “what’s the process for SNOC”.

According to Ho, the federation had initially wanted to send the men and women’s relay teams to a competition in Malaysia in January 2023 to clock qualifying times for the Games. However, only the men’s team competed as the women stayed here for the inter-varsity Games.

He claimed that sport manager and coach Faiz Suhaimi had submitted the results to SNOC for their appeal for more fin swimmers to be included in the SEA Games contingent.

“During the time of appeal, something went wrong. Everybody started to put blame on me, because I’m the one who gave them (sport managers) the results, and then something is wrong,” said Ho.

Noting that he did not check the results as they were “very short on time” for the appeal submission, he added that “there was an error that there was a girls’ team included, and the manager just kept it in”.

When contacted, Faiz said in a joint statement with assistant coach Gary Lee, Ting, Ang and Ong: “As this matter is currently under investigation by the Singapore Police Force, we have full confidence in the authorities and trust that the process will be carried out thoroughly and fairly.

“We are committed to cooperating fully with the investigation and respecting its integrity. We firmly believe that, with time, the truth will prevail.”

Jovita said separately: “It’s not the athlete’s problem. They’re (SNOC) just trying to find out whether we were aware of what was going on from the management within the federation.

“We were registered for the Malaysia competition, but we did not go. So I’m not sure how the timings appeared there.”

According to the SNOC’s selection criteria for the 2023 Games published on its website, athletes who achieve at least third place in terms of time, distance, score, or mark at the 2021 SEA Games will be considered. For team sports, they must be ranked third among the SEA Games countries.

Those who marginally miss the qualifying standard but “show potential to equal or surpass it” in time for the Games may also be considered.

Responding to ST’s queries, SNOC and SportSG said that “the onus is on the national sports associations (NSAs) to submit accurate and authentic supporting documents and data points”.

“In this case, the Singapore Underwater Federation had deliberately abused the system, going to the extent of fabricating the results sheet for an event that the athletes did not even participate in.

“Given the volume of entries, SNOC and SportSG conduct sample checks to verify submissions. While these checks will not cover every data point, they are applied systematically to detect inconsistencies.

“The primary responsibility still rests with the associations to ensure that all data submitted is accurate, truthful, and upholds the integrity of the selection process. No system will be able to fully eliminate the risk of false reporting, and SUF had abused the system deliberately and intentionally.”

Aside from the falsified results, the COI also “identified areas of poor governance and a failure within SUF” to report wrongdoings of those involved.

“SNOC and SportSG do not condone any acts that undermine the integrity of the Major Games selection process,” said the statement.

“We take this opportunity to remind our sporting community to uphold the highest standards of professionalism and integrity in their conduct.”

The statement also said that the SUF had its membership revoked by the SNOC in December 2023 after its suspension by its international federation on a separate matter.

SportSG has also suspended support to the administrators, athletes and the NROC membership of the coaches who were involved.

They added: “To better protect our systems and processes against abuse, fraud, and any other non-compliant acts, all NSAs will be required to undertake an additional declaration to authenticate all relevant Major Games selection-related supporting documents submitted on SportSync (an integrated platform used by SportSG and NSAs for the management of sport data).

“SportSG will also step up sample checks to verify the authenticity of all supporting documents and data points.”

Asia News Network/The Straits Times