Skip to main content
Best News Website or Mobile Service
WAN-IFRA Digital Media Awards Worldwide 2022
Best News Website or Mobile Service
Digital Media Awards Worldwide 2022
Hamburger Menu

Advertisement

Advertisement

Singapore

Elite male athletes serving NS eligible for Sports Excellence Scholarship from this year

Elite male athletes serving NS eligible for Sports Excellence Scholarship from this year

Singapore's Quah Zheng Wen during the men's 100m Butterfly heats at the Tokyo Olympics on Jul 29, 2021. (Photo: Team Singapore)

SINGAPORE: Elite male athletes can now look forward to more financial and training support under the Sport Excellence Scholarship while serving their National Service from this year.

Previously, athletes were not eligible for the scholarship while serving NS.

Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong made the announcement on Wednesday (Apr 12) at an event held at the National Stadium to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the scholarship.

"We see many of our athletes go through National Service and continue to fly the flag whilst they are in National Service. We want to make a commitment to recognise them even as they go through National Service,” he said.

“We will support them to remain competitive,” he added.

From this year, Sport Excellence scholars who are entering NS will remain on the scholarship programme as long as they continue to deliver and perform, he added.

Under the programme, scholars receive monthly allowances of up to around S$8,000, as well as support in education, sports science and nutrition.

The revision will see national swimmers Quah Zheng Wen, Darren Chua, and Jonathan Tan return to the programme.

They had relinquished their scholarships upon enlistment. Mr Tong highlighted Mr Zheng in particular, noting that he has been a Sports Excellence Scholarship recipient for nine years. He enlisted in NS in 2021 when his deferment period ended, Mr Tong noted.

COMMITMENT TO SPORTING ASPIRATIONS

Singapore Sports Institute chief Su Chun Wei said that the change signals Singapore’s commitment to both NS and the sporting aspirations of athletes.

“We can continue to monitor them, support them and the transition out of NS will be more seamless and they can continue to perform well at the kind of levels that we want them to be, at the Asia or the world level even after NS,” he said.

Athletes require a level of training to maintain a certain level of competitiveness, Mr Su noted.

“We will calibrate this according to what is minimally required and work with MINDEF (Ministry of Defence), Home Team … to make a plan that is both fulfilling the NS obligations and also their training and competition,” he said.

“It varies from sport to sport. Not all sports require the same amount of time or sessions,” he said, adding that such details will be calibrated based on the athlete's performance profile and potential.

LARGEST COHORT OF RECIPIENTS

At the event, 105 athletes from 24 sports were unveiled as recipients of the scholarship, the largest cohort since the programme was launched in 2013.

The Singapore Sports Institute’s Mr Su said that this year's athletes represent a combination of good performance potential.

“This represents an elevation of the overall performance levels of our athletes at Asia and at the world level,” he said.

The youngest recipient of the Sport Excellence Scholarship this year is fencer Elle Koh.

He added that the scholarship programme is paying dividends given that more athletes are hitting the right performance profile and potential to excel.

The youngest recipient this year is fencer Elle Koh. The 15-year-old Southeast Asian Games champion said that the scholarship is a timely boost.

With the scholarship funding, she has more opportunities to train, she said.

“There’s training with people overseas and having more experience with fencing other fencers will help me improve and learn more,” she said.

She added that the support also means the ability to maintain her health and recover from injuries. She recently sustained an ankle injury and had access to sports medicine and physiotherapy professionals, she said.

Over the past decade, the scholarship has supported over 200 athletes and produced 13 world champions.

It helped Singapore win a total of 25 world championship titles.

Source: CNA/ja(ca)

Advertisement

Also worth reading

Advertisement