Get behind Team Singapore, ASEAN Para Games, public urged
Para athletes joining in the Gift-A-Nila session at Bendemeer Secondary School yesterday. Members of the public can also do their part
by sewing and decorating heart-shaped mini cushions for the Nila plush toys to be given to all 3,000 athletes and officials. Photo: Daryl Kang
SINGAPORE — Organisers of the 8th ASEAN Para Games (APG) are pulling out the stops to get Singaporeans involved in the multi-sports event, and turn out in force to cheer on Team Singapore’s 166-strong contingent competing in the Dec 3 to 9 Games.
The Singapore ASEAN Para Games Organising Committee (SAPGOC) kicked off a series of community engagement initiatives today (Oct 13) to mark the 50-day countdown to the Games, which will see about 1,400 athletes from 11 countries competing for honours across 15 sports.
The “Get RED-Y” movement will see cheer kits comprising a Team Singapore temporary tattoo and cheer card handed out to 100 schools, with housing estates, community spaces and ActiveSG centres, buses and MRT trains also dressed up with APG banners and posters of the athletes.
Members of the public can also do their part by sewing and decorating heart-shaped mini cushions for the Nila plush toys to be given to all 3,000 athletes and officials.
Individuals, schools and companies can also sign up for the APG Experience Tour that will allow them to experience some of the sports first-hand, catch the action “live” at the venues, and participate in the APG Carnival at the Sports Hub.
Social media will also feature prominently in the campaign, with the “Unbreakable” music video featuring athletes like Theresa Goh (swimming) and Jovin Tan (sailing) premiering on SAPGOC’s social media platforms.
While the SEA Games in June attracted more than 500,000 spectators to its venues, SAPGOC are keeping to a more conservative target of a “couple of hundred thousand” for the Para Games.
Entry to all events at the APG are free, and about 2,000 spots have been booked to date.
“If we can bring in a couple of hundred thousand to come and visit the Sports Hub and Marina Bay Sands, we should be very glad,” said SAPGOC chairman Lim Teck Yin at the APG’s 50-day countdown at Bendemeer Secondary School today.
“We recognise that we’re coming in at the deep end of the school holidays … but we’ve provided the opportunity for families who are not travelling to have fun at the Sports Hub and Marina Bay.
“The key message is this is not a sport that you are familiar with, so come and learn something, come and support our athletes. The ASEAN Para Games is also part of the overall wrap-up together with other Jubilee weekend activities for the whole Jubilee year so it’s a fitting way to bring to a close our celebration for our 50th anniversary.”
Powerlifter Kalai Vanen will make his Games debut in the Under-97kg category after picking up the sport in February.
A former national para water-skier, the 56-year-old personal trainer, who lost his left leg to cancer at 29, is looking forward to his first APG outing.
“Being so new to the sport is one of my concerns, as it usually takes four years for an athlete to settle into a sport,” he said.
“We do the bench press which is different from (able-bodied) weightlifting as you lie flat and don’t have the use of your legs to push off.
“My focus now is on my technique and I hope to win a medal.”
Also in the hunt for a medal is three-time Paralympian sailor Jovin Tan, who is pairing up with a new partner, 71-year-old Anthony Teo, in the Hansa 303 class. Tan’s packed schedule will also see him competing in the Para World Sailing Championships — the final qualifying event for the Paralympic Games — next month before heading back to Singapore on Dec 4 for the Games.
“It’s tough getting used to a new partner … but we work well together,” said Asian Para Games champion Mr Tan, who was born with cerebral palsy.
“I’m the boss, the brain, and he’s (Teo, who has polio) the brawn. Of course the goal is to win, but we’re not going to be pressured by it.”
