After nearly three decades at its helm, Paul Chua stepped down as president of the Singapore Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation (SBBF) at last Saturday's Annual General Meeting.
Stepping up will be Richard Teng, an SBBF vice-president since 1989. His main priority will be to continue Chua's work of helping Singapore become a top 10 sporting nation in Asia by 2010, Teng told Today at yesterday's 2007 National Junior, Men's Masters and Classic Bodybuilding Championship at the West Coast Recreation Centre.
"We will continue with our strategic plan of helping Singapore become one of Asia's top 10 sporting nations in three years' time," said Teng, 62. "This will involve us stepping up our efforts to spot and develop new talent, and to help us achieve this, we're seeking more establishments such as the community centres to become SBBF affiliates.
"Presently, we have about 17 affiliates. So if there were more, it would mean more clubs could send their bodybuilders to compete in local meets and increase the talent base."
Teng also revealed that the SBBF will soon be setting targets for the sport in the next few years up until 2010. This would include the 24th South-east Asia (SEA) Games in Korat, Thailand (Dec 6-15).
Bodybuilding was dropped from the Games' competition roster last year but was reinstated earlier this month.
Apart from the women's Miss Fitness category, the men's category will feature four weight classes in the 55kg (light-flyweight), 60kg (flyweight), 70kg (lightweight) and 80kg (light-middleweight).
Singapore is expected to send a five-strong squad — four men and one woman — to the SEA Games. At the last SEA Games in Manila in 2005, Singapore won two gold medals through Ibrahim Sihat (60kg) and Simon Chua (70kg), and a bronze from Vincent Ng (55kg).
On this year's medal target, Teng said: "The SBBF executive committee will meet later this month to decide on this as well as on other issues moving forward."
Meanwhile, Chua will remain as the SBBF's honorary life president and advisor.
Chua cited heavy work commitments as the main reason for him stepping down 29 years after he was first elected SBBF chief in 1978. He is currently the secretary-general of the Asian Bodybuilding Federation and Commonwealth Bodybuilding Federation, as well as the International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness (IFBB) vice-president for Asia.
Last October, he was also elected executive assistant to International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness (IFBB) president Rafael Santonja at the IFBB Congress in Ostrava, the Czech Republic.
"You know, I have not watched a movie in a cinema with my wife for 25 years because of my work commitments!" said Chua. "For the past few years, I've been searching for a successor to take over. The sport needs new people to come in and, hopefully, I can now spend a bit more time with my family."
Chua added that he will not interfere with the day-to-day running of the SBBF.
"Unless the SBBF ask me to help resolve an issue, I will not interfere with how they run things," said Chua.
Chua will now focus on raising Singapore's profile in the sport in his role as executive assistant to the IFBB president — the world's second-highest post in bodybuilding. He said: "Singapore is already prominent in Asian bodybuilding. So hopefully my new role in the IFBB will help bring more events to Singapore."
