Sheik Farhan, Feng Tianwei receive top honours at 2023 Singapore Sports Awards
Winners are selected based on the individual or team’s achievements over the past year.
Singaporean pencak silat champion Sheik Farhan Sheik Alau’ddin was crowned Sportsman of the Year at the Singapore Sports Awards (SSA) 2023 presentation ceremony on Wednesday (Aug 23).
The SSA 2023, organised by the Singapore National Olympic Council and Sport Singapore (SportSG), was held at Orchard Hotel. Winners were awarded for their excellent sporting achievements over the past year.
Among the five athletes nominated for the Sportsman of the Year title this year, which included the likes of national badminton player Loh Kean Yew, Farhan came out on top.
The 26-year-old awardee is a three-time silat world champion, who recently competed in the 2023 SEA Games and came in first for the men’s Tanding 85-90 kg category.
This is the first time that Farhan has been awarded the Sportsman of the Year award. On the other hand, Tianwei now holds her fourth Sportswoman of the Year title.
Table tennis player Tianwei, 36, competed in the 2022 Commonwealth Games and brought home three gold medals after winning in the table tennis women’s singles, doubles and team categories.
Other nominees for the 2023 Sportswoman of the Year title are pencak silat’s Siti Khadijah, xiangqi’s Ngo Lan Huong, swimming’s Quah Jing Wen, bowling’s Cherie Tan, archery’s Contessa Loh and shooting’s Teh Xiu Hong.
After a long career playing table tennis competitively, Tianwei has since retired and is now doing a master’s in sports industry management at Peking University, Beijing.
Kitefoiler Maximilian Maeder was awarded Sportsboy of the Year for the second consecutive year, while bowling player Colleen Pee is 2023’s Sportsgirl of the Year.
Maximilian was recently crowned world champion at the Sailing World Championships on Saturday (Aug 19), and secured Singapore’s first sailing spot for the 2024 Paris Olympics the day before.
Colleen, 18, came in second at the 41st Malaysian International Open in June, and scored four gold medals at the bowling U21 World Championships in 2022.
The Team of the Year (Event) award went to the Badminton Mixed Doubles Team for their achievements in the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, while the award’s Team Sport subcategory was won by the Tchoukball Women’s Team.
Singapore’s Bowling Women’s Doubles Team was awarded Sportsgirl Team of the Year (Event), and the Ice Hockey Under-17 Boys’ Team won Sportsboy Team of the Year (Team Sport).
Swimming coach Gary Tan was crowned Coach of the Year.
Joelle Chan won Best Sports Photo of the Year and The Straits Times’ Rohit Brijnath was awarded Most Inspiring Sports Story of the Year.
The Best Sports Event of the Year titles went to the Standard Chartered Marathon 2022 (Community / Mass Participation) and Singapore Smash 2022 (Exhibition / Competition).
