Advertisement

WEEKLY ROUND-UP: Sports happenings in Singapore (29 Nov - 5 Dec)

Para-swimmer Colin Soon with his two golds won at the 2021 Asian Youth Para Games in Bahrain. (PHOTO: Singapore National Paralympic Council)
Para-swimmer Colin Soon with his first two golds won at the 2021 Asian Youth Para Games in Bahrain. (PHOTO: Singapore National Paralympic Council)

SINGAPORE — Here is a round-up of sports events and developments in Singapore in the past week (29 November to 5 December):

Colin Soon clinches first 2 golds for Singapore at Asian Youth Para Games

Para-swimmer Colin Soon clinched three of Singapore's first four gold medals at the 2021 Asian Youth Para Games, winning in the S11-13 400m freestyle, the S13 100m breaststroke and the S11-13 200m individual medley (men's 12-16 age category) events in Bahrain.

The 16-year-old, who has cone-rod dystrophy, clocked a national record 5min 0.64sec in the S11-13 400m freestyle race to finish ahead of Iran's A. Farkhondehzad (5:53.92) and Ali Hassanzadeh (6:16.23). on Saturday (4 December) He had also held the previous national record of 5:01.27, which was set just last month at the SPH Foundation National Inclusive Time Trial.

Colin followed up with his second gold medal in the S13 100m breaststroke final an hour later, clocking 1:14.53 to finish well ahead of another Iranian duo, M. Reyhani (1:42.43) and Seyed Mousavi (1:42.76).

On Sunday, he clocked another national record of 2:32.19 in the S11-13 200m individual medley to clinch his third gold of the Games.

The Mayflower Secondary student had won two bronze medals in the S11-13 100m backstroke and freestyle races in the previous Asian Youth Para Games in Dubai in 2017.

Debutant Aloysius Gan added a fourth gold for Singapore on Satuday, beating South Korea's Jeong Si-on in the boccia BC3 men's individual event on a tie-break, after the score was tied at 3-3. Singapore also won a silver from sprinter Siti Nurhayati Ali Aksar Khan in the women's Under-20 T20 400m, a silver from paddler Caleb Lee in the men's mixed team (Class T6-8) event, and a bronze from swimmer Darren Chan in the S14 200m freestyle (men's 16-18 category).

Feng Tianwei falls to world No.1 at WTT Cup Finals

Singapore paddler Feng Tianwei exited from the World Table Tennis (WTT) Cup Finals women's singles event on Sunday (5 December), when she lost 0-3 (6-11, 5-11, 7-11) to world No.1 Chen Meng in the quarter-finals at the OCBC Arena.

The 35-year-old veteran, who is currently world No.12, has won only two of her 10 previous meetings against Chen. Their previous clash was in November last year at the promotional WTT Macau showcase, where Feng lost 3-1.

Earlier on Saturday, Feng had beaten South Korea's world No.15 Jeon Ji-hee 3-1 (11-6, 11-8, 8-11, 11-5) in the round-of-16. Chen had defeated Japan's Kasumi Ishikawa 3-1 (11-8, 9-11, 11-5, 12-10) to also advance.

Only the top 16 men's and women's singles players make the cut for this inaugural event, which ends on Tuesday.

Runners at the 5km category of the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2021 being flagged off at Marina Bay. (PHOTO: IRONMAN Group)
Runners at the 5km category of the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2021 being flagged off at Marina Bay. (PHOTO: IRONMAN Group)

In-person mass running makes return at StandChart Singapore Marathon

A total of 4,000 runners participated in the Grand Finale of the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon (SCSM) 2021 over the weekend, marking the return of in-person mass participation running events. The runners took part in three categories: the 5km, 10km and the Toyota Ekiden (team of four).

Safe management measures for the marathon included having a capacity limit of 1,000 runners per session and splitting the runners into groups of 500, and again waves of 50 with three runners being released every 10 seconds. Each participant also had to take a self-administered antigen rapid test.

This year also marked Standard Chartered Bank’s 20th year in being title sponsors of the Singapore Marathon. In addition to Grand Finale participants receiving a specially-designed T-shirt for participants of the Grand Finale, the event was also broadcast live by Mediacorp on Saturday (4 December).

