by Leonard Lim

Most teenage girls would probably not need painkillers - and avoid them anyway, because of side-effects like nausea.

But, to national gymnasts Lim Heem Wei, Sarah Ng, and twins Tabitha and Nicole Tay, popping the pills every few months is second nature when they compete because of the high injury rate.

'Mostly, the pain doesn't go away but it's a psychological thing that helps you focus.'

She and her teammates overcame the pain barrier in Doha last Sunday to finish third in their debut at the Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships.

Dislocated shoulders, torn meniscus, fractured fingers and feet, and compressed vertebrae after landing on their heads are some of the injuries they have suffered in the high-risk sport.

'We've chalked up at least 100 sprains between us,' said Heem Wei who, at 19, is the oldest.

Her left foot was injured in Doha and she walked with the aid of crutches yesterday, yet the team captain was still working on her upper body in training.

Injuries and painkillers' long-term effects are just some of the sacrifices the boisterous foursome have had to put up with, in their journey from being laughing stocks in South-east Asia at the start of the decade to one of Asia's best.

Despite their heavy school workload, they have trained nearly every day since taking up the sport about 10 years ago. They even exercise while on family holidays.

'If not, we lose our rhythm and coming back is hard,' said Tabitha, the younger of the twins by seven minutes. Both 17-year-old sisters study at Raffles Junior College.

Nanyang Polytechnic student Heem Wei, a veteran of four South-east Asia Games from 2001 to last year, remembers well her debut when local gymnasts were no better than a kampung team.

Routines were not completed because of inadequate training, and the Republic finished fifth in the 2001 Games.

Problems within the national sports association around the turn of the decade also made matters worse.

Subsequently, the then-Singapore Amateur Gymnastics Association was de-affiliated from the Singapore National Olympic Council for not having at least five affiliates and lacking new blood in its leadership.

It thus received minimal public funding. The 100-odd trainees, from elite to beginners, had to foot around $200 monthly for coaches and gym rentals.

Recalled Hwa Chong Institution student Sarah, 17: 'Self-doubt and the thought of quitting often cropped up.'

To help them, a Singapore Sports Council-initiated SEA Games Preparation Committee was established, and it pumped in over $100,000 in subsidies.

The money helped Heem Wei and Co to rise from the ashes. They trained doubly hard, repaying the committee's belief with a surprise team silver at the 2003 SEA Games.

It was gymnastics' first international success since Jacquelyn Choy's 1993 bronze in the vault.

Team golds followed in 2005 and last year, along with individual golds and silvers.

Today, their driving force is to become the Republic's first gymnastics team to compete in the Asian Games (Guangzhou) and Commonwealth Games (New Delhi) in 2010.

Said Tabitha: 'Years ago, a teacher told me to be realistic when I said my ambition was to win a SEA Games gold. I was so angry.

'Now, we've shown we can do it - twice - despite all the difficulties. Our dreams have since become bigger.'

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