Singapore sports officials' wishes for 2016
A new year brings new hope. TNP finds out what some national sports association presidents wish for in 2016
BEN TAN
SingaporeSailing
"We plan quite meticulously and my wish for sailing in 2016 is nothing too unrealistic - it is for all our plans to pan out in this Olympic year.
Olympic sailing standards are high and in 2012, we aimed to finish in the middle of the fleet instead of the stragglers, and by finishing 15th in the men's Laser class, Colin Cheng did better than expected.
We need to set a higher bar now because of our pipeline. Some of our sailors are in their second Olympic cycles now so they are no longer greenhorns and we are hoping for a top-10 finish.
For us to consistently deliver results is not easy, but we have to continue to stretch ourselves to make progress and take sailing to greater heights. The base must be healthy and we want to ensure that our clubs and schools programmes continue to be healthy and productive.
We also hope for more to participate and appreciate the sport, not just to compete, but also to understand the history, see the bigger picture and deeper meaning of sailing."
ELLEN LEE
Singapore Table Tennis Association
"My wish is simply for many more of our younger paddlers to gain more exposure in world tournaments and improve their rankings so as to provide a stronger backup.
We have already won medals at the Olympics, and it would be nice if we can medal again in Rio."
JESSIE PHUA
SingaporeBowling
"I wish our Singapore bowling teams will continue to grow in strength.
Also, I wish that our new bowling centre SingaporeBowling @ Rifle Range will be fitted with the most modern and effective training tools to aid our national keglers.
We also hope that more Singaporeans will be attracted to our new home as we work on transforming the space into a creative social and recreational destination."
LEE KOK CHOY
Singapore Swimming Association
"2015 has been a fantastic year for the aquatic fraternity and in 2016, we would like to see even more enthusiastic support for all aquatic events in Singapore.
Our athletes need all the support from the local audience, especially in the lead up to August where we would love for our swimmers to take the Rio Olympics by storm and have our best-ever Olympic results.
With access to world-class facilities at the OCBC Aquatic Centre, we hope that more members of the community enjoy swimming, whether it's competitively, for exercise or leisure, and finally I wish for all sports administrators to focus on developing, fine tuning and implementing athlete-centric policies along the athlete pathway."
LEE YI SHYAN
Singapore Badminton Association
"Badminton has always been one of the most popular sports in Singapore. My wish is that more people will learn to pick up the sport.
I also hope our young players in the national team will mature in skills and tactics, and win medals for us in major tournaments."
TANG WENG FEI
Singapore Athletics
"After the excellent SEA Games 2015, I hope the National Stadium can be used not only during the Asia Masters, but also for our national athletes to race again on the Mondo track.
I also hope that our athletes such as the marathoners and Veronica Shanti Pereira can make the Rio Olympics qualifying standards."
LOW TEO PING
Singapore Rugby Union
"I would like to see 2016 to be a year when both the men and women's 15's and 7's teams, the under-23, the under-19 teams and the schools rugby teams all blossom to a new level, to be South East Asia's number one rugby nation.
We have the stage set for a very vibrant rugby scene with Singapore hosting three matches of the Super Rugby league as Japan's proxy for being the "home" team and the HSBC World Rugby Sevens tournament, with all these events at the new National Stadium.
With this setting of world-class rugby being staged in Singapore, it will create an environment of rugby interest never ever experienced in Singapore. It can only bode well for the development of rugby and for our local players to want to emulate and play the same brand of world class rugby.
We have already begun planting the seeds of promoting the sport to the school going children with our "Pass It On" project. We want every child to own a rugby ball and we are very pleased to have the law firm of Quahe Woo & Palmer partner us in this initiative. The project continues into the new year.
Last but not least, we hope both the local and expatriate communities in Singapore and the South East Asian region will turn up in full force at the HSBC World Rugby Sevens in Singapore on April 16 and 17 and make the event a great success.
The 16 top Sevens rugby teams from around the world will descend on Singapore to give us a world class rugby treat.
Speaking as the Chef de Mission for the Singapore contingent to the 2016 Rio Olympics in August, it is my hope that we will have a historical outing for our Olympic athletes. It is very likely that we will be represented at competitive levels athletes from table tennis, swimming and sailing.
This will be further augmented by a few other athletes from other sports. It does open opportunities for Singapore athletes to put up their best performance ever and we look forward to the nation going behind them to cheer them on."
ZAINUDIN NORDIN
Football Association of Singapore
"My wish for 2016 will be for more youths and children to play football. The Cubs Grassroots Programme for children aged 6-12 was launched this year so that those who want to play their favourite sport will be given a chance to do so if they are unable to play for their school team or if their school does not have football as a CCA.
We have had very good feedback from the children as well as their parents, and we will be expanding the programme to reach out to even more children next year. I hope all children who want to play football will be able to do so."
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