Today Oct 11, 2007 The following are extracts from an article entitled "Moo passes torch" written by Tan Yo-Hinn. " The S$75 million Singapore Sports School, located on a 7-hectare site in Woodlands, admitted its first batch of students on Jan 5, 2004. It now has an enrolment of 356 students from sec 1 to sec 4 with over 100 staff, including coaches, teachers and a sports science and medicine department. Come Jan 2008, the school will admit 120 students to sec 1 into 8 academies - badminton, bowling, football, netball, sailing, swimming, table tennis and track and field. School principal Moo Soon Chong and his colleagues were pioneers at that time, as they set out to turn the 140-strong group of secondary one (109) and secondary two (31) students into champions, while ensuring they qualified for a degree or diploma." It was reported that Raffles Girls' School (RGS) principal Deborah Tan will officially take over from Mr Moo on Jan 1, 2008 and Mr Moo will become a consultant. In nearly 4 years of existence, the following is SSS's "scorecard": SPORTS SCHOOL'S HONOUR ROLL World Champions: * Sean Lee, sailing - 2006 IODA Optimist boys' * Griselda Khng, sailing - 2006 IODA Optimist girls' * Victoria Chan, sailing - 2006 Laser 4.7 World 2006 Asian Games Gold * Tao Li, swimming - women's 50m butterfly * Sherman Cheng, sailing - boys' 420 2006 Commonwealth Games Gold: * Zena Sim, table tennis - women's team ACADEMIC 2004 - SSS implemented through-train programme for students which would allow them to skip 'O' and 'A' Levels in their pursuit of a diploma or degree. The programme are arranged with Republic Polytechnic, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and the Auckland University of Technology (AUT), which allowed the student-athletes to train and compete locally and overseas in a way that would not affect their studies. 2005 - 100 per cent passes with 5 'O' Levels. 2006 - 100 per cent placement for students at junior colleges and polytechnics. The students have set over 70 national open and age-group records in disciplines like swimming, track and field and sailing. (Unfortunately, badminton did not win any international honours, but plans are now afoot to produce better badminton players from the SSS when the Singapore Badminton Association (SBA) moves to the SSS premises early 2008 and takes charge of its badminton training programme.) It looks like we can expect more from the SSS in years to come.
Young shuttlers for Olympian Targets Today October 10, 2007 by Low Lin Fhoong Singapore is in a race with nine other cities to host the 2010 Youth Olympic Games, the first of its kind and the brainchild of current International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge. The Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports and the Singapore Sports Council are preparing the country's candidature file, which all bid cities have to submit to the IOC by Oct 26. SBA Initiative Last night, the Singapore Badminton Association (SBA) annuonced a new youth programme to prepare a team for the inaugural Games, which hopefully will be staged in front of thier fans in a little over three years' time. At the presentation ceremony of the SBA-SembCorp Scholarships/ Bursaries awards at the Singapore Sports School, the national sports association (SBA) announced they will assemble a squad of shuttlers aged 15 years and below to be groomed for 2010. The yougsters will come from the SSS and SBA's current youth squad. While the short-term target is the 2010 Youth Olympics, the London 21012 Summer Games and 2016 Summer Games will be the ultimate goal for the shuttlers. Said SBA (new) chief executive officer Kelvin Ng: "This pool of players will be the best in the Singapore scene from their age group. It's part of our succession plan fo players." SBA's partnership with the SSS comes at a perfect time, as the SBA will be moving to the Woodlands campus by January next year from its current location at Guillemard Road. (the lease will expire and SBA has no intention of renewing because of the hefty rental) The SBA will take over technical training at the school's badminton academy, a move that will see the students train with the national team.
