The BMX National Championships were held in Singapore on Saturday. Hopefully this will allow the Singapore Cycling Federation (SACA's new name) to choose someone to represent Singapore overseas in the SEA Games. It can be done and I will tell you why. A select few of us pushed with almighty odds to send riders to Australia in 2003. We succeeded. But when the medals did not come in, the powers that be decided to stop funding for BMX and only concentrate on road and mountainbike riding. The result of that was that our track got eroded and we had no funds to maintain it. It became un-rideable. Also, with no budget, we could not hold any races. That is partly the reason Singapore does not have any BMX riders now. The sins of the past will haunt the present and the Catch 22 situation will always be there till someone makes the grade. And after viewing video footage of the BMX National Championships here in Singapore, our riders have a long, long way to go. They do not have the speed and confidence. And it does not help that there are some out there who are exploiting the sport too, to make money out of it. Some have confessed to me and one even took some of the old-schoolers for a ride, literally. They know who they are and that is why we are wary of working with them.
Riders need more exposure to BMX riders from other countries. Many of us, the old-schoolers, have faced very talented overseas riders back then and have honed our skills. So is Singapore serious about sending riders to compete overseas? Then have more BMX competitions. Find riders who can and will ride and are disciplined. Our current crop of riders need to up their stakes. And the only way they can match their skills against the best is to have more competitions overseas or organise international meetups here. Other wise, it will just be a waste of time.
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