WINNING STREAKS AT SAFSA AWARDS

The Singapore Armed Forces Sports Association (SAFSA) men's water polo team will always remember 2014 as the year when they had a perfect sporting season. The team had a winning streak last year; besting even some regional national teams.

"Winning the 3rd Phuti Anan International Water Polo Cup 2014 capped an amazing year for us - we went through the entire season without losing a match," said Major (MAJ) Dominic Koh, team captain.

Playing against the Thai Chulabhom Graduate Institute team, which had home-ground advantage, the SAFSA team fought their way up despite trailing by a goal at half time. They won the finals 10-6.

"Many of them are members of the Thailand National water polo team. We played well and demonstrated the resilience to win against a very determined team who were backed by the home-crowd," said MAJ Koh.

MAJ Koh and his team were named SAFSA's Best Men Team at the SAFSA awards ceremony held at Orchid Country Club on 3 Jul. They received their award from Chief of Defence Force Lieutenant-General (LG) Ng Chee Meng.

Speaking at the ceremony, LG Ng said: "Beyond the medals, sports is the glue that promotes esprit-de-corps in the SAF, and it is the fuel that sparks our fighting spirit."

He thanked the SAF units who were involved in the smooth running of the recent Southeast Asian Games hosted by Singapore. LG Ng noted that SAFSA athletes contributed 16 medals to Singapore's haul from the Games.

Shooting took the two top titles this year, with 2nd Warrant Officer (2WO) Poh Lip Meng and Lieutenant (LTA) Nicole Tan taking home the Best Sportsman and Sportswoman titles, respectively.

The Best Sportsman and Sportswoman titles are presented by SAFSA to honour its best, and are based on medal tallies and level of competition over the past year. This year SAFSA gave a total of 208 awards, including seven Best titles.

Both national shooters, 2WO Poh bagged two medals at the SEA Games - Gold in the Men's 50m Pistol Team, and Bronze in the Men's 10m Air Pistol team events. LTA Tan also won two medals - Silver in the Women's 25m Pistol team, and a Bronze in the Women's 10m Air Pistol team events.

The SAFSA awards also honour the contributions of coaches such as MAJ (Ret) Victor Sim. He has coached the SAFSA badminton team for over three decades. This is his fourth time winning the Best Coach title.

MAJ (Ret) Sim led his team to their 14th championship title in the Public Service Inter-Ministry Games.

"In some of the matches, we played against players much younger than us (and) we had to summon all our experience to edge out our opponents," said MAJ (Ret) Sim, who still plays badminton competitively.

Besides winning the overall title, the SAFSA badminton team were also first in the Men's Open (40 to 49-years-old) and Men's Active Agers (50 and above) categories.

The 60-year-old humbly said: "The SAFSA award has never been on my mind. All we want to do is to win for the organisation."

"I thank my players for their hard work. Without them, this award would not have been mine."