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April 7, 2008
SPREADING THE SPORTS MESSAGE: A frisbee game during a Sporton street-sports event at the National Library Building on March 29. Over 40 teams took part in floorball and frisbee-- PHOTO: SINGAPORE SPORTS COUNCILSINGAPOREANS now have a one-stop venue to find and share information on anything sports-related, be it new sports, events, or coaching clinics.
The place? Cyberspace, where a website, www.sporton.com.sg has been set up by the Singapore Sports Council (SSC). Registration is free.
The project is a national-level effort to get Singaporeans to remain fit and healthy by engaging in sports. It is targeted primarily at those aged 17 to 24.
Diana Seng, manager in the SSC's Youth Sport Development Division, explained: 'The aim is to get those who already play sports to learn new sports. And get those who do not, to switch to sports.'
The SSC is targeting this age group as it has found that Singaporeans tend to be less involved in sports after leaving secondary school.
She said: 'We want to keep these people in sports so they will continue to play sports later in their lives, even when they start a family.
'And the best way to reach them is through a website, since young people do everything online.'
To that end, the young and the young at heart can find clinics and competitions for 'emerging' sports such as frisbee, floorball, paintball and bossaball, which combines soccer, volleyball and gymnastics on an inflatable surface.
There are also new twists to old favourites, such as beach rugby and 3-on-3 basketball, in addition to traditional offerings like gymnastics and badminton.
The SSC is also attempting to engage more people by hosting blogs, forums and having an online-chat service on the website. This, it hopes, will allow it to build an online community of sports enthusiasts.
In fact, not only will this initiative give young people a voice in sports, and a greater choice of fun activities to stay fit, but it will also encourage them to get involved in other ways.
For starters, it plans to expose youths to other aspects of sports, such as sports writing and photography, via free workshops.
But the SSC also hopes that some enthusiasts can eventually come up with their own events. Said Seng: 'We want to give young people a platform to organise sports events.'
The website went 'live' last month and currently has about 150 members. But Seng says the SSC is hoping to have 1,000 members by year's end.
The initiative has already got some Singaporeans excited.
Said Amanda Choo, 20, a national sprinter: 'It's quite good to have a place to learn new games.
'For someone like me involved in a sport for individuals, I would find it interesting to learn new team sports.
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