SINGAPORE — It was a bittersweet second for the Singapore ice-skating staff on the SEA Open Quick Observe Trophy over the weekend as they bagged 14 golds, 12 silvers, and ten bronze medals. Nonetheless, it was additionally their remaining competitors to be held at The Rink in JCube because the shopping center is scheduled to shut on Aug 6 this yr to make method for a brand new 40-storey residential growth that can embrace industrial area.
The regional competitors was held on Apr 1-2 and was formally opened on Saturday by Eric Chua, senior parliamentary secretary, ministry of tradition, group and youth. It attracted 120 ice skaters from 11 nations, together with Australia, Chinese language Taipei, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, New Zealand, Philippines and Vietnam.
Staff Singapore fielded 27 skaters, with the youngest at simply 5 years outdated. Singapore hosted the SEA Open Quick Observe Trophy for 4 consecutive years from 2017 till 2020. It was disrupted the next yr because of the pandemic. With the easing of COVID-19 restrictions, Singapore may resume internet hosting the competitors this yr.
For Singapore Ice Skating Affiliation’s secretary-general Alicia Tan, expressed her pleasure in Singapore enjoying host and hopes that it will improve participation and improve competitors in future occasions.
“We’re actually glad to have the ability to host the SEA Open Quick Observe Trophy in Singapore as soon as once more, and are happy to see such energetic participation from the area. We’re particularly glad to welcome Vietnam who fielded a brief monitor staff for the primary time. This bodes nicely for extra competing nations and an excellent greater stage of competitors on the subsequent SEA Video games to function ice skating,” stated Tan, who can also be the SEA Open Quick Observe Trophy organising committee chair.
Ice skating debuted within the 2017 SEA Video games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Singapore gained a gold and a silver every by Yu Shuran and Chloe Ing, respectively, within the ladies’s determine skating. Lucas Ng gained 4 silvers within the quick monitor on the 2017 SEA Video games within the males’s 1000m and the ladies’s 1000m courtesy of Cheyenne Goh. The Singapore males’s and girls’s groups additionally completed second within the 3000m relay occasion.
On the 2019 SEA Video games within the Philippines, Ing improved her outcomes from the earlier meet, profitable the gold medal within the ladies’s determine skating occasion. Singapore clinched their first-ever gold medals within the determine skating class. Goh completed first within the ladies’s 500m and 1000m occasions, whereas the lads’s 3000m relay staff of Lucas Ng, Trevor Tan, Zen Koh and Xu Jing Feng gained gold. Goh additionally competed within the ladies’s 3000m relay, the place her staff completed in third place.
There was no ice skating competitors through the thirty first SEA Video games in Hanoi, Vietnam. Nonetheless, the skating federations count on the game to be included once more in Thailand in 2025, Malaysia in 2027, and Singapore when it hosts the biennial regional sporting occasion in 2029.
“After all, whether or not we’re in a position to host ice skating as a part of SEA Video games Singapore 2029 will depend upon whether or not we get a brand new rink by then. Our skaters have completed nicely on the SEA Trophy, with a lot of them aiming to signify our nation on the Video games. Regional federations and skaters have additionally expressed hope that Singapore will be capable of add ice skating into our 2029 Video games roster, and we’re hopeful that we will ship,” added Alison Chan, president of the Singapore Ice Skating Affiliation.
The competitors is sanctioned by the Worldwide Skating Union (ISU) and Asian Skating Union and supported by the ISU Growth Programme. This marks the tenth yr Singapore has hosted extremely profitable ice skating occasions, together with the ISU World Growth Trophy 2013, Tri-Sequence Quick Observe Cup 2016 and SEA Open Determine Skating Trophy 2023. Singapore Ice Skating Affiliation is at the moment in energetic talks with Sport Singapore on a brand new ice rink facility that can be purpose-built for coaching and competitions.
Ship in your scoops to information@theindependent.sg
– Commercial –
