Singapore to host SEA Games in 2015

Singapore will host the 2015 edition of the SEA Games

Patwant Singh, Channel News Asia, 12 Nov 2011

This was confirmed at the SEA Games Federation council meeting on Saturday in Palembang, where Singapore were the only member nation to submit an official bid.

This will be the fourth time Singapore will host the Games after the Lion City last staged it in 1993.

Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean, who is also President of the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC), announced the news to reporters at the Jakabaring Aquatics Complex.

Mr Teo was one of the heads of the regional National Olympic Committees who attended the meeting.

Cambodia were also considering to bid for the 2015 Games, but will now make a possible bid for the 2017 edition.

The next SEA Games in 2013 will be held in Myanmar.

DPM Teo said: "It's very different from the YOG (Youth Olympic Games). The YOG had many different countries participating but each one has a small contingent. We will have slightly more athletes than the YOG, but there will be fewer contingents of course - 11 contingents, but many more athletes for each contingent."

The new sports complex at Kallang, being built at a cost of $1.33 billion, will be ready by 2014.

Singapore first hosted the regional event, then known as the Seap Games, in 1973.

It opened its doors to the SEA Games twice before, in 1983 and 1993. It won a record 50 gold medals at the last edition on home soil.

'There's a lot of work to be done - preparing the venues, and also growing a new generation of athletes to come forward,' Mr Teo added. 'I hope that hosting the Games will give them the inspiration to win medals for us on home ground in 2015.'