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By Yeo Jingwei
In 2006, we achieved many firsts, which we shared with you over the past issues of SDSC Touch. Which are the ones that left a deep impression on you? Here are some of ours:
1) Bests at XVIII Commonwealth Games
Efforts to continuously achieve our goal - “to maximise our members’ potential through sports”- were seen when elite athletes including Theresa Goh, Lim Keng Joo, Lieu Teck Hua and James Leow ALL performed their personal bests during the Melbourne Commonwealth Games - the second Commonwealth Games to have opened its doors to elite athletes with disability.
Despite not attaining any medals at the Games，it was not at all disappointing. The athletes gained an even stronger passion to find their standing in the international sporting arena after that.
2) Theresa Goh misses world record by 0.05 seconds
0.05 seconds. That was how close Singapore’s golden girl, Theresa Goh, was from breaking the 50m breaststroke world record during the Telkom South Africa (SA) National Aquatic Championship. We took one whole second to sigh.
But it was still worthwhile. We took one whole day to celebrate the three FESPIC records Theresa broke in 50m Breaststroke, 50m Butterfly and 100m Butterfly during this Championship.
3) SDSC website’s makeover attracts 15,000 visits to its site every month
In May 2006, we unlocked the doors to our revamped website and more than 15,000 visits were made during that first month. It was fun watching the web counters, like watching our shares grow all the time.
“Not only is our website newly revamped, it can now be accessed by persons of all forms of disability, from visual impairment to physical disabilities,” said Mr Kevin Wong, Executive Director of SDSC.
4) First Singaporean to gain entry to Beijing 2008 Paralympics – Mohd Firdaus Bin Nordin
Assen became a hot spot as disabled athletes flew in from all parts of the world for the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Athletics World Championships. The Championships, otherwise acclaimed as “The Worlds”, had a number of defining moments, but none of them beats the fact that Singapore returned with a silver medal amidst stiff competition with world record holders and ex-Paralympians. And with that, wheelchair racer Mohd Firdaus Bin Nordin became the first Singaporean to gain entry to the 2008 Beijing Paralympics (equivalent of the Olympics).
5) Theresa Goh returns with world record in hand
Although she may have missed a world record a while ago, by less than a fingernail’s distance, Theresa Goh Rui Si clinched another when she broke the 200m breaststroke world record (*SB4 classification) in the 2006 U.S. Paralympics National Swimming Championships.
6) Team Singapore roars at 9th FESPIC Games
Although this was the first time Singapore participated in sailing, ten-pin bowling, boccia and lawn bowls during the FESPIC Games, our bite was not to be underestimated as our national athletes fell their competitors one by one, raking up a grand medal tally of 7 gold, 5 silver and 5 bronze medals. Singapore was ranked overall 11th from a total of 46 countries. Theresa Goh broke three FESPIC records during the few days she was there, before she set off to IPC World Swimming Championships in South Africa, and every member of our sailing team returned with a medal each.
7) She made Singapore proud once again.
Theresa Goh returned from 2006 IPC World Swimming Championships with a World Champion title in 200M Individual Medley for SM5 category. Held every four years, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) World Swimming Championship is the most important event in the Paralympic calendar for swimmers, as it is a qualifying round which promises direct entry to the Beijing 2008 Paralympics. With that, Theresa became the second Singaporean who has qualified for the Beijing Paralympics.
8) A Volunteer Who “Inspire” - Shawn Chew
Mr. Shawn Chew, one of our long-time volunteers for sailing, was awarded the Rotary Club of Suntec City “Inspire” Volunteer Award 2006. As the leader of the volunteer group he set up in his company – APL Logistics / Neptune Orient Lines, Shawn devotes every Sunday morning to the disabled sailing programme at Changi Sailing Club, rallying his colleagues to form car pools to ferry disabled athletes to and fro training, and helping with the sailing logistics.
9) First National Interschool Swimming Championship to demonstrate swimming for the disabled
In 2006, the 47th National Interschool Swimming Championship invited disabled swimmers to demonstrate their skills during a special event at the championship. This was the first time a local national championship (not organized by SDSC) has integrated events for the disabled, and is the first sign of budding of the integration between athletes of different capabilities and from all walks of life.
10) Have you been ‘Touch’ed yet?
One fine day in 2006, you received our first enewsletter – SDSC Touch, led by our student writers in National Junior College. We had fun doing them and hope you enjoyed reading too. If you have, recommend a friend to subscribe to our newsletter here!