Amid a raucous atmosphere in the Chatchai Hall on the last day of the ASEAN Para Games Boccia competition, it was telepathy between Singapore’s Nurulasyiqah Mohammad Taha and Aloysius Gan that prevailed as they secured a crucial 3-1 win over world no.12 Thailand duo, Ladamanee Kla Han and Withun Chanthakhat, enroute to the BC3 mixed pairs gold.
“We trained a lot on communication because Aloysius is non-verbal. So I have to learn the language of Aloysius. That’s our secret language here,” Nurulasyiqah said.
On Sunday (Jan 25), the “secret language” came into play as the duo remained calm despite the partisan and vocal support for the hosts to see out a nervy encounter.
“Going into today’s match, we expected the crowd to be very loud because Thailand is on home ground,” Nurulasyiqah said. “We knew that it would affect our communication because I can’t project my voice loud enough, so that’s where our telepathy came into place, and things fell into place.”
She also credited the cheers from a small contingent of Singapore supporters in the stands for pushing them on throughout their match.
Just two days after they both snagged gold in the individual events, the pair found themselves in another gold-medal decider.
After two ends, the tie was locked firmly at 1-1. The Singaporeans restored the advantage in the third end to go 2-1 up overall. Even with three balls in hand, the Thais struggled to find an answer to a well-placed fourth ball by Gan in the final, as the Singaporeans wrapped up their final match with a win.
APG gold is yet another milestone for the fast-rising world no.10 pair who have struck up an impressive partnership since joining forces in 2024.
At the 2024 Taipei City World Boccia Cup, they clinched Singapore’s first-ever World Cup pairs medal in the BC3 category. They improved on that less than a year later at the 2025 Beijing World Boccia Cup, underlining their credentials as they headed into this year’s APG.
“We spent a lot of time in training, working on communication, so that in competition, we can understand each other. Sometimes he just looks at me, and we know what to do. I do this shot, then he does that shot. All the training has paid off,” the 41-year-old Paralympian said.
“It’s a long process, but we are getting better at communicating and reading each other’s minds. Boccia is a timed game, so every second counts. And I think, although this is at the ASEAN level, we are very privileged because we have a lot of good players in ASEAN for us to spar with. So this is a good warm-up for the year ahead.”
