WEEKLY ROUND-UP: Sports happenings in Singapore (23-29 Oct)

SINGAPORE — Here is a round-up of sports events and developments in Singapore in the past week (23 to 29 October):

Soh Rui Yong sets 2 national records in Valencia

Singapore marathoner Soh Rui Yong smashed two national records at the Valencia Half Marathon on Sunday (22 October).

The 32-year-old's official race time of 1hr 6min 45sec, which placed him 60th out of 17,359 competitors, was a second faster than his previous national half-marathon mark set in 2019. His 10km split timing of 31min 39sec also broke the national 10km road record of 32:10 co-held by Mok Ying Ren and Jeevaneesh Soundararajah.

Soh now holds the national marks in six categories: 5,000m, 10,000m, half marathon, marathon, 5km road and 10km road.

He had signed up for the event following his exclusion from the recent 2023 Asian Games contingent by the Singapore National Olympic Council.

Jowen Lim clinches silver at World Combat Games

Singapore wushu athlete Jowen Lim, who clinched a silver medal in the men's daoshu and gunshu all-around event at last month's Hangzhou Asian Games, followed up with a bronze medal in the same event at the World Combat Games in Riyadh on Sunday (22 October).

The 24-year-old's combined score of 19.516 put him behind former world champions Wu Zhaohua of China (19.583) and Seraf Naro Siregar of Indonesia (19.519), and earned him his first-ever medal at the Games.

Singapore's Tay Yu Xuan also bagged a silver medal in the men’s taolu taijiquan and taijijian. Le Yin Shuen was fourth in the women’s taolu jianshu and qiangshu, while Vera Tan was fifth in the women’s taijiquan and taijijian.

The wushu athletes will next compete at the World Wushu Championships in Texas next month.

Women's 10m air rifle team claim silver at Asian Shooting C'ships

Singapore's women's 10m air rifle team of Martina Veloso, Fernel Tan and Natanya Tan clinched a silver medal at the Asian Shooting Championships in Changwon, South Korea, on Friday (27 October).

The trio combined for a total of 1,886.8 points - Veloso scored 627.1 points, Fernel had a personal-best 630.0 points and Natanya compiled 629.7 points - to finish behind China’s Asian Games gold-medal winning trio of Han Jiayu, Wang Zhilin and Huang Yuting (1,890.7 points). India's Tilottama Sen, Ramita Jindal and Shriyanka Sadangi claimed bronze with 1,886.2 points.

Natanya and Fernel’s scores saw them through to the individual final where they finished fifth and seventh respectively out of eight shooters.

Over 9,000 women raised $260,000 at Great Eastern Women's Run

Over 9,000 women took part in the 17th edition of the Great Eastern Women’s Run (GEWR) at the Singapore Sports Hub on Sunday morning (29 October).

This year's run marked the full-scale return of Singapore’s only all-women's run since the COVID-19 pandemic, and featured six race categories with runners between the ages of three and 82 participating.

Participants also included rehabilitation beneficiaries from Singapore Cancer Society, women from Daughters Of Tomorrow and runners with special needs through the co-operative Runninghour.

Guest-of-honour was Edwin Tong, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth, who flagged off the 5km race with Khor Hock Seng, Great Eastern's group chief executive officer, and presented the trophies and cash prizes to the race winners.

The 21.1km half marathon saw Vanessa Lee emerging as the winner in 1hr 22min 51sec. She was joined on the podium by Jasmine Teo (1:23:16) and Rachel See (1:24:58), who came in second and third place respectively.

This year, Great Eastern and its employees and financial representatives raised $260,000 for the beneficiary organisations, Daughters Of Tomorrow and Singapore Cancer Society.

Loh Kean Yew loses to Jonatan Christie in French Open s-finals

Singapore shuttler Loh Kean Yew's run in the French Open ended in the semi-finals, after he lost to Indonesia's world No.6 Jonatan Christie 21-18, 21-13 in Rennes on Saturday (28 October).

This was the third time the world No.9 had reached the semi-final of a tournament this year, but he continued to struggle against Christie, whom he has never beaten in seven head-to-head clashes on the BWF World Tour in his career.

Mixed doubles duo Terry Hee and Jessica Tan, who finished second at the Abu Dhabi Masters tournament two weeks ago, reached the quarter-final stage of the French Open, before they were beaten 22-24, 17-21 by Japan's second-seeded duo Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino on Friday.

Women's singles player Yeo Jia Min was beaten in the opening round 16-21, 16-21 by China's Han Yue on Tuesday.

