Hannah Ng in action for Singapore against India in last year’s Asian Youth Games. Hannah, who represented Raffles Institution in the A Division this year, is in the frame for a spot on the YOG squad. (Photo © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports archive)
Thursday, May 27, 2010 — The Singapore National Olympic Council confirmed three more national age-group teams for the upcoming Youth Olympic Games.
The SNOC Games Selection Committee selected the women’s basketball and volleyball team, as well as the men’s handball team.
The team draw for basketball and volleyball is scheduled for May 31st while the handball draw is on June 4th.
20 countries will take part in the respective men’s and women’s basketball competition and they will be divided into four groups. The top two in each group will move into the quarter-finals.
It is notable that all the other team sports have only six countries taking part in each gender category. Basketball is the only sport with 20 countries per gender. The 3-on-3 format for the basketball competition allows for a shorter game play and thus more teams can take part.
Football, arguably as popular as basketball in Singapore, also sees only six countries taking part in each gender category. The Singapore national U-15 football squad is drawn to play Zimbabwe and Montenegro in the opening round of the football competition.
Earlier this month, the SNOC confirmed the first batch of athletes who will represent Singapore at the YOG.
“Training has been tolerable so far but it’s going to get really tough soon!,” said Hannah Ng, one of the four players chosen to represent Singapore in the basketball competition. “We need to build up on a lot of stamina for YOG because we can’t afford to take any breaks in that 5 minutes of game play, for 2 quarters. Right now, we are training 5-6 times a week, for about 2-2.5 hours each time.”
Tok Hui Min, Zoe Eng and Alanna Lim have been selected along with Hannah Ng to represent Singapore in the YOG basketball competition.
Basketball Countries (Men’s)
Argentina, Central African Republic, Croatia, Egypt, Greece, India, Iran, Israel, Lithuania, New Zealand, Panama, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Serbia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, USA, US Virgin Islands
Basketball Countries (Women’s)
Angola, Australia, Belarus, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Ivory Coast, Japan, Korea, Mali, Russia, Singapore, USA, Vanuatu and a team to be jointly decided at a later stage by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and FIBA
Volleyball Countries (Men’s)
Argentina, Serbia, Cuba, Congo, Russia, Iran
Volleyball Countries (Women’s)
Belgium, Peru, Singapore, Egypt, the United States of America (USA) and another team from Asia
Handball Countries (Men’s)
Brazil, Cook Island, Egypt, France, Singapore, South Korea
Handball Countries (Women’s)
Angola, Australia, Brazil, Denmark, Japan, Russia
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Does anyone knows here hannah ng of singapore? We played last 2009 at singapore. It is first asian youth games
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