This is the title of the letter posted to the Straits Times Forum page located here. The full excerpt is below, courtesy of The Straits Times
SINGAPORE will host the inaugural Asian Youth Games this year and the inaugural Youth Olympics next year. We should be celebrating. But there are some signs that the sports scene in Singapore is not that rosy, especially sports management. While there has yet to be a resolution of the Singapore Table Tennis Association saga, the Singapore Athletic Association (SAA) has entered into a controversy of its own. It was reported recently that SAA has disallowed some national athletes from participating in a track and field competition ('Not going to Pahang meet', last Thursday). The reason was that SAA did not receive any invitation - although the club the athletes belong to did. Does it really matter who received the invitation? Is it not more important that our athletes have the opportunity to participate in regional competitions to hone their skills in preparation for the coming South-east Asia Games? Are we letting bureaucracy get in the way of sports development? Until we address such problems, we are putting hurdles in our own way.
Seetow Cheng Fave
He was talking in part about the STTA or Singapore Table Tennis Association. I am referring to SACA. They are not that different. They are all reporting to the Singapore Sports Council. This person Seetow described something that happened in 2003 or was it 2004. Some of the boy received invitations to the BMX Grand Nationals in Perth, Australia. We had to beg to the sports council for funds to let these boys go and finally, they relented. Our boys flew up to perth, two of them in fact, both brothers. They were the best of the best here in Singapore, practicing their BMX craft on a track that is laughable by world standards. The long and short of it, they did not qualify but they did get the experience of racing at the worlds. And the powers that be? Lambasted them for not bringing home a medal, saying that money was wasted.
So this writer Seetow says "Are we letting bureaucracy get in the way of sports development?" I would say we are. The SSC did not care about BMX then but they have to now because BMX is part of the Youth Olympics in 2010. And remember the WhyOhGee issue? They have yet to send me the questions that they want to know about BMX!
SINGAPORE will host the inaugural Asian Youth Games this year and the inaugural Youth Olympics next year. We should be celebrating. But there are some signs that the sports scene in Singapore is not that rosy, especially sports management. While there has yet to be a resolution of the Singapore Table Tennis Association saga, the Singapore Athletic Association (SAA) has entered into a controversy of its own. It was reported recently that SAA has disallowed some national athletes from participating in a track and field competition ('Not going to Pahang meet', last Thursday). The reason was that SAA did not receive any invitation - although the club the athletes belong to did. Does it really matter who received the invitation? Is it not more important that our athletes have the opportunity to participate in regional competitions to hone their skills in preparation for the coming South-east Asia Games? Are we letting bureaucracy get in the way of sports development? Until we address such problems, we are putting hurdles in our own way.
Seetow Cheng Fave
He was talking in part about the STTA or Singapore Table Tennis Association. I am referring to SACA. They are not that different. They are all reporting to the Singapore Sports Council. This person Seetow described something that happened in 2003 or was it 2004. Some of the boy received invitations to the BMX Grand Nationals in Perth, Australia. We had to beg to the sports council for funds to let these boys go and finally, they relented. Our boys flew up to perth, two of them in fact, both brothers. They were the best of the best here in Singapore, practicing their BMX craft on a track that is laughable by world standards. The long and short of it, they did not qualify but they did get the experience of racing at the worlds. And the powers that be? Lambasted them for not bringing home a medal, saying that money was wasted.
So this writer Seetow says "Are we letting bureaucracy get in the way of sports development?" I would say we are. The SSC did not care about BMX then but they have to now because BMX is part of the Youth Olympics in 2010. And remember the WhyOhGee issue? They have yet to send me the questions that they want to know about BMX!
1 comment:
Schools here close down CCAs that don't win medals or get enough CCA points. It's not education. It's all about image. Everything must be 'accounted for' but always by reference to some kind of numerical measure --- be it grades or medals.
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