Contributed by SAFRA National Service Association.

The SAFRA Yishun Country Club (SYCC) Indoor Air Weapons Range will be the official venue for shooting events at the 1st Asian Youth Games (AYG) to be held in Singapore from 29 June to 7 July next year. This was announced at the AYG launch ceremony on Friday, 14 Nov 08.

The SYCC Indoor Air Weapons Range is the largest and best-equipped air weapons range in Singapore, and has hosted a series of regional and international events such as the annual Singapore Open Championships since 2001 and the 1st Asian Schools Shooting Championships earlier in August.

However, what many Singaporeans may not know is that the facility is also the regular training ground for many of Singapore’s national shooters who are members of the SAFRA Shooting Club. This includes young national shooters such as 2008 Sports Boy of the Year Jonathan Koh, Ong Jun Hong, Adrienne Ser, Jasmine Ser, Vanessa Yong and Aqilah Binte Sudhir, who recently clinched the Gold medal in the 10m Air Rifle Women's event at the Commonwealth Youth Games in October 2008 – some of whom are expected to bear the hopes of Singapore at the upcoming Asian Youth Games.

"Having the shooting events hosted at the SAFRA Yishun Indoor Air Weapons Range is indeed good news for our shooters. Those who get selected to compete in the upcoming Asian Youth Games will definitely have an added advantage over their foreign counterparts as they have been training regularly at the actual competition venue and would thus be better acquainted with the competition environment such as the lighting conditions," said Dr Thomas Soo Kwok Seng, Captain of Air Weapons for SAFRA Shooting Club.

With the growing popularity of shooting in Singapore, the SAFRA Shooting Club has also seen more young shooters joining its membership to pursue the sport competitively. Although almost half of its members are currently between the ages of 18 to 22 years old, the number of under-18 shooters has grown to more than 30 percent of the club’s membership which currently stands at over 1,600 members. The club’s total membership itself has grown steadily since it’s inception in 1979 from just under 50 members.

“The recent achievements of some of our younger SAFRA Shooting Club members who had made it to the national team and won medals for Singapore at the various major games have fuelled a growing interest among many other youths in Singapore to pursue shooting competitively as well,” said Dr Soo.

He added: “Likewise, more parents are also encouraging their children to do so as they now see the potential of what can be achieved in the sport at the regional and international level.”

The SAFRA Shooting Club is one of the top shooting clubs in the region and it aims to groom members and NSmen to reach greater heights in the sport through the provision of top notch facilities at an affordable rate to meet their training needs, as well as provide various platforms for greater exposure to raise their competitive level.

In terms of providing top notch facilities, SAFRA had initiated two significant upgrades to the SYCC Indoor Air Weapons Range since April this year at a total cost of $26,000 to make it easier for shooters to refill their air cylinders and to enhance weapons security within the range.

An integrated air-compression system with a series of valves fitted with various adaptors has been installed at the range to make it easier for the shooters to refill their weapon air cylinders. This way, athletes and range-users who use this range of adaptors will no longer need to bring their own.

Dr Soo commented: “The upgrades are part of our on-going efforts be a top notch air weapons facility in the region. We are probably one of the few countries in the region that have introduced such an integrated air-compression station. It is a simple yet great idea.”

“We received positive comments about the integrated station from many officials and coaches that have visited our indoor air weapons range for competition or training in the past months since we installed it. These include Mr Scott Novack, High Performance Manager of the USA Pentathlon, as well as other officials from China, Malaysia, South Korea and Thailand. As of today, they do not seem to have a similar integrated station for air-compression.”

SAFRA is also in the midst of installing a fully integrated biometrics weapons tracking system. Since April, access to the armoury is controlled by two biometrics scans. The second phase of the upgrades, targeted to be completed by end December, will have all weapons tagged to an authorised personnel or owner so that it can be tracked as well.

The system will then be integrated to enable it to match the identity of the personnel accessing the armoury to that of the weapon being drawn. Upon a mismatch, a siren will be activated. The system will cost a total of $20,000 when fully developed.

“Besides enhancing weapons security within the range, it also allows us to track the status of all weapons at any one time as all this data is automatically captured in our system,” said Dr Soo.

As the AYG approaches, SAFRA will work closely with the organisers in the months ahead to make the necessary preparations for the successful staging of this landmark event.