Commonwealth Games: Paddlers and shooters to lead Singapore's gold hunt once more

Shooter Martina Veloso said: "My training has gone well and I'mfeeling good. The team is relaxed and we want to do well."

The absence of Joseph Schooling in Australia has left TeamSingapore looking to familiar sources for gold medals at theCommonwealth Games, which start with tonight's openingceremony.

While the 100m butterfly Olympic champion's form has beeninconsistent of late, Schooling's pedigree meant he would have beenamong the favourites for his pet event on the Gold Coast.

Instead, it is left to the Republic's paddlers and shooters todo the heavy lifting. Both sports have combined to win anincredible 24 Commonwealth titles from the past three Games andshould increase that haul over the next fortnight.

The Singapore Table Tennis Association has targeted a cleansweep of all seven events at the Oxenford Studios, while shootersJasmine Ser (50m rifle three positions) and Teo Shun Xie (10m airpistol) are aiming to extend their reign as Commonwealthchampions.

Fellow shooter Martina Veloso, who beat Ser to win the 10m airrifle event at last year's SEA Games and bagged two bronzes at lastOctober's Commonwealth Shooting Championships, a test event for theGames, also fancies her chances.

The 18-year-old said: "My training has gone well and I'm feelinggood. The team is relaxed and we want to do well."

Singapore chef de mission Mark Chay is leading the 60-athletecontingent, which is relatively inexperienced at this level.

Two-thirds, or 40 of them, are making their Commonwealth Gamesdebut. This includes all four para-athletes - the 2002 ManchesterGames were the first major multi-sport event to includepara-athletes in the main sports programme - with Paralympicmedallists Yip Pin Xiu and Theresa Goh not making the trip DownUnder as their events were not offered.

While the paddlers and shooters are under pressure to delivermedals, Chay stressed this did not alleviate the expectations onthe other nine sports. He said: "Everyone is here on merit and theywant to do well.

"For a lot of them, this is a step up in terms of the level ofopposition, but I'm hopeful we'll see some surprises from ourathletes."

Schooling won a silver in the 100m fly at Glasgow 2014, whichwas Singapore's first medal in swimming at the quadrennial meet. Arepeat of a podium finish from the trio of Darren Lim, Quah TingWen and Roanne Ho at the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre is unlikely.

Ho, however, believes she is in the right form to break her 50mbreaststroke national record of 31.29sec and record a sub-31 swim,which would make her a podium contender.

Only the top three finishers at the 2014 edition managed tobreak 31sec in the final.

Stephan Widmer, national head coach and performance director,said: "The swimmers are as ready as the preparations have allowedthem to be... One of the main aims here is... for them to come backfrom the Games better, with more experience for the future races inmind, especially with the Asian Games coming up later thisyear."

The Singapore Badminton Association is also looking long term.The 10-player squad, with an average age of just 22.1 is theyoungest the country has sent to the Games.

The national shuttlers have won medals at every Games since2002. Four years ago, now-retired Derek Wong (men's singles) andmen's doubles pair Danny Bawa Chrisnanta and Chayut Triyachart wonsilvers and Singapore bagged a bronze in the mixed team event.

World No. 103 and Games debutante Grace Chua is under noillusions about the task ahead but added: "I am very excitedbecause it is one of the biggest Games that I have been to; I am abit nervous to be on such a big stage and I am hoping to dowell.

"We are prepared and confident but, at the same time we cannotbe overconfident."