TOP SPORTING STARS HONOURED AT THE SINGAPORE SPORTS AWARDS 2012
Fu Mingtian and Joseph Schooling Earned Top Spots at the Event
Singapore, 29 May 2012 - The Sporting Singapore fraternity gathered tonight at the Singapore Sports Awards (SSA) 2012 to honour the nation's top sporting talents for their notable achievements in the past year. The event, graced by President Tony Tan Keng Yam and Mrs Mary Tan, saw athletes and officials being awarded with Singapore's most prestigious recognition for sporting achievements.
2 Speaking at Awards ceremony at the Swissotel The Stamford, Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean, Coordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for Home Affairs said, "We are here today to pay tribute to our top sporting talents, congratulate them on a job well done and spur them on to do even better in their future sporting pursuits. 2011 has indeed been another momentous year for Team Singapore."
3 DPM Teo who is also the President of the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) added, "The Singapore Sports Awards Selection Committee found ourselves having to make a difficult decision in choosing the finalists, and subsequently a winner, for each award category. But this is indeed a happy problem as it only means that Singapore has more and more talented athletes that we can be proud of."
4 Unlike previous years, where the winners of the main awards were announced prior to the Awards night, this year's SSA saw a change in format. In April 2012, the SSA Selection Committee selected the finalists for the main awards and a secret ballot was then carried out to choose the most deserving winners. The winners were only revealed at the Awards ceremony. This new format will continue for future editions of the SSA.
Winners Unveiled
5 Guests at the SSA 2012 waited with bated breath for winners of the main awards to be announced by Chairman of the SSA 2012 Organising Committee, Mr Low Teo Ping who is also the Vice-President of the SNOC. The winners are:
Sportsboy/Sportsgirl Team of the Year (Event): National Optimist Sailing Team at the World Team Racing Championship
Team of the Year (Event): National Wushu Women's Duilian Team
Coach of the Year: William Woo Nam Fatt
Sportsgirl of the Year: Amanda Lim Xiang Qi
Sportsboy of the Year: Quah Zheng Wen
Sportwoman of the Year: Fu Mingtian
Sportsman of the Year: Joseph Isaac Schooling
6 The loudest cheers from the room were heard when the winners of Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year were announced. The complete list of winners can be found in Annex A.
7 Winners for three new award categories, the "Best Sport Event of the Year (International)", "Best Sport Event of the Year (Local)", and "Most Inspiring Sports Story of the Year" were also revealed at the event. The winners are:
Best Sport Event of the Year (International): 2011 Formula 1 SingTel Singapore Grand Prix
Best Sport Event of the Year (Local): OCBC Cycle Singapore
Most Inspiring Sports Story of the Year: "Not just flesh and blood, but the football HEART" by Terrence Voon from The Straits Times
8 The SSA is our country's most prestigious recognition for our athletes since its introduction in 1967. Honouring our athletes' achievements and contributions, the SSA pays tribute to our athletes who have gone head to head with some of the best in the world to bring glory to our country.
Formed in 1973, the Singapore Sports Council (SSC) is tasked with developing a holistic sports culture for the nation. The SSC creates opportunities for people to excel in sports; opportunities for people to be engaged in sports as, coaches, officials, volunteers or fans; and opportunities for people to do business in sports as sponsors and investors. The SSC has changed the way Singaporeans view and participate in sports. Through sports, we now have an enhanced national identity thanks to our sports participation programmes; greater national pride as a result of high performance results at international and regional games; and more diversified economic stability through our vibrant sports industry initiatives.
The Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) is the national nonprofit organisation that coordinates the selection of Singaporean athletes for competition at the major games such as the Olympics, the Asian Games, the Commonwealth Games and the South East Asian Games. Singapore's involvement in the Games is resolutely anchored in the Olympic ideals that were first espoused by Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games, in 1894. For more information, please visit www.snoc.org.sg.
For media enquiries, please contact:
Tanty Nazlianah Senior Manager Media Relations Singapore Sports Council Email: tanty_nazlianah@ssc.gov.sg
