Athletes go faster, higher, stronger with a little help

SINGAPORE — Since 2011, sprinter Kugapriya Chandran has banked S$16,000 from the Singapore Olympic Foundation (SOF)-Peter Lim Scholarship. The money has been a huge source of help to the ITE College West student, who comes from a single-parent family. Kugapriya’s mother, Punitha Saminathan, works part-time as a retail assistant.

“The money has really helped with my expenses such as running spikes, which are not cheap, and my expenses when I travel overseas,” said Kugapriya at ITE College East yesterday after receiving her S$5,000 grant.

“I also use it to pay my school fees and sometimes, I give the money to my mum to settle other expenses.”

The 18-year-old, who has a younger brother, added: “It was tough for me growing up but I’ve got used to this lifestyle. I really appreciate this scholarship as it’s really helped me.”

Added Punitha: “It’s not been easy bringing up two children and it’s involved a lot of sacrifices as I am a single parent ... but this scholarship has helped us in many ways.”

A bronze medallist in the women’s 200m at the 2015 Asian Youth Athletics Championships, Kugapriya was one of the 308 student-athletes who received S$839,000 in cash scholarships at the awards ceremony yesterday.

The athletes — who represented the four categories (primary, secondary, junior college/Integrated Programme/tertiary, Under-18 high performance) were chosen from the 1,202 applications across 44 sports that were sent in this year.

Currently in its sixth edition, the SOF-Peter Lim Scholarship has disbursed close to S$5 million for 1,758 scholarships since 2010.

Like Kugapriya, rhythmic gymnast Dawne Chua — who is also from a single-parent family and received S$5,000 yesterday — has similarly put her scholarship money to good use. She has used the funds to pay for her equipment and leotards, which can cost up to S$600 per outfit.

“It’s really helped my family a lot as I travel to quite a few competitions and I can put aside my financial worries and go overseas to compete,” said the 18-year-old Raffles Institution student, who won gold with the women’s rhythmic team at last year’s SEA Games. “My mother is self-employed; it’s not easy for her to raise both my older brother and me single-handedly and this scholarship helps to ease the burden.”

Yesterday’s awards presentation was attended by a number of special guests, including American volleyball player Logan Tom, five footballers from Spanish club Valencia CF — which Singaporean billionaire Peter Lim owns — and La Liga ambassadors Gaizka Mendieta and David Albelda.

The awardees and their families were also treated to an interactive Q&A session with the Valencia players, and went home with autographed jerseys from the footballers.