The SCSM will continue with the VR Grand Finale virtual categories which end on 12 December. Interested participants can still sign up for free and be part in one or more of the following categories: the VR Marathon, half-marathon, 10km, 5km, kids VR 3km and 1.5km.

Yeo Jia Min withdraws with injury at BWF World Tour Finals

Singapore shuttler Yeo Jia Min pulled out of the Badminton World Federation World Tour Finals after retiring from her second match at the season-ending tournament in Bali on Thursday (2 December).

The world No.17, who became the first Singaporean to qualify for the World Tour Finals, was trailing 7-21, 9-15 to Thai world No.12 Busanan Ongbamrungphan before she retired with a right knee injury. The defeat followed a 11-21, 14-21 loss to Japan's world No. 3 Akane Yamaguchi on Wednesday.

She still earned US$9,000 (S$12,300) for making the World Tour Finals, which features only the top eight singles and doubles performers of the calendar year.

Daryl Low (second from left) and Shannon Tan (second from right) clinched the Open boys' and girls' division titles respectively at the EFG Singapore Junior Masters tournament. (PHOTO: EFG Singapore Junior Masters)
Daryl Low (second from left) and Shannon Tan (second from right) clinched the Open boys' and girls' division titles respectively at the EFG Singapore Junior Masters tournament. (PHOTO: EFG Singapore Junior Masters)

Daryl Low, Shannon Tan clinch Open titles at EFG Singapore Junior Masters

Singapore youth golfers Daryl Low and Shannon Tan clinched the Open boys' and girls' division titles respectively at the EFG Singapore Junior Masters, which was held at the Laguna National Golf and Country Club from Monday to Wednesday (29 November to 1 December).

Daryl, 16, fired a one-under-par 71 in his final round for a three-day total of one-under 215 for a commanding eight-shot win over second-placed Ethan Lim, who signed for a 74 in his final round. India's Jayaditya Saluja (223) came in third at the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) points-earning junior event.

Shannon, 17, closed with a 77 for her win, six shots ahead of Samantha Dizon from the Philippines, who carded a 67 to take second place. Hong Kong's Arianna Lau, 14, came in third in the Open category with a 222 total, but topped the Under-15 girls' division.

Over 70 youth golfers representing Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, China, India, the United States, Britain, Germany and South Korea, as well as 14 world amateur ranked players teed off for the three-day tournament.

Floorball women's national team finish 14th at world championship

Singapore finished 14th out of 16 teams at the Women's World Floorball Championship in Uppsala, Sweden, after a 1-2 defeat by Estonia on Thursday (2 December). They did not match their best-ever 12th-place finish achieved in 2019.

In the opening group stage, the national women's floorball team drew 5-5 with Russia but lost to Estonia (3-4) and Norway (2-4) and did not advance into the knockout stages.

In the placement rounds, Singapore beat Thailand 2-1 in overtime but lost again to Estonia.

SingaporeSailing appoints new executive director

The Singapore Sailing Federation has appointed former Republic of Singapore Navy lieutenant-colonel Terence Ho as its new executive director, with effect from Wednesday (1 December). Ho takes over from Tan Thong Meng, who has decided to pursue his personal endeavours as a captain of a superyacht.

SingaporeSailing president Lincoln Chee paid tribute to Tan, who spent the past two years mapping out the ideal standard of operations for the National Sailing Centre. Tan also assisted the federation to foster closer ties with affiliates, through supporting them in their outreach programmes.

As for Ho, Chee hopes that his appointment will help the federation in achieving its goal to be a medal contender at the Olympic and World Sailing class events.

JSSL Singapore FA Cup youth tournament to be held at Our Tampines Hub

The inaugural JSSL Singapore FA Cup four-a-side youth football tournament will be held from 10 to 12 December at Our Tampines Hub. It is open for registration to vaccinated boys and girls aged 12 to 17 years old.

All games will comprise two 12-minute halves with a one-minute interval. The tournament will take place in two stages, with all teams in each age group playing in a league format on the first two days of the tournament. Teams will then enter the knock-out stage, with the top two teams in the league progressing to the Cup competition, while those who finish outside of the top two joining the Plate competition.

All participating teams will receive medals, while the overall Cup and Plate winners of each age group will walk away with a trophy.

Have a sports event to tell our users? Email us at sgnews.tips@yahooinc.com. In your email, do provide as many details as possible, including videos and photos.