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SINGAPORE : The badminton team from Xinmin Secondary School is intensifying its training to qualify for the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in 2010.
Its all-girl badminton B division team has already made a name for itself by winning many titles.
The badminton team from Xinmin Secondary School emerged as National Champions in the inter-school tournament in 2007 and 2008.
The school also grabbed the top spot at the single and double categories at this year's inter-school Pilot Pen tournament, for under-14 players.
The school's badminton coach said that one reason why the school is doing so well is the foreign element.
In its all-girl B division team, there are players from Malaysia and Thailand.
Irene Wong, Badminton Coach, Xinmin Secondary School, said, "Non-Singaporeans play a great factor in bringing up the level of badminton in Singapore. Because of them, our badminton standard has gone up very, very high."
The foreign students said they chose Xinmin Secondary after hearing about its reputation in both academics and badminton.
Aurkarn Vattanapoon, a Secondary 2 student who is in the badminton team, said, "I heard that Xinmin is a good school with a good badminton team. I wanted to learn in a good environment and (where) I can improve in badminton."
Some of the players were either transferred from another school, or entered through Direct Schools Admissions (DSA) because of the school's excellent programme in badminton.
Tong Jia Le, a Secondary 3 student who is in the badminton team, said, "I came through DSA because of my coach's recommendation and other people's recommendations."
Another student in the badminton team, Beverly Tee, who is in Secondary 4, said, "I was transferred to Xinmin from Paya Lebar (Methodist Girls') and slowly as the years go by, I feel that Xinmin has improved a lot. The team has also improved a lot. We emerged as champions last year and again this year."
Xinmin Secondary is now selecting new players for its B division team next year. - CNA/ms
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