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WEEKLY ROUND-UP: Sports happenings in Singapore (9-15 Aug)

Lion City Sailors' Faris Ramli (right) celebrates during their 4-1 win over Tampines Rovers in the Singapore Premier League. (PHOTO: SPL)
Lion City Sailors' Faris Ramli (right) celebrates during their 4-1 win over Tampines Rovers in the Singapore Premier League. (PHOTO: SPL)

SINGAPORE — Here is a round-up of sports events and developments in Singapore in the past week (9 to 15 August):

Lion City Sailors stay in title hunt with 4-1 win over Tampines Rovers

The Lion City Sailors maintained pace with Singapore Premier League table-toppers Albirex Niigata (Singapore) with a 4-1 win over Tampines Rovers at Jalan Besar Stadium on Sunday (15 August).

Goals from Gabriel Quak (34th minute), Stipe Plazibat (36th and 48th) and Saifullah Akbar (46th) meant the Sailors stay three points behind Albirex with a game in hand and a better goal difference. Boris Kopitovic (59th) replied for Tampines.

Albirex had bounced back from their first loss of the season last week - a shock 1-2 defeat by Tanjong Pagar United - with a 4-1 victory over Hougang United at the Jurong East Stadium on Friday.

Reo Kunimoto (2nd and 78th), Yasuhiro Hanada (89th) and Takahiro Tezuka (91st) scored for the hosts, while Hougang replied through a Mahiro Takahashi own goal in the 81st minute.

Tanjong Pagar continued their fine form by beating Geylang International 4-2 at Our Tampines Hub on Saturday, while bottom side Young Lions notched their second win of the season with a 4-2 win over Balestier Khalsa at Jalan Besar Stadium.

Yip Pin Xiu wins top award at Singapore Disability Sports Awards 2021

Three-time Paralympic gold medallist Yip Pin Xiu has been named Sportswoman of the Year at the Singapore Disability Sports Awards (SDSA) presented by Haw Par Corporation. This marks the second time Yip has won the award since the SDSA returned in 2019.

With the lack of competitions globally amid the COVID-19 pandemic, this year's SDSA was dubbed a special "Resilience" edition, with the event celebrating members of the disability sports community for their display of the Paralympic values - courage, determination, inspiration and equality - during the past financial year (from April 2020 to March 2021).

Yip, who last competed internationally in January 2020, has been finding different ways to keep herself in form for the upcoming Tokyo Paralympics. Besides self-training at home, she also undertook COVID-19 testing regularly to be able to train safely at the pool and gym, when restrictions allowed.

She thus managed to clock season-bests for the women's 50m backstroke S2 (1min 5.79sec) and women’s 100m Backstroke S2 (2:16.34) at the Haw Par National Youth Swimming Championships this year.

The former Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP) also volunteered her time for multiple causes, including the World Para Swimming High Support Needs Committee, the Safe Sport Commission, the National Youth Council and the Singapore Disability Sports Council.

Yip’s coach, Mark Chay, was named the Coach (High Performance) of the Year for his coaching efforts and giving back to sport as a NMP.

Cyclist Steve Tee, together with pilot Ang Kee Meng, was named Sportsman of the Year. Tee’s meteoric rise in the sport of para cycling will see him debut at the Tokyo Paralympics, making the pair Singapore’s first-ever tandem male cyclists to the Paralympics.

The goalball community was the biggest winner of the night, picking up three of the nine awards. The national goalball women’s team scooped up Team of the Year, while team coach Hansen Bay was named Coach (Developmental) of the Year.

For their efforts in promoting goalball through innovative experiences and events such as the VisAbility Fitness Challenge 2020 and the VisAbility 2-on-2 Goalball Challenge 2021, the Goalball Singapore club won the Community Impact Award (Events & Initiatives).

Sportsboy of the Year went to Aloysius Gan, who started playing boccia at the age of seven, aided by his competition partner and father, Gan Keng Aik. Sportsgirl of the Year also went to a fellow boccia athlete, Faye Lim, and her competition partner and father, Lim Boon Ghee.

The virtual award ceremony was graced by Alvin Tan, Minister of State for Culture, Community and Youth as well as Trade and Industry, and Brian Loo, Haw Par Corporation's group general manager.

Singapore Sports Hub reopens venues, resumes sports programmes

The Singapore Sports Hub has reopened all its venues and will resume all sports programmes following the calibrated easing of measures under Phase 2 (Heightened Alert) which came into effect on 10 August (Tuesday).

Activity group sizes are now up to five persons at Sports Hub venues and facilities such as the OCBC Aquatic Centre, OCBC Arena, Sports Hub Gym, Stingray at Splash-N-Surf, water sports centre, hard courts, as well as exercise and fitness stations. Programmes at the OCBC Arena and Sports Hub Fitness Studio will also recommence.

The Sports Hub will be implementing vaccination-differentiated safe-management measures at indoor venues and for its indoor programmes. All patrons must be either fully vaccinated, have a valid negative result on a Pre-Event Test, or have recovered from COVID-19. Their vaccination status will be verified and recorded before they enter the venue.

Patrons aged 12 years old and below, who are currently ineligible for any COVID-19 vaccine under the national vaccination programme, are welcome to play at the indoor venues but only with members from the same household.

Lazy River and Kids Water Playground remain closed under current government guidelines.

Patrons can check the Sports Hub website for the latest information on safe management measures at our venues, facilities and activities.

Premier League launches 'Boot Out Piracy' campaign

The English Premier League (EPL) launched its "Boot Out Piracy" campaign in Singapore on Wednesday (11 August) to raise awareness of the dangers of viewing pirate content, as well as the compromised viewing experience offered by illegal streams.

It said in a media release that fans who watch on unauthorised websites or streaming devices expose themselves to malicious malware or ransomware, increasing their risk of data theft and fraud. Their viewing experience is also likely to be disrupted by broken links, pop-up ads and delays.

"New research commissioned by the Premier League found that 58 per cent of Singaporeans have been a victim of cybercrime, with many not understanding how to protect their safety online," it added in the media release. "Only around a third of people polled understand that watching pirated material makes you more likely to experience identity data theft or a ransomware attack."

While 61 per cent of Singaporeans believed that illegally streaming content such as Premier League matches is a crime with serious consequences, less than half (48 per cent) felt confident identifying whether it presents a cybersecurity risk to them and their devices.

Additional research by intellectual property and data analytics company White Bullet Solutions highlights the link between online piracy and cybersecurity issues. Their findings show that of the most popular pirate websites in Singapore for illegally watching EPL content, 58 per cent carried advertisements considered risky, containing either fraud, malware, adult or gambling content.

The "Boot Out Piracy" campaign will run across digital platforms, with imagery featuring some of the Premier League’s top players, including Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford, Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah and Tottenham Hotspur’s Son Heung-min. This is the first time the campaign will run in Singapore, having been launched in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Indonesia at the start of the 2020/2021 season.

Have a sports event to tell our users? Email us at sgnews.tips@verizonmedia.com. In your email, do provide as many details as possible, including videos and photos.