Lion City Sailors fall 0-3 to Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors

The Lion City Sailors lost 0-3 to South Korean side Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors in their AFC Champions League Group F match in Jeonju on Wednesday (25 October).

Goals from Jun Amano (5th minute), Lionel Tan (33rd minute own goal) and Moon Seon-min (57th minute) handed the Sailors their second defeat in the group stage, putting them in third spot after three matches played. Bangkok United stayed top of Group F after beating Hong Kong's Kitchee FC 2-1 for their third straight win.

In the AFC Cup, last year's Singapore Cup winners Hougang United were beaten 1-3 by Indonesia's PSM Makassar in their Group H tie in Bali on Wednesday.

The home side scored through Safrudin Tahar (22nd minute), Yuran Fernandes (29th) and Adilson Silva (55th), before Hougang replied through Dorde Maksimovic (78th). Hougang are bottom of the group with one win and two losses.

SGX Cares Bull Charge Charity Run saw about 3,500 participants

Close to 3,500 runners took part in the SGX Cares Bull Charge Charity Run at the Marina Barrage on Friday (27 October).

Minister of State for Social and Family Development Sun Xueling, guest-of-honour for the event, flagged off the run which featured two race categories – the 3km Chief Challenge involving CEOs and chiefs of companies, and the 5km mass run.

The runners were also treated to food, drinks, live music and entertainment at the Festival Village, which made a comeback after a three-year hiatus due to the pandemic.

SGX Cares' fundraising activities throughout the year saw $2,538,888 being raised for its adopted beneficiaries. The funds are channelled via Community Chest to AWWA, Autism Association (Singapore), Fei Yue Community Services, HSCA Community Services and Shared Services for Charities.

Biggest ActiveSG gym in Singapore opens in Bukit Canberra

The ActiveSG Sport Centre@Bukit Canberra fully opened to the community on Sunday (29 October), with the unveiling of the largest ActiveSG gym in Singapore at 1,500 square metres and two dance studios adding to the four swimming pools that were opened earlier this month.

Over 200 residents came together for the opening of the gym, which was also attended by Sembawang GRC Members of Parliament Ong Ye Kung and Lim Wee Kiak.

The inclusive new gym features HUR machines which use air pressure in place of traditional weights, allowing people of varying abilities to work out safely and more efficiently.

Adjacent to the gym are two dance studios which will offer a variety of accessible and affordable learn-to-play programmes such as Oxigeno, Piloxing, Hatha Yoga and Zumba. These programmes will be available for booking next month.

All Singaporeans aged 65 and above will continue to have free access to ActiveSG gyms and swimming pools, including the newly opened facilities at Bukit Canberra.

New board members for Singapore Canoe Federation

Nine new board members were elected into the Singapore Canoe Federation (SCF) at its annual general meeting at the Kolam Ayer Community Club last month, with new president Nicholas Yap taking over Yip Kwan Guan.

The new leadership team’s vision is to establish Singapore as the top canoeing nation in Asia, by placing firm focus on developing high performance athlete pathways. Additionally, they aim to: promote paddling as a vibrant lifestyle, bring more awareness and education into marine protection, and nurture inclusive communities.

SCF will work closely with the various government agencies to incubate multi-disciplinary paddle clubs in all suitable bodies of water. It will also invest holistically in canoeing athletes through close collaboration with the high-performance community,

At the recent Asian Games in Hangzhou, all eight of Singapore’s canoeing athletes qualified for the finals in their respective events, with Stephenie Chen winning a silver medal in the women's K1 500m.

GoGirls! ambassadors for Women's World Floorball C'ships

A celebration of sport and female empowerment will happen at the 2023 Women's World Floorball Championships (WFC), as 16 GoGirls! ambassadors will grace the competition from 2 to 10 December at the Singapore Sports Hub.

First introduced by the International Floorball Federation (IFF) in 2013, the goal of the GoGirls! project is to increase and promote the participation of girls and women in floorball throughout the world. It aims to provide guidance on the different challenges faced by girls in obtaining access to participation in sport, and to help break down those barriers within the international floorball family.

For the upcoming WFC, one player from each of the 16 competing teams has been appointed as a GoGirls! ambassador. All of them will continue to promote floorball in their respective communities in the lead up to the WFC, and raise awareness of the resources available to girls who want to pick up the sport.

For Singapore, Siti Nurhaliza Khairul Anuar has been selected as the GoGirls! ambassador.

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