It all started in August 2002, during the Commonwealth Games in Manchester when Li Li surprised many by snatching the women's singles gold medal from the higher ranked European players. Then in December 2003, when our girls brought home the first women's badminton team 44-year old SEA Games gold, it was indeed a good omen and a prelude to better things to come for Singapore badminton. Ronald Susilo followed up with his first big win at the five-star Japan Open 2004 in April by beating Bao Chunlai in the final and he also caused the downfall of another Chinese shuttler, World No.1, Lin Dan, in the first round of the Athens Olympics 2004 in August. He had already got everybody excited when he was crowned the Japan Open champion and his riveting performance in Athens engaged the most part of Singapore on the telly to cheer him on. By now a sports celebrity here together with fiancee, table-tennis star Li Jiawei, Ronald has raised eyebrows not only with those directly involved in badminton but those with the big bucks, the commercial houses. Now almost everybody, particularly the schools, are talking about badminton! And now that our two teenagers, Kendrick Lee and Xing Aiying, have both made their mark by clinching the recent one-star US Open 2004 singles titles, there is no stopping the euphoria among the other Singaporean teenagers and the floodgates are now opened wide for all and sundry, especially the corporations, to participate in Singapore badminton in a more positive way. This year, three major business groups have come forward to help Singapore badminton to achieve a higher level of success and in the process their names will be well-remembered. These most welcome sponsors are: 1. Yonex-Sunrise, Singapore badminton's benefactor for a long time, when Y-S signed a 3-year S$2.1 million contract with SBA in 2001 as the Singapore Open main sponsor, enabled badminton here to join the million-dollar club when they announced a 5-year S$4.2 million deal this June to support the SBA with mainly benefits in kind, such as supplying equipment and apparel to SBA's youth, junior and national teams as well as support local activities. This arrangement is the second biggest sports sponsorship deal in Singapore, after Tiger Beer agreed to support the Football Association of Singapore, which runs a professional soccer leaque, with S$15 million over 10 years. 2. Aviva sponsors US$170,000 for this year's Singapore Open in November. replacing Yonex-Surise, which has been associated with the Open for many years. For Aviva, an insurance MNC, this will be their first foray into badminton, after previously sponsoring the Asian Bowling Tour and the recent Formula One Powerboat Championship. 3. Cheers This convenience store wholly-owned subsidiary of NTUC (National Trades Union Congress) FairPrice has donated S$300,000 to promote the game and is principally involved in the following tournaments this year: Cheers Badminton Masters and Nationals (March), Cheers Badminton Age Group (June), and Cheers Asian Satellite (September). Our shuttlers' success on foreign courts certainly gave confidence to the big corporations here to back up the SBA with generous sponsorships. Certainly, it is a case of "Success begets Success". We can look forward to many more years of an exciting badminton scene in Singapore.
