SINGAPORE – The month of May has been a miserable month for national high jumper Kampton Kam save for the final day when he finally welcomed news to lift his spirits.
The 21-year-old had previously seen his medal hopes at the Hanoi SEA Games dashed when he was forced to withdraw from the May 12-23 event due to a collapsed lung.
And there was only good news on Tuesday (May 31) when he was named among 17 new athletes across eight sports to be accepted into the Sport Excellence Scholarship program (spexScholarship) for his 2022 class. The additions bring the total number of scholarship holders to 76 in 24 sports.
In a media release, Sport Singapore (SportSG) announced the new participants, including kiteboarder Maximilian Maeder, national fencer Kiria Tikanah Abdul Rahman and indoor skydiver Kyra Poh – the first athlete to compete in a sport that isn’t one of the big ones heard playing.
Another novelty of the program started in 2013 is the higher number of team athletes this year.
Kam, who is recovering from his surgery on May 6, said: “This is particularly important for me, especially because I missed the games. It’s encouraging that they see the potential in me even though there has been uncertainty as to whether I can get back to my form. The operation was a major setback and there was a lot of uncertainty.”
Kam, who will take part in the Commonwealth Games from July 28 to August 8, is planning to return to Sweden for a second training stint and the spex scholarship is a timely boost, he added.
His 24-day training stint with 2004 Olympic champion Stefan Holm last December cost about $10,000, with Singapore Athletics subsidizing half the amount. His second station is largely covered by the Spex grant.
The spex scholarship offers support for athletes who are considered to have the potential to assert themselves on the Asian and international stage. In addition to monthly scholarships, scholarship holders are also supported in the areas of education, sports science and nutrition.
Noting that indoor skydiving is still seen as a niche sport, Poh said the grant will “give me more holistic support as an athlete” and allow her to train with the best coaches and work with sports scientists to improve her technique .
Maximilian, 15, who won the International Kiteboarding Association’s Kitefoiling Youth (U21) World Championships in Torregrande, Italy earlier this month, is grateful. He said: “With the enhanced support provided by the spex scholarship, it will certainly provide me with a more conducive environment to train, prepare for competitions, improve my techniques and work towards representing Singapore at the 2024 Summer Olympics, where kitesurfing will be his Olympic debut.
“I’m really grateful to receive the spex grant and will try to do my best consistently.”
21-year-old fencer Kiria, who won an individual silver medal and a team gold medal at the recent Hanoi SEA Games, said the scholarship would give her the extra boost she needs in terms of funding and support to “perform at the highest to train and participate in competitions”.
She said: “I hope to make Singapore proud in the upcoming Asian and World Fencing Championships, as well as in the Big Games and other international competitions. Ultimately I want to be the best fencer I can be and win more medals in the process for Singapore.”
A total of 47 spexScholars were in action in Hanoi, of which 43 brought home at least one medal and 22 won at least one gold medal.
Culture, Community and Youth Minister Edwin Tong said that the impressive performances of spexScholars at the SEA Games were a testament to the effectiveness of High Performance Sport (HPS) in “helping our athletes to perform well and achieve podium results achieve”.
Of the new awardees, he added: “I am particularly pleased that we have extended the spex scholarship to Kyra Poh, an indoor skydiving athlete who has excelled at world level in a sport not represented at the major games is.
“I hope this will encourage a more diverse group of athletes to strive for athletic excellence in the years to come.”
A total of 49 nominations were received by the Singapore Sport Institute, 17 of which were selected to participate in the program this year. Of the remaining 59 spexScholars in the 2022 cohort, 34 of them had renewed their contracts from the previous cycle, while the remaining 25 athletes had not yet renewed their contracts.
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