Aloysius Yapp, Loh Kean Yew to vie for 2022 Sportsman of the Year award

National pool player Aloysius Yapp will vie for this year’s title of Sportsman of the Year alongside badminton player Loh Kean Yew.

Earlier in September, Aloysius clinched the 2022 Seybert’s Michigan Open title marking his first successful international title defence. On Oct 4, Kean Yew entered the top five of the badminton global rankings for the first time in his career, making him the highest-ranked Singaporean men’s single player in history.

The finalists of the 2022 Singapore Sports Awards (SSA) were announced by the SSA selection committees today (Oct 11). 

The awards makes its return after a year of hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The last SSA was held in 2020 to recognise the achievements of athletes in 2019.

The National Sports Associations were invited to nominate candidates for the main award categories following a set of eligibility criteria which consider factors such as the achievements of the nominees. 

The selection committees then decided on the finalists and cast their votes through a secret ballot to determine the winners. Independent auditing firm KPMG will tabulate the results.

Due to the impact of COVID-19 on the sport event industry, two categories – Best Sports Event of the Year (Local) and Best Sports Event of the Year (International) – will only be reinstated in the SSA next year. Events that had been organised since Jan 1, 2020 will be considered for the awards in 2023. 

There were also no finalists for the categories of Team of the Year (Team Sport) and Sportsboy/Sportsgirl Team of the Year (Event).

The winners will be announced at the SSA presentation ceremony on Nov 10.

Here are the list of categories and the nominees:

Sportsman of the Year: Loh Kean Yew (Badminton) and Aloysius Yapp (Cuesports)

Sportswoman of the Year: Amita Berthier (Fencing), Yu Mengyu (Table Tennis) and Shayna Ng (Bowling)

Sportsboy of the Year: Maximilian Maeder (Sailing) and Izaac Yong Quek (Table Tennis)

Sportsgirl of the Year: Ser Lin Qian (Table Tennis)

Coach of the Year: Jason Yeong-Nathan (Bowling), Gao Ning (Table Tennis), Li Peng (Diving) and Fernando Kuo (Sailing)

Team of the Year (Event):

Bowling Men’s Team 2021 IBF Super World Championships 2021 – Cheah Ray Han, Ong Wei Siong Darren, Neo Ze Min Jonovan, Jomond Chia Yu Sun (Xie Yusheng)

Badminton Mixed Doubles Team India Open Super 500 Tournament – Terry Hee, Jessica Tan Wei Han

Table Tennis Women’s Team Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games – Feng Tianwei, Yu Mengyu, Lin Ye

Women’s 49er FX Women’s Skiff Team Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games – Kimberly Lim, Cecilia Low

Most Inspiring Sports Story of the Year: Rohit Brijnath (The Straits Times), Matthew Mohan (Channel NewAsia Digital), Kimberly Kwek (The Straits Times), Zulaiqah Abdul Rahim (Berita Harian), Jonathan Wong (The Straits Times)

Best Sports Photo of the Year: Kong Chong Yew, Stanley Cheah Kin Wai, Andy Chua Meng Hong and Shintaro Tay