Three Former Singapore Underwater Federation Coaches Charged Over Falsified SEA Games Results

Three former coaches of the Singapore Underwater Federation (SUF) are to be charged today for falsifying fin-swimming results for the 2023 SEA Games athlete selection.

According to a Straits Times report, police said yesterday that their investigation showed the three coaches had allegedly falsified the results of SUF athletes at an overseas fin swimming event. The coaches are being charged in court with abetment by conspiracy to commit forgery for the purpose of cheating, and face fines and up to 10 years in jail. The report did not give the names of the three coaches.

The initial report was submitted to law enforcement back in March of last year by the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) about the false results.

The report stated that the SUF submitted false results for the women’s 200m relay surface event during selection for the 2023 SEA Games, and that same team later finished last in the relay at the competition in Cambodia.

According to the Straits Times report, police said the three men allegedly conspired to submit a document containing these falsified results to the SNOC to appeal for the inclusion of these athletes in the Games. which, as a result, sent six athletes to compete in Cambodia.

The SNOC, in partnership with Sport Singapore, released a joint statement yesterday stating that it does not condone any actions that compromise the integrity of the selection process for these major competitions.

“We take this opportunity to remind our sporting community to uphold the highest standards of professionalism and integrity in their conduct,” said the SNOC.

According to SUF’s former vice-president of sport Desmond Ho, the father of one of the swimmers who was on that relay team Jovita Ho (as reported in a March 2025 report from the Straits Times), the SUF initially wanted to snd men’s and women’s team to a competition in Malaysia in January of 2023 to earn qualifying times for the SEA Games. But the women’s team stayed back for the inter-varsity games.

He claimed that the results that were submitted for an appeal to get more fin swimmers into the SEA Games were submitted by the sport manager and coach Faiz Suhaimi. Ho added that he did not check the results due to a shortage of time to submit the appeal.

“There was an error that there was a girls’ team included, and the manager just kept it in,” Ho said in that 2025 report.

“It’s not the athlete’s problem. They’re (SNOC) just trying to find out whether we were aware of what was going on from the management within the federation.” Jovita said in that same report. “We were registered for the Malaysia competition, but we did not go. So I’m not sure how the timings appeared there.”