- More than S$2.8 million awarded to young athletes in Singapore over a short span of four year
- High performance category modified to focus on youth development
- 2014 recipients include outstanding young talents such as Martina Veloso, Veronica Shanti Pereira and Nur Marina Chan
Singapore, 5 July 2014 – Close to 300 deserving young athletes were awarded the Singapore Olympic Foundation-Peter Lim Scholarship at the ITE College Central today. Mr Lawrence Wong, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth and Second Minister for Communications and Information, graced the award presentation ceremony as the Guest-of-Honour.
The SOF-Peter Lim Scholarship was launched in 2010 when businessman and philanthropist Mr Peter Lim donated $10 million to the Singapore Olympic Foundation (SOF) to set up a scholarship. This donation remains the largest individual donation for a sports scholarship in Singapore.
The Scholarship aims to provide financial assistance to outstanding young athletes from financially-challenged backgrounds to facilitate their pursuit in sports excellence. Recipients are required to meet a criteria which includes consistent results at relevant sports competitions.
So far, over 1,000 SOF-Peter Lim Scholarships valued at more than S$2.8 million, have been awarded. This year alone, more than 1,000 athletes from 50 sports representing 160 schools applied for the Scholarship, a testimony to its popularity among young aspiring athletes.
The Scholarship also supports under-18 high performance athletes who are on a high performance pathway and train with the national youth or national teams. This year, the age criteria for the High Performance category has been modified from open age to under-18, to cater to younger athletes who do not qualify for other support systems.
This year’s recipients include outstanding young talents such as Veronica Shanti Pereira (Athletics), Adam Swandi (Football), Loh Jia Yi (Sailing), Nur Marina Chan (Swimming) and Martina Veloso (Shooting). The latter two will be heading to the Commonwealth Games, Youth Olympic Games and Asian Games to represent Singapore in their respective sports.
Former recipients returned to participate in a special segment to share their experiences and tips with this year’s recipients. Amanda Lim (Swimming) and Muhammad Alfian (Silat), were joined on stage by Veronica Shanti Pereira, Adam Swandi and Geraldine Chew (Synchronised swimming) as they gave an insight to their sporting lives.
“I’m very grateful to be awarded the Singapore Olympic Foundation-Peter Lim Scholarship. The scholarship will not only help me to pay for equipment such as shoes and spikes, it also recognises my efforts and achievements and motivates me to do better in sports,” said Veronica Shanti Pereira who was among the High Performance Under-18 awardees.
“We continue to see an enthusiastic subscription to the Singapore Olympic Foundation-Peter Lim Scholarship from young aspiring athletes this year. This is a positive indication of the increased level of interest in sports among the youth in Singapore. The Singapore Olympic Foundation is pleased that the Scholarship has now supported more than 1,000 young athletes in the pursuit of their sporting dreams and would like to express our gratitude to Mr Peter Lim for his continued generosity and support,” said Mr Ng Ser Miang, Chairman of the Singapore Olympic Foundation.