Fancy a sporty N-Day weekend? The Sports Hub has just the thing

SINGAPORE — A host of community activities, ranging from outdoor film screenings at the National Museum to sand-sculpture displays on Sentosa’s beaches, will be open to Singaporeans this Golden Jubilee weekend as the nation celebrates its 50th birthday. And locals will also be able to enjoy a sports-themed National Day celebration, with the Singapore Sports Hub SG50 carnival to be held at the S$1.33 billion facility on Saturday and Sunday.

The carnival, which is expected to attract around 20,000 visitors, will feature several sports-centric activities. These include recreational try-outs in canoeing, paddle boating and kayaking, kampung games such as five stones and kuti kuti, as well as basketball clinics and mass fitness workouts.

During the carnival, Singaporeans and permanent residents can also book selected courts (table tennis, badminton, volleyball and netball) at the Sports Hub’s OCBC Arena and use the Sports Hub gym, both for free. The event will culminate in the “live” screening of the National Day Parade at the OCBC Square.

“Singapore has come a long way through 50 years of nation-building and we are proud to be a part of the country’s structural fabric to help unify Singaporeans as we celebrate the nation’s achievements,” said Sports Hub’s chief operating officer Oon Jin Teik.

Mr Oon also said in a media briefing yesterday that one of the goals of organising the carnival is to encourage people to adopt an active lifestyle.

“The intention of the Sports Hub is not simply to ask the public to come and spectate in sports events and major games,” he said. “The carnival will not only introduce people to this venue and its facilities, but also to different sports. That is important, because we want them to take up an active lifestyle together with their families, and then get tempted to carry on after that.”

Mr Eugene Lee, Sports Hub marketing and communications director, added: “We recognise that people see exercise in many shapes and forms. So, the whole idea of the carnival is to showcase to the public that there are many different things to do here at the Sports Hub, and all these activities are generally geared towards getting people to participate in an active lifestyle.”

Since its soft launch in June last year, the Sports Hub has identified community engagement as one of its primary objectives. To that end, the Sports Hub hosted the first OCBC Waterfest last month, where members of the public were allowed to try out various activities such as sailing, kayaking, and wave surfing.

But Mr Oon admitted the Sports Hub still had room for improvement with regard to community engagement. “An important push for us in meeting our objectives is to make sure that we connect very closely with Singaporeans,” he said yesterday. “But we are still very new, and we want to make sure we reach out further.

“So, we are placing a lot of emphasis and attention to this direction, and that we will have different types of content for people from all walks of life. We are also very keen to put a lot of resources into organising more of such community engagement events in future.”