Loh Kean Yew, Yip Pin Xiu, Aloysius Yapp & Shayna Ng To Be Honoured
It’s been an excellent year for Singapore sport, with more than 1 of our athletes coming out tops in their respective competitions.
Traditionally, an open-top bus parade is held to celebrate sporting achievements, just like Joseph Schooling‘s in 2016.
Thus, despite the threat of Covid-19, 4 Team Singapore athletes will be given that honour on Boxing Day (26 Dec) – including new badminton World Champion Loh Kean Yew.
Celebrating with Singaporeans
The parade was announced by Team Singapore on Instagram, saying it would be to celebrate the achievements with Singaporeans and thank everyone for their support.
It will be held for just 2 hours only from 1-3pm, and will pass by “several locations in the city”.
They also named the 4 World Champions who’d be in the bus:
- Shuttler Loh Kean Yew
- Swimmer Yip Pin Xiu
- Pool player Aloysius Yapp
- Bowler Shayna Ng
4 athletes have brought glory to Singapore
The 4 athletes have brought glory to Singapore, performing “extraordinarily well”, said Sport Singapore (SportSG) in a statement carried by Channel NewsAsia (CNA).
They noted that the quartet have come in at “top positions at global competitions in their respective sport”.
Loh, 24, needs no introduction, as he clinched a historic win in the Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Championships on Sunday (19 Dec).
Singaporeans will also be familiar with Yip Pin Xiu, 29, who won 2 gold medals at the Tokyo Paralympics in Sep.
As for Yapp, 25, he’s the 1st Singaporean to become world No. 1 in cuesports.
In Sep, he won the US Pro Billiard Series Michigan 10-Ball Open, notching his 1st senior international title.
Ng, 32, won a gold medal in the women’s singles category at the International Bowling Federation Super World Championships in Nov.
It was a historic feat as she’s the 1st Singaporean to do so.
No route details will be shared
Thanks to Covid-19, however, it won’t be possible to prepare beforehand to catch a glimpse of our champion athletes.
That’s because SportSG won’t be sharing the route details of the bus parade, including the specific locations it’ll pass by.
The bus will also not be making pit stops.
Team Singapore also advised the public not to gather in crowds and observe safe distancing.
Thus, if you really want to catch them, you’ll have to be at the right place at the right time.
Kudos to the champions
While it’s disappointing that we won’t have a mass celebration like in Schooling’s in 2016, we’ll just have to abide by the pandemic restrictions.
After all, what’s important is that we recognise the 4 athletes for their supreme contributions to Singapore sports.
And an open-top bus parade is the very least we can do – of course, some prize money won’t hurt either.
Kudos to all 4 champions, and hopefully we can give you guys a massive party when the Covid-19 situation improves.
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Featured images adapted from Loh Kean Yew on Instagram and Asian Paralympic on Twitter.
