The NUS STARS (Staff Talent in Athletics and Recreational Sports) programme was launched in July this year by the Office of Human Resources (OHR), to promote an active lifestyle through competitive sports and reignite the sporting spirit amongst NUS staff. With a faculty and staff strength of over 10,000 people, OHR aims to bring together staff from across all three NUS campuses and encourage inter-departmental bonding.
Following the successful NUS STARS Run which was organised in conjunction with the launch event, OHR went on to organise two more sporting events to engage staff. Basketball and badminton tournaments were held in early November and over 150 staff members from various academic, research and administrative departments participated in the games.
Over 150 staff from various academic, research and administrative departments participated in the NUS STARS Basketball and Badminton tournaments.
Five teams competed in a round-robin format in the Men’s Basketball tournament. The scorching heat outdoors did not dull the teams’ enthusiasm to do their best and eventually, Team Patience, comprising colleagues from the College of Design and Engineering (CDE), and the Faculty of Science, emerged as the champion. As three teams were tied for second place, they joined forces to create a team to challenge Team Patience in the finals in the spirit of sportsmanship and healthy competition.
Mr Wang Jingxuan (center, with the basketball) from CDE represented Team Patience, coming up against a strong defence from the opposing team.
Senior Laboratory Executive Mr James Low Wai Mun from Comparative Medicine was one of the participants of the basketball tournament. Together with some of his colleagues, they decided to sign up as a team for the sporting event because of their strong interest in the sport. In addition to meeting new people from other departments, he shared that the event was also a great opportunity for his team to get to know one another better through team sports.
With an impressive sign-up of close to 80 participants, badminton proved to be a popular sport amongst staff. There were a total of 50 matches across six event categories - Men's Singles, Women's Singles, Mixed Doubles, Men's Doubles, Women's Doubles, and Masters' Doubles where players must be 50-year-old and above to compete under this category. Several nail-biting matches kept the crowd on the edge of their seats and at the end of the day, NUS Information Technology emerged as the NUS unit with the largest number of winners.
Dr Sarah Tong (extreme left) and Ms Wang Yijie (second from left) with Ms Seah Yi Qin (second from right) and Ms Claudia Tan (extreme right) with Umpire Dr Malcolm Tan (middle) after their match.
The Women's Doubles match saw an interesting line-up as both sets of finalists comprised colleagues from different departments. Ms Seah Yi Qin from NUS Business School met her doubles partner, Ms Claudia Tan from University Campus Infrastructure, at a badminton session organised by Professor Henry Yeung, who is the Team Manager for Badminton under NUS Staff Sports. They signed up for the competition together and even practised a couple of times leading up to the competition day.
They went up against Ms Wang Yijie from the Asian Institute of Digital Finance and Dr Sarah Tong from NUS East Asian Institute. Ms Wang and Dr Tong met through mutual friends who also share the same passion for the sport! Eventually, the former pair emerged as the champions for the Women’s Doubles category.
NUS Deputy President (Administration) Mr Clarence Ti (extreme right) paired up with Mr Derek Wong (second from right) from OHR and went up against Mr Bryan Tan (extreme left) and Mr Benjamin Tan (second from left) from NUS Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences Dean’s Office.
NUS Deputy President (Administration) Mr Clarence Ti also gamely participated in the badminton matches. He paired up with Mr Derek Wong from OHR and went up against the pair from NUS Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences (FASS) Dean’s Office - Mr Bryan Tan and Mr Benjamin Tan. Although the FASS pair eventually won the match, everyone thoroughly enjoyed the game and appreciated the chance to bond outside of work.
If you love sports and meeting new people across various departments in NUS, there will be more exciting NUS STARS sports events coming your way this year! Find out more here.