Contributed by Tay Ling

Jurong West Sports Hall, Singapore, July 26, 2009 – 108 participants tried out for the National Handball squad at a trial conducted by the Handball Federation (Singapore) (HFS).

The selection tested the 108 participants on tactical awareness, teamwork, enthusiasm, agility, skills in passing, catching, dribbling and defense tactics such as blocking and checking through a tournament format.

HFS's Honorary General Secretary, Ms. Candice Zhu, commented, "The tournament format is able to bring out the key attributes which we will like the youths to have. This requires a panel of judges to ensure that every individual is seen and as such, a panel of 7 judges was set up to rate the youths according to the selection criteria."

"This tournament format is fun and it provided me with such a great experience!" commented Gan Yun Ting, 15, from Tanglin Secondary School.

"I decided to try out handball only after an event request was sent out through my school teacher on Facebook. I have been training hard since March and I really hope I can be selected so that I can represent Singapore in Handball. I want to do Singapore proud!"

Ms Gan Yun Ting is one of the 108 hopeful youths hopeful of representing Singapore.

This is a build-up from a similar island-wide trials conducted in March 2009. From April to July 2009, the youths underwent a series of handball fundamentals training averaging 1 session per week during school days and 2-3 sessions per week during school holidays. Each session lasted 3 hours. Yun Ting was one of the participants who had picked up Handball during the March 2009 selections.

"We are pleased to witness over 100 enthusiastic participants turn up today. They have displayed commendable team spirit and have improved tremendously over the past few months of training. HFS is very happy with their progress and look forward to them putting up a good performance at the Singapore Youth Olympic Games," added Ms. Candice Zhu.

Results for the National Handball Selection Trials will be released in the middle of August 2009. HFS will select a final squad of 35 youths to form the SYOG training squad. Plans are in progress for the SYOG training squad to participate in training tours to Hong Kong or Taiwan in December 2009.

The Squad will also participate in the upcoming 2010 Singapore Invitational Youth Handball Championship which will be held from 25-28 January 2010 as part of their preparation.

In March 2010, the squad will embark on a training tour to either China or Thailand. The final step in their preparation will be to take part in 2010 the Hong Kong Handball Championship in July next year.

About Handball
Handball is one of the fastest growing sports in Northern Asia and Africa. Played on a court which is 40m x 20m, each time will have 1 goal keeper and 6 field players who can dribble, pass, catch and shoot into a goal post to score within two 30 minutes time periods.

Handball builds on natural human movement such as jumping, running, throwing and as such, has a relatively rapid learning curve for anyone who wishes to pick up the sport. Tactics, strategies and problem-solving are elements that are inculcated into handball.

Visit the HFS website at www.hfs.org.sg for more information.