SINGAPORE – A new programme to provide support for athletes showing promise of winning gold medals at the SEA Games level, called Sports Excellence Potential (spexPotential), has been added to Singapore’s high performance sport (HPS) system, Sport Singapore announced on Tuesday.
Aimed at strengthening the backing for youth athletes, this programme also hopes to make their transition to the senior level smoother, the national agency said in a media statement.
The plan is for the athletes to eventually be part of the Sport Excellence Scholarship (spexScholarship) programme that was launched in 2013 and offers support to athletes deemed to have the potential to excel on the Asian and world stage.
Both spexScholarship and spexPotential programmes provide financial and programmatic support for athletes within the high performance sports pathway.
These include a monthly stipend, support for local and overseas training and competitions, sport science and medicine, education, career and personal development.
The Singapore Sport Institute and National Youth Sports Institute (NYSI) will jointly deliver support to spexPotential athletes.
Toh Boon Yi, spexPotential approval panel chairman and Sport Singapore deputy chief executive, said: “Singapore’s HPS system needs to continually evolve so that it takes into account the aspiration and commitment of various cohorts of sporting talent who are at different stages of their development pathways.
“We have also enhanced the spexCarding framework and systemised the approach in channelling resources to support the national sports associations’ athlete pipeline development.
“With younger cohorts displaying outstanding performances at the recent major Games, it is timely for us to roll out the new spexPotential programme to help them realise their potential to be top class.”
Singapore Cycling Federation president Hing Siong Chen believes this was something that was missing in the past and is an important initiative to retain up-and-coming talent who have the potential to go even further.
He said: “It provides this bridging opportunity.
“We have a lot of athletes who may not progress to the next level because they don’t have enough support and funding.
“So with this, it does give them this added impetus to help them achieve what they want.
“It shows that our sporting ecosystem is keeping up and committed with changing times.
“At least we know there are support services and structures that will help bring out the best in our athletes.”
Hing added that it could also motivate athletes to train and compete as it serves as a form of recognition and acknowledgement.
Applications for the spexPotential programme will begin from Friday for a two-month period and will be held concurrently with the spexScholarship programme.
All eligible nominations for the spexPotential programme will be evaluated by the NYSI before shortlisted candidates are interviewed by a panel comprising NYSI sports specialists.
The interview panel’s recommendations will be submitted to the spexPotential selection committee for approval.
All nominated athletes will be informed of the outcome of their spexPotential application by Feb 28.
