Events

Diversify sources of revenue to develop and grow the provision for gymnastics

In 2020, the sports and fitness industry were significantly impacted by the onset of Covid-19. Three of SG's biggest annual events in the 2020 calendar year were cancelled due to the strict guidelines in place. These were the 2020 National Championships, 2020 Singapore Open and the 2020 Gymnastics Carnival.

Covid-19 affected the lives of many. With most countries in lockdown and all major sport events either cancelled or postponed, the team started planning for alternative competition opportunities to engage the community and in September 2020 the concept of the virtual competition format was born.

Virtual Competition

The Virtual Competition was SG’s initiative to reach out to its stakeholders to come together digitally, in order to continue to practise sport whilst in a pandemic.

The 2020 Virtual Competition was made public on 2 November 2020. The idea for SG's Virtual Competition was born with the goal of bringing the opportunity to compete during the pandemic. It was not only a temporary solution to the cancellation of sports events, but a positive opportunity to move forward and bring the community together.

The 2020 Virtual Competition was held in two parts:

Virtual for all disciplines

Face-to-Face for FIG Senior and Junior elite rhythmic gymnasts

The Virtual event was available for all disciplines and was held between 27 November – 6 December 2020. The submitted videos were judged and the results announced from 16-18 December 2020.

The 2020 Face-to-Face Virtual Competition was held on 14 December. To reduce the risk and number of people involved, the competition routines were professionally recorded and then judged the following weekend.

The Virtual Competition saw 282 athletes from 15 clubs and the RG NTC, with registration as follows:

MAG – 28 pax across Foundation – Level 2

WAG – 47 pax across Level 1 – 3

RG – 25 pax for RG FIG Junior and Senior

RG – 182 pax across Levels and Stages

In 2021, the Virtual Competition also consisted of a Virtual and Face to Face competition.

The Virtual Competition comprised 69 WAG athletes and 173 RG athletes, across 14 clubs. Clubs were required to submit videos taken between 28 January and 7 February 2021, with results announced on 17 February 2021.

As the Covid-19 situation in Singapore had gradually improved and we moved into Phase 3 of the government restrictions, the 2021 Face to Face Competition was held on 7 February 2021.

It served both as a preparatory competition for 2021 National Championships (a National Squad ranking exercise) as well as a selection into the FY21/22 National Squad and a qualification exercise for the 31st South East Asian Games. It was the first competition after the Circuit Breaker, and it gave both athletes and officials a different competition experience under the “new normal” environment.

The competition saw a total of 52 athletes: 11 athletes (5 Seniors, 3 Juniors, 2 Stage 4, 1 Stage 5) participating from MAG 16 athletes (5 Seniors, 1 Junior, 6 Level 9, 4 Level 8) participating from WAG 25 athletes (3 Seniors, 11 Juniors and 11 Pre-Juniors) participating from RG.

The event was live-streamed on SG's Facebook page. The successful organisation of the Face-to-Face competition, where spectators were not allowed, paved the way for the 2021 National Championships to be eventually held in March 2021.

National Championships 2021

Singapore Gymnastics (SG) was responsible for the delivery of the 12th National Championships conducted from 12 - 20 March 2021 at Bishan Sports Hall.

During the nine days of competition, a total of 1,059 gymnasts competed in the four disciplines: Men’s Artistic, Women’s Artistic, Rhythmic and Trampoline Gymnastics. The Championships also saw Singapore’s elite gymnasts from Artistic and Rhythmic Gymnastics vying for selection into the National Squad.

The event was conducted under strict Safe Management Measures that adhered to the existing SportSG and MOH guidelines. Though no spectators were permitted, the 2021 National Championships was made accessible for people all over the world through live streaming. SG found ways to include the creation of a new, interactive web portal to help provide a richer, digital experience for audiences worldwide for the National Championships 2021. A total of 1,186 online live stream tickets were purchased during the Championships:

RG - 586 tickets

WAG - 378 tickets

MAG - 83 tickets

TRA - 54 tickets

Season - 85 tickets

Registration fee and livestreaming were the main sources of income for the events which produced a surplus $22,088 with SportSG funding support for venue hire and the purchase of new equipment relating to the scoring programme.

National Championships 2021 cont'd

Participation numbers continued to increase healthily across all disciplines, especially for WAG which can be contributed to the introduction of the Singapore Gymnastics National Levels Programme in 2020. Overall participation increased by 28% from 827 to 1,059 gymnasts in 2021 compared to 2019.

Event volunteers were recruited predominately to perform hands-on roles in key operational areas. SG recruited 164 volunteers through TeamNila while 23 were from the Gymnastics community. SG would like to thank the 187 volunteers from TeamNila and the community for their contributions that made the event a successful one.