WEEKLY ROUND-UP: Sports happenings in Singapore (10-16 Jan)
SINGAPORE — Here is a round-up of sports events and developments in Singapore in the past week (10 to 16 January):
Netball Super League resumes after 2-year hiatus
The Deloitte Netball Super League (NSL) resumed on Saturday (15 January) after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and will feature six teams competing at Our Tampines Hub until 6 March.
This is the first local league to kick off in full-scale after football's Singapore Premier League, and the games will be played in the usual 7-vs-7 format. Last year, the NSL was unable to be held in the normal format due to prevailing safe management measures, and a modified 3-vs-3 league took place instead.
The tournament opener saw the Blaze Dolphins upset title holders Sneakers Stingrays, winning the tie 58-37. Following that, Fier Orcas beat Swifts Barracudas 48-44 while the Mission Mannas completed the round of matches by beating Magic Marlins 53-31.
STTA promotes four youth paddlers to senior team
The Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA) has promoted four promising youth paddlers to the senior national team with effect from this month: Izaac Quek, 15, Ser Lin Qian, 15, Zhou Jingyi, 16 and Lucas Tan, 22.
Izaac won one gold and two bronze medals at the 2018 Southeast Asian Junior and Cadet Table Tennis Championships at age 12, and became the first Singaporean to become world No.1 in the Under-15 boys' world ranking list in April 2021.
Lin Qian earned a bronze medal at the 2021 ITTF World Youth Championships, and is the only Southeast Asian player among 30 paddlers to earn the With The Future In Mind (WFIM) scholarship last year.
Jingyi was the first Singaporean to win the 2017 ITTF World Hopes Week and Challenge in Luxembourg, at the age of 12. She was also the youngest Singaporean to reach top five in the Under-15 girls' world ranking list in June 2018.
Tan’s achievements also include a team silver in the 2017 SEA Games, a team gold and two bronzes in the 2018 SEA Championships and a team bronze in the 2019 Commonwealth Championships.
Hurdler Ang Chen Xiang breaks own national record in 110m
National hurdler Ang Chen Xiang broke his own men's 110m hurdles national record at the Club Zoom Kindred Spirit Series 2 on Saturday (15 January).
The 27-year-old clocked 14.16 seconds at the Home of Athletics to eclipse his 14.25sec mark set at the 2019 Asian Athletics Championships.
The result will put him in good stead to qualify for May's SEA Games in Hanoi, where the qualifying mark for his event is at 13.99sec. In his previous SEA Games outing in 2019, Ang ran 14.49sec to finish eighth in the final.
Prominent football pundit Shebby Singh dies at age 61
Former Malaysia international defender Serbegeth Singh, who later became a well-known football pundit in Southeast Asia, died on Wednesday (12 January) from a heart attack while out cycling in Johor Baru. He was 61.
Serbegeth, who is better known as Shebby Singh, won the M-League twice and Malaysia Cup thrice with Kuala Lumpur from 1984 to 1990. He made his international debut in 1982 and helped Malaysia win gold at the 1989 SEA Games.
He retired from international football in 1991, amassing 61 caps, but continued to play for Pahang, Negeri Sembilan and Perak before hanging up his boots in 1996.
Shebby then became a prominent football pundit on TV, working with Astro SuperSport, Fox Sports and ESPN Asia for the past 24 years. In June 2012, he was appointed global adviser for English Championship side Blackburn Rovers.
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