1000 athletes and fans attend inaugural RED All-Star Weekend

Story by Lim Yong Teck/Red Sports. Photos by Matthew Lau and Zachary Foo/Red Sports

The *SCAPE playspace used for the RED All-Star Weekend. (Photo 1 © Matthew Lau/Red Sports)

*SCAPE, Saturday, August 9, 2014 — More than 1000 of the best and most popular student-athletes — as voted for by over 12,000 readers since January 2014 in Red Sports polls that have been conducted for nine sports — and fans participated in the inaugural RED All-Star Weekend (RASW) on August 8 and 9, 2014, at *SCAPE.

With over 300 basketballers turning up for the RED 3×3 Basketball Showdown on 8 August, the stage was set for RASW’s main event comprising of tournaments in basketball, floorball, and futsal for student-athletes. Held as part of *SCAPE’s SG(almost)50 National Day celebration, the student-athletes partied with their sporting skills.

In the floorball tournament, Challenger Team 5 (C5) — comprising Vignesa Pasupathy (Anglo-Chinese JC), Muhammad Hamizan (Meridian JC), Hafiz (Swiss Cottage Sec), and Tng Zong Wei (Raffles Institution) — upset the three all-star teams by emerging champions. They beat All-Star Team 1 (AS1) — comprising Soh Zheng Kang (Bukit Merah Sec), Amirul Afiq (Raffles Institution), Lee Jin Hao (Meridian JC), Vanessa Chin (Tampines JC), and Jacelyn Lee (St. Margaret’s Sec) — 3-1 in the final.

The runners-up, AS1, had finished fourth in the preliminary group stage, and headed into the semi-finals having to face top seeds, C2, who had won six of their seven preliminary group stage matches.

AS1 salvaged some pride for themselves and ensured the final did not turn out to be an all-challenger affair by winning 6-4 in their semi-final against C2 — comprising Muhammad Yusuf (Meridian JC), Aniq Naqib (Temasek Polytechnic), Muhammad Afiq (Republic Polytechnic), Timothy Phuah (Temasek Polytechnic), and Iskandar (Swiss Cottage Secondary).

For futsal, AS6 — comprising Tan Wei Xiang (National JC), Adib Farjar (Millennia Institute), Syabil Anwar (Meridian JC), and Abdul Mateen (Meridian JC) — were crowned champions, but not before eventual runners-up C3 ran them close in a match that saw AS6 2-1 winners.

In basketball, the two teams who finished runners-up of their respective groups — Team 1 and Team 3 — upset the winners of their respective opposing groups in the semi-finals to make the final. Team 1 — comprising Dorjee Chokka Lama (North Vista Sec), Jeremy Anand Koh (New Town Sec), Nigel Ng (Presbyterian High), Shukri (Dunman Sec), and Kelvin Frany Feng [Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road)] — beat Team 3 — comprising Kovic Lee (Unity Sec), Koh Jin Quan [Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road)], Leon Lee (Yishun Sec), Tng Zhi Cai (Presbyterian High), and Ryan Wong (Canberra Sec) — 13-11 in added time to emerge champions.

“I really think that this event bonded the players from the different schools. It allowed us to get to know one another better and have fun, even though we don’t really know each other well,” said basketballer Kelvin Frany Feng, part of the winning Team 1.

In the midst of competition during the day, RASW provided some inspiration, for student-athletes harbouring greater sporting aspirations, in the form of LionsXII footballers and the Singapore Slingers.

Afiq Yunos, Faris Ramli, Gabriel Quak and Khairul Nizam of the LionsXII, and Wong Wei Long, Chase Tan, Desmond Oh, Ng Hanbin, Delvin Goh and Russel Low of the Singapore Slingers, made guest appearances at the event, entertaining the audience by displaying some of their skills, taking part in mini-games with the student-athletes and spectators, and indulging in the customary selfie and the occasional autograph.

Bands such as Emerald Street, Anna Judge April, Hometown Heroes (SG), and Tim De Cotta x The Warriors provided music throughout the day. Parkour group Superfly Monkey Dragons also conducted parkour demonstrations during RASW.

Despite finishing second from bottom in the eight-team floorball preliminary group stage with his Challenger Team 3, Jurong JC’s Chang Jia Jung said, “I love the atmosphere and, at the same time, be able to make friends with players from other schools, so it’s a great experience!”

“It’s a very good experience. Well done to the Red Sports team for this event. I enjoyed the 3-on-3 basketball games. We get to play with (players from) other schools and enjoy the sport we love,” said Shiek Ridwan, a North Vista Sec basketballer who was a part of third-placed Team 5 and who won for himself a Xiaomi Mi 3 mobile phone after thrilling the audience with some slam-dunks in a dunk contest.

Results from RED All-Star Weekend here.

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