SOF-Peter Lim Scholarship tweaked to hand out ‘encouragement awards’
The coronavirus’ impact on the sporting calendar has led to changes in criteria for recipients and quantum awarded
With Covid-19 upending the local and international sporting calendar, the Singapore Olympic Foundation (SOF)-Peter Lim Scholarship will be tweaking its format this year.
In the absence of the National School Games last year and a truncated programme without some team sports this year, the SOF-Peter Lim Scholarship will be doling out “encouragement awards” instead of scholarships.
In a press release on Saturday (Jan 9), the SOF said the disruption caused by the coronavirus has affected the selection criteria due to the lack of competition results, which would usually determine the eligibility of the recipients.
Hence, it decided to seek an “alternative qualification criteria” which “will largely be based on their household income and a nominal activity level in their sports”.
This translates to “good performance at inter-school (minimal zonal) or equivalent competition(s)” for those in the primary, secondary , junior college/integrated programme/tertiary categories.
The quantum for awards will be reduced from last year, so that more recipients can qualify, with the SOF statement stressing that the aims of the awards remain unchanged - “to encourage young student-athletes to play and compete in sports and to benefit as many recipients as possible from financially challenged backgrounds”.
This year’s awards will see $250 handed out to primary school recipients, down from $1,000 last year. Similarly, the secondary school category is now $500 (was $2,000) while the junior college/integrated programme/tertiary category is $1,000 (was $3,000).
The high performance Under-18 category is halved from last year to $2,500.
Said SOF chairman Ng Ser Miang: “The values we hold in sport will tide us through these challenging times and continue to help us to forge ahead as we fight against the pandemic and poise for recovery.
“It is the desire of the SOF and Mr Peter Lim to continue to encourage and support young student-athletes, especially those from challenged backgrounds.
“With the revised criteria this year, we hope to reach as many eligible student-athletes as possible, and at the same time, continue to support their sporting aspirations.”
Since its first awards ceremony in 2011, the SOF-Peter Lim Scholarship has handed out $8 million to 2,930 recipients from 54 sports, including Olympic champion Joseph Schooling (swimming), Shayna Ng (bowling), Martina Lindsay Veloso (shooting), Shanti Pereira (athletics) and Adam Swandi (football).
Lim has pledged an additional $10 million to extend the scholarship till 2030.
Interested applicants can visit www.sof.sg from Monday (Jan 11) for details.
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