17 new athletes from 8 sports to join 2022 cohort of Sport Excellence Scholarship Programme

The Sport Excellence Scholarship (spexScholarship) programme will welcome 17 new athletes from eight sports to its 2022 cohort, Sport Singapore (SportSG) announced on May 31.

For the first time since its launch in 2013, the spexScholarship programme will include a non-Major Games athlete, namely 19-year-old indoor skydiver Kyra Poh. 

Following her historic inclusion in the scholarship programme, Kyra said: “I hope to continue doing Singapore proud in competitions, raise awareness of the sport, and be prepared should indoor skydiving become an Olympic sport one day.”

Max Maeder, 16, who was recently crowned as the under-21 Kitefoiling Youth World Champion, will receive the spexScholarship as well.

Max shared that with the support of the spexScholarship, he hopes to “work towards representing Singapore at the 2024 Summer Olympics,” where kiteboarding will make its Olympic debut.

More athletes from team sports will also receive the spexScholarship this year.

Joining their female counterparts, who are existing recipients of the scholarship, is the men’s bowling team. The team consists of Cheah Ray Han, Darren Ong Wei Siong, Muhammad Jaris Goh and Basil Dill Ng Jui Chang.

Six new paddlers from the men’s and women’s table tennis team are also recipients of this year’s spexScholarship. Five of them – Zeng Jian, Goi Rui Xuan, Zhou Jingyi, Clarence Chew Zhe Yu and Koen Pang Yew En – each clinched a medal at the 31st SEA Games. Fifteen-year-old paddler Izaac Quek Yong, the youngest of the 17 newly added athletes, will receive the scholarship as well.

Fencer Kiria Tikanah Abdul Rahman, shuttler Jason Teh, high-jumper Kampton Kam and swimmers Letitia Sim and Ong Jun Yi are also part of the 2022 cohort.

The addition of the 17 new athletes will bring the total number of spexScholars to 76 athletes across 24 sports. At the recent 31st SEA Games, 43 of these athletes managed to clinch at least one medal, with 22 of them winning at least one gold medal.

While there were a total of 49 nominations received by the Singapore Sport Institute (SSI) for the scholarship programme this year, only 17 were selected.

Chairman of the spexScholarship Selection Committee and Chairman of SportSG Kon Yin Tong said: “With several Major Games happening this year, I hope that the increased level of support will motivate them to train hard, meet their performance goals and targets, and bring pride to the nation as one Team Singapore.

“We will also continue to monitor the performances of our other athletes, including several debutants who have achieved outstanding results at the SEA Games, to see how we can better support their sporting aspirations.”