Singapore sports round-up (1-7 Jan): MGS holds charity swimathon, Asia Pacific Federation of Wrestling launched

SINGAPORE — Here is a round-up of sports events and developments in Singapore in the past week (1 to 7 January):

MGS charity swimathon raises over $20,000

Methodist Girls School’s (MGS) swimmers past and present - including national swimmer Quah Jing Wen - raised over $20,000 in a "swimathon" at the MGS Swimming Complex on Saturday (6 January) to raise funds for the school’s inaugural "Swim for Life" initiative.

Proceeds of the charity drive will go to Singapore Aquatics’ "Empowering Lives Through Aquatics" learn-to-swim programme to equip youths from vulnerable backgrounds with water survival skills under the SwimSafer national water safety syllabus.

Apart from the swimathon, in which more than 50 MGS swimmers swam over 50 laps each, representatives of the national women’s water polo team also brought youths from the Southeast District through a game of Flippa ball - a simplified version of water polo.

Former national swimmers Ang Peng Siong, David Lim, Oon Jin Teik and Oon Jin Gee were also present to lend their support. The public can also contribute to the SWIM for LIFE charity drive by making their donations at the drive’s giving.sg page.

Grapplemax jointly-launches Asia Pacific Federation of Wrestling

Singapore-based professional wrestling production company Grapplemax has jointly launched the Asia Pacific Federation of Wrestling (APFW) with six other promotions from the region on Friday (5 January). APFW seeks to drive the growth of professional wrestling across Asia, and comprises pioneer member promotions from Singapore (Grapplemax), Thailand (SETUP), China (DFW), Taiwan (Puzzle) and Japan (New Japan Pro Wrestling, Stardom).

The initiative, led by New Japan Pro Wrestling, will feature international collaborations in the following areas:

• dispatching of Japanese pro wrestlers to partner promotions,

• provision of matches and other events featuring Japanese pro wrestlers,

• transfer of Japanese pro wrestling skills to partner promotions and affiliated pro wrestlers,

• other collaborations to promote pro wrestling besides matches, including video content.

Grapplemax had supported Japanese promotion Stardom on their three-day pro wrestling showcase in Singapore in November last year. It was the first time that Stardom, an all-women pro wrestling promotion, had performed in Singapore.

FAS suspends council member for potential breach

The Football Association of Singapore (FAS) has provisionally suspended council member Harim Ali, head coach of Global Football Academy, for a potential breach. The Straits Times reported an FAS spokesperson saying that the council member’s duties have been reassigned accordingly and it will not comment further until its ethics committee completes its findings.

ST reported that the “potential breach” highlighted by the FAS is said to be related to an allegedly leaked document that surfaced after a review of the national men’s Under-22 football team’s performance at the 2023 SEA Games in May. A four-man panel was convened in the same month after the team’s dismal showing, which included a 7-0 loss to Malaysia, with Harman among those in the panel.

FAS did not make public the full report submitted by the panel, but eventually announced a list of 10 recommendations to work on after the conclusion of its review in July. Before that, on 30 June, online publication The Monitor SG published a story that was based on “portions of the review” that its writer had seen.

Harman, who is also head coach of Singapore Football League Division 2 side GFA Sporting Westlake FC, has since engaged a lawyer to deal with the matter. He was also part of Hougang United chairman Bill Ng’s Team Game Changers who ran against the late Lim Kia Tong’s team at the FAS elections in 2017.

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