SINGAPORE – It looks like the Singapore Sports Hub’s efforts to engage Singaporeans have been bearing fruit, according to latest participation figures.

Last year, about 92,000 people were involved in 685 community sport events, including the three quarterly Community Play Days (CPD) that featured free sports try-outs, fitness workouts, and more. This was more than double the 38,000 people who took part in 2015.

The numbers were revealed by Chin Sau Ho, the Sports Hub’s senior director for corporate communications and stakeholder management, and Ashiq Idris, senior manager for community and sports programming, yesterday afternoon at a media briefing.

Apart from the CPD events, the fourth of which will be held this Saturday, the Sports Hub has been introducing other activities under the Experience Sports initiative — an all-inclusive in-house community programme that is free for all participants. These include daily Zumba, yoga and fitness workouts and Learn-To-Play weekend sessions for sports such as handball and beach volleyball.

“We are looking to exceed 100,000 participants this year as we still see a lot of potential (for growth) from the fitness programmes,” Ashiq told TODAY. “The public wants more sessions — some even want two a day — and … we are looking at how we can improve and make it more inclusive.

“For Experience Sports, this is what we have been doing from day one. Initially, not many people were aware of this — for the first half of 2014, we were attracting only 7,000 people.

“The increase in numbers is partly due to the fact that people are starting to understand there are actually a lot of community offerings, apart from the commercial events.”

Chin stressed that the Sports Hub was more than just a venue for big-name marquee events like the Women’s Tennis Association Finals, international football friendlies or concerts.

“We are about the community as well,” he said. “One of our aims … is to try and help people coming here to lead or start an active lifestyle. That’s what we’ve been doing since (opening in) 2014. “There’s always something happening here to cater to people of varying ages … these are numbers we are very happy with.”

Chin added that the Sports Hub is always open to exploring new initiatives with National Sports Associations and other interest groups to promote their respective sports and activities. For example, this weekend’s CPD will be water-themed, with dragon boat races being staged in collaboration with the Singapore Dragon Boat Association, while there will be sabre combat and “Blackminton” activities (an alternative form of badminton that is played in the dark).

The community activities complement the busy schedule on the National Stadium pitch. One such marquee event is the International Champions Cup tournament that is rumoured to take place in July. An announcement on the event is expected to be made next week.

When asked, Chin said: “Other things are coming, which I cannot say today but which you know about (already) … hopefully once the event organisers have sorted out everything, (then) we will have many things (in store).”