GUEST OF HONOUR : MR TEO CHEE HEAN (Minister for Defence, and President SNOC)
EVENTS : SINGAPORE SPORTS AWARD 2005
VENUE : ORCHARD GRAND BALLROOM, THE ORCHARD HOTEL
DATE : WEDNESDAY 25 MAY 2005, AT 8.00PM

Distinguished Guests,

Athletes,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good evening and a very warm welcome to the Singapore Sports Awards 2005.

The Athens Summer Olympic Games was the pinnacle sporting event last year, but 2004 was by no means a quiet year as far as competitions are concerned. Besides the Olympic Games, our athletes were also involved in significant international competitions such as the AMF World Cup and the World Ranking Masters for bowling, the 6th Asian Wushu Championship, the 8th Silat World Championship, the Japan Open and All England Badminton Championships, the Commonwealth Table Tennis Championship, the Asian Women’s 7s Rugby Championship, the World Byte Sailing Championship and the ASEAN Football Federation Tiger Cup, just to name the main ones. Our athletes did well in these competitions, and tonight we pay tribute to them in the Singapore Sports Awards 2005.

I note with pride that with each passing year our athletes are making their presence felt at the world stage, not just the senior athletes, the younger athletes as well. At the Athens Olympic Games, fourteen out of the sixteen athletes qualified for the Games on merit. This is an improvement over the Sydney Olympic Games where only ten athletes beat the Games qualifying mark. For the second successive Olympic Games we had an athlete competing in the semi-finals of a sport. In world meets in 2004 Mohd Imran, Zuhrah Mohd Sabri, Mohd Saifuddin and Saiedah Said (silat), Ronald Susilo (badminton), Remy Ong (bowling), Li Jia Wei (table tennis) and Calvin Lim (junior sailing) finished at or among the top, thereby establishing themselves as world class athletes. This is heartening not only for the sporting community, but also to the man in the street who roots for Team Singapore.

I also note that among the awardees tonight some are from sports that have not won awards for quite a while, men’s football, women’s rugby, golf, taekwondo, equestrian and women’s volleyball. Your winning an award is comforting because it tells us that your sport is making some headway regionally or internationally. Your success here should also inspire the many other sports who are on this long journey towards sports excellence. I hope you continue to do well.

While tonight’s ceremony celebrates the achievements of these athletes, what you don’t see here are the moments where they have strived and failed. Before these athletes made their first breakthrough they had their moments of heartbreaking disappointment. They had gone through moments of self doubt, self reflection and finally self belief. Like all great athletes they picked themselves up, and persevered to come back winners. Our award winners tonight exemplify the dogged willpower and emotional and mental strength of what champions are made of. I salute all the winners tonight; you are the beacons of hope for Singapore’s sporting future.

Of course your success would not have been possible without the contribution of your coaches, families, employers, schools, NSAs, the SSC, media and the sponsors, all stakeholders in Team Singapore. I would however like to single out the coaches for special mention here. If there is anybody who understands the athlete’s emotions more than the athlete’s parents it is the athlete’s coach. You share your athlete’s distress when they fail, but yet you have to stay above this to help them pull through their disappointment. And when the athlete succeeds, you are in the background because your job doesn’t end here, as you plan for the athlete’s next move. I applaud the nominees for this year’s Coach of the Year Award; the list is like the ‘Who’s Who’ of Singapore coaches - well done and thank you to Patrick Henry (bowling), Mohd Hidayat (silat), Chen Yong (table tennis), Andras Sigmond (sailing), Su Zi Fang (wushu), Zheng Qingjin (badminton), Shawn Tay (dancesport), Gene Tong (rugby), Radojko Avramovic (football) and Zhang Shaoying (shooting).

In conclusion I would like to thank the Organizing Committee from SNOC, SSC and Team Singapore for putting up tonight’s event, and the sponsors for the event, Singapore Pools, Singapore Airlines, Tiger Beer and Ninth Vine.

I wish everyone an enjoyable evening. Thank you.