Water polo men's next aim is Asian Games medal

Not satisfied with being big fish in the small Southeast Asian pond, the Singapore men’s water polo team shifted their sights to an Asiad podium spot just minutes after beating Indonesia 19-16 to claim their 29th SEA Games gold in 30 editions.

- David Lee Senior Sports Correspondent

“Next up is rest but next year, we are definitely looking at a medal place at the Asian Games,” said skipper Sanjiv Rajandra, 23, following the victory at the Thammasat University on Dec 19.

There is reason for such optimism despite a fifth-place finish at the last Asiad in 2023. They have had a fine season which featured a historic match win in their World Aquatics Championships debut to finish 15th out of 16 teams.

With an eye on the future, Singapore coach Kan Aoyagi made sweeping changes to the 15-man squad, which comprise 11 SEA Games debutants with an average age of 20.5. Only Cayden Loh and Darren Lee were from the 2023 gold-winning squad, while Goh Wen Zhe and Jayden See made amends for their surprise bronze in 2019.

Noting that he would not be making major changes to the team ahead of the Aichi-Nagoya Asiad, Aoyagi said: “We have a long journey because we want to get a medal at the Asian Games and one day we want to be top of Asia.”