Shining stars of Singapore sports

It has been an action-packed year for sports, with Team Singapore athletes achieving many firsts both in local and international events.

The New Paper highlights 10 of the Republic's top sportsmen and sportswomen who were faster, higher and stronger in 2015.

SHEIK FARHAN SHEIK ALAU'DDIN

(SILAT)

Aged 17, Farhan won the Pencak Silat World Championships Class J (90-95kg) title in Phuket in January. The second-youngest child of two-time world champion Sheik Alau'ddin also won a SEA Games bronze in the men's Tanding class H (80-85kg) in June.

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YEO JIA MIN

(BADMINTON)

The 16-year-old missed out on making her SEA Games debut on home soil due to a knee injury, but soon after made up for it by winning Badminton Asia Under-17 girls' singles title, as well as the girls' doubles title with Crystal Wong.

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SHANTI PEREIRA

(ATHLETICS)

The 18-year-old won Singapore's first individual SEA Games sprint title since 1973 when she clocked a national record of 23.60sec to claim the gold medal in the women's 200m at the National Stadium in June. The Republic Polytechnic student also won a bronze in the 100m in 11.88.

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LIN YE

(TABLE TENNIS)

The 19-year-old retained her World Tour Grand Finals Under-21 girls' title in Portugal earlier this month. Lin also bagged gold in the women's doubles and team events at the SEA Games in June, and partnered Zhou Yihan to the Belgium Open women's doubles title in September.

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LIANG XIAOYU

(BADMINTON)

The 19-year-old beat former world champion Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand in the Thailand Open women's singles semi-finals in October before losing to South Korea's Sung Ji Hyun in the final. The shuttler then won the women's singles title at the Maybank Malaysia International Challenge Championships last month, and is in contention for a spot at the Rio Olympics next year.

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YIP PIN XIU

(SWIMMING)

The bubbly 23-year-old (above) may have won just one gold medal at the 8th Asean Para Games here, but she set a world record in the process at the OCBC Aquatic Centre earlier this month. Yip, who suffers from muscular dystrophy, clocked 1min 01.61sec to beat more able-bodied swimmers, including teammate Theresa Goh, to win the women's 50m back S5(S2-S5) event at the Games.

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SHAYNA NG

(BOWLING)

The 2012 World Cup champion (above) became the first Singaporean to win a gold medal at the Women's World Bowling Championships. The 26-year-old won the All-Events title, and added bronze medals in the singles, doubles and team event in Abu Dhabi earlier this month.

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TAN XIANG TIAN

(WUSHU)

The 23-year-old became only Singapore's third world champion in the sport when he won the xingyiquan (compulsory) gold at the World Wushu Championships in Jakarta last month. Tan also won a silver in the nanquan (compulsory) event a day after his gold-medal feat, as well as the SEA Games duilian barehand title in June.

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JUSTIN LIU AND DENISE LIM

(SAILING)

The couple spent almost all their savings to train and compete in Europe, in an attempt to qualify for the Rio Olympics in the new Nacra 17 class. Liu and Lim, both 24, finally earned Singapore a ticket to Rio next year at the Isaf World Cup Qingdao in September, although they will still need to go through Singapore Sailing Federation's internal trials to clinch their places in Brazil next year.

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JOSEPH SCHOOLING

(SWIMMING)

The 20-year-old () has been making waves at the University of Texas in Austin and made a perfect homecoming at the 28th South-east Asia Games in June when he won gold medals in all his nine events, including three relays. He then won Singapore's first-ever Fina World Championships medal in August when he clocked 50.96 to clinch the bronze in the men's 100m fly.

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BY THE numbers

23.60 - Shanti Pereira won Singapore's first individual SEA Games sprint title since 1973 when she clocked a national record of 23.60sec to claim the gold medal in the women's 200m at the National Stadium in June.