The Cerebral Palsy will bring home the silver medal in seven-a-side football after a spirited performance throughout the competition
The Singapore Cerebral Palsy (CP) team have clinched the silver medal at the 7th Asean Para Games in Myanmar after three days of grueling competition.
The sport is being played at the competition for the first time, and Singapore’s CP team participated in the seven-a-side tournament in Naypyidaw.
Following 5-1 and 3-2 wins over Thailand and Malaysia respectively, Singapore headed into their final group game against Myanmar on Sunday having secured a silver medal at least. The team put up a valiant performance against the hosts, but were ultimately outclassed 2-0.
Despite failing to take the gold, Singapore coach Mohamed Zainudeen was over the moon with his boys.
“For our team, this attainment is a great achievement,” he told Goal Singapore. “The tournament has showed that other teams are actually sleeping giants in CP football as they have many more people with CP.”
Zainudeen went on to highlight the limited talent pool of CP players here, as well as the stringent classification process they have to undergo. This sees them being categorised according to their levels of disability; the lower the number, the more severe the condition. The rules place a limit on the number of players from each category that can be fielded in a team during a game.
“Teams can register a max of 14 players, with 12 to be registered for each game,” he explained.
“But we only registered 12 players as we had no choice – we do not have any more players despite continuously looking. It’s not just CP footballers or athletes; it’s simply just difficult to find people with CP. Some may not qualify for classification reasons due to their medical conditions.
“Each team must start with at least one Class 5/6 player in a game and one Class 8 player. All teams usually only have one Class 5 player. But we have four Class 5 boys within the 12 registered.”
With other teams having more players with higher classes, that means a competitive disadvantage for Singapore.
“So, imagine the challenge for me: the Games being a competitive setting, I can’t just allow the Class 5s to play – we will get whacked,” he explained.
“But the other teams can change players and they would be able to use Class 6 and 7 ones; we don’t have that luxury.”
As such, it is no wonder Zainudeen is proud of his team.
“I salute the heroes who endured, especially the Class 7 and 8 players who had to last the entire 60 minutes.
“It is not easy for these guys because they have to compensate for the lesser Class players.”
In spite of the difficulties, Zainudeen is undaunted as he turns his attention towards preparing for the 2015 Para Games, which will be held in on home soil.
“We need to recruit more people with such CP conditions and start early preparations for 2015 Singapore,” he said, having earlier expressed hope that their participation this time will help raise awareness of the sport.
The Singapore CP side will arrive in Singapore on Tuesday at Changi Airport Terminal 2, with the estimated arrival time at 9.30p.m.
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Singapore coach Zainudeen: "Great" achievement to finish second at Asean Para ...
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