SPORTING SUCCESS

New Opportunities

Our children have finally been rewarded for their patience and perseverance with a full programme of competitive sport. Students across the age range have thrown themselves into a full range of opportunities, with House Sport, interschool leagues, SEASAC and FOBISIA tournaments and overseas trips all resuming. Students have represented the school with distinction, upholding the school’s core values, as well as winning a plethora of trophies and medals, further underlining Tanglin’s place at the top table of school sport across the region.

The Tanglin Merlions, fresh off their Middle School ACSIS triumph, secured the SEASAC Girls Championship by a wide margin, with the team breaking 10 SEASAC records across two days of competition. Seven of our athletes are travelling to Australia in April to compete in the Australian Age Championships, having hit qualifying times this year.

Our Touch teams completed a clean sweep of ACSIS Division 1 titles, winning the 12&U, 14&U, 16&U, and 19&U leagues, in addition to 16&U and 19&U Pan Pacific tournament wins. Not to be outdone, our rugby teams have racked up the silverware as 16&U FOBISIA Champions, while the 19&U team completed the ACSIS and SEASAC Division 1 double.

A title win for our 19&U Football Boys in the ACSIS league was closely followed by another SEASAC Championship for our girls, their 6th win in seven attempts. Tanglin netball has already registered notable wins at FOBISIA U13 and U18, with our 12&U team winning the ACSIS Division 1 title. At the time of writing, the major tournament and leagues for our senior teams are about to » commence. Similarly, our Tanglin Lion Gymnasts are about to embark on their competitive season, with our gymnasts continuing to excel as some of the highest-performing school gymnasts in Singapore.

In addition to these traditional strengths, we have been delighted with the performance of our teams in developing sports with fine individual performances in Climbing and Cross Country, as well as ‘personal best’ finishes in boys’ volleyball, basketball, and tennis, each winning the Division 1 Plate in their respective SEASAC competitions.

New Staff

Central to this sporting success is our commitment to recruiting talented staff who can develop the potential in all children, stretching and challenging those who aspire to excel.

Our new Director of Swimming, Bobby Hurley, has already made a significant impact on the performance of our top swimmers, blending his expertise as a high-performance coach with his own experience as a world record-holding elite athlete. Our Junior and Middle School swimmers are developing at a pace under Mylene Ong, an Olympic swimmer herself. We are already seeing personal bests and record-breaking times across the programme.

Shuangru Lin has joined us as a full-time Lead Netball Coach, sharing her expertise as a Level 3 coach and former national player. Her extensive knowledge of Singapore Netball has already enriched our programme, offering students the chance to train with the national team and play regular fixtures with the Singapore Sports School.

Nabila Littleford adds further depth to our highly qualified team of gymnastics coaches. Her knowledge as a FIG Level 2 coach, national level judge, and former elite gymnast offers valuable experience when preparing our highperforming gymnasts.

New Facilities

In January this year, we were delighted to unveil the Centenary Building and new world-class sporting facilities. The new Aquatic Centre with its 50m pool, and the Gymnastics Centre, have both provided vast upgrades to our existing facilities. We are already seeing the benefits to both programmes with an increase in the number and capacity of sessions offered, and high-quality training which has already yielded some excellent results in competition.

Our new Athletic Development Gym has become a pillar of our sports provision, providing not only Olympic standard equipment for our aspiring athletes to train but also an innovative and creative space for our Infant and Junior children to safely explore fundamental movement skills. The 15m climbing wall looms large as you approach the new entrance to the school and this exciting, perhaps daunting, new facility has already had its first taste of competition with International School Climbing League participants testing themselves on a bespoke ‘speed lane’. With the Cricket Deck on Level 6 scheduled to open in Term 3, our students will continue to benefit from the school’s investment in sport and our community. ■