WHERE THERE'S A WHEEL, THERE'S A WAY

What does it take to turn your life around after being hit by a debilitating condition that robs you of your life and livelihood? A wheelchair, a sports team and a whole lot of spunk. Former cabby Mikail Wong tells ST how the high-contact Paralympic sport of wheelchair rugby won his heart and gave him a new reason to live.

- Shintaro Tay Photojournalist

Ball in hand, Mr Mikail Wong has to decide - pass it on or try to score. Hesitate, and clank! - an opponent crashes into him, blocking his path.

Collisions are common in wheelchair rugby, a high-contact Paralympic sport where two mixed-gender teams of four aim to carry the ball across their opponents' goal line.

"I don't feel like a disabled person playing a sport, I feel normal," the 47-year-old says.

He says the game, also known as murderball, requires strategy and synergy between players, like "having Bluetooth" connection with one another.

Mr Wong plays for the Wheelchair Rugby Association of Singapore (WRAS), competing in regional friendlies and tournaments. Their goal is to achieve a podium finish at the Asean Para Games 2029, to be held in Singapore.

Mr Wong's wife Siti Nooraini Abdul Manaf, 42, is also in on the action. On the sidelines of each twice-a-week three-hour training session, she is busy with wrenches and spanners, helping to fix and maintain the team's sports wheelchairs as a volunteer technical assistant for the WRAS. Amid her tasks, she sneaks glances at her husband, cheering him on as he makes his way across the court, her pride visible in her soft smile.

The couple married in 2004 and have a 21-year-old daughter.

Watching Mr Wong - charging, passing, laughing - it's hard to imagine who he was just five years ago.