1. History

2. World records by Singapore

3. ASEAN Paralympic Games

4. References

History

In 2009, Tan Say Yong, a Singaporean working in the USA, came in 1st in his category during the California State Games powerlifting meet. When he returned, his passion and keen interest in this sport were further fuelled after meeting after Tom Liaw, president of the Singapore Weightlifting Federation (SWF), who is also a keen supporter of powerlifting. With the collaboration with SWF, Say Yong and a small group of volunteers formed the Powerlifting Singapore group and organized the 1st local powerlifting meet in 2011, The Singapore National Open 2011. Although done on a very small scale with only 13 participants, this inaugural meet sparked interests from keen sportsmen from the local strength community- hence the birth of the powerlifting scene.^[1]

Powerlifting Singapore continued to hold SPO12 (Singapore Powerlifting Open) and SPO13, where national records were being broken year by year. Today SPO has become an annual national sporting event in Singapore which attracts participants and spectators from all parts of Singapore. In addition there has been held Singapore Powerlifting Invitationals (SPI) with competitors coming to Singapore from neighbouring countries such as Malaysia, India, Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Philippines and even the USA and UK.^[1]

World records by Singapore

The first Singapore powerlifter to break a world record was Marcus Yap during the 2015 World Championships in Salo Finland. Yap broke the deadlift World record with a 223 kg (491 lb) deadlift in the U59kg Junior Class. However, the World record was shortly beaten in the same competition. Currently, the only Singapore powerlifter holding a World record is Daniel Nobel. Nobel originally from Denmark is the youngest powerlifter to have represented Singapore. Nobel broke the World record with a 303.5 kg (669 lb) deadlift. He beat his own World record minutes later with a 305 kg (672 lb) deadlift in the U120kg Sub-Junior Class.^[3][4][5][6]

In June 2017, Matthew Yap broke the world squat record at his first-ever world tournament at the World Classic Powerlifting Championships in Minsk, Belarus, en route to winning gold in the men's Under-66kg sub-junior (14-18 years old) division. He also won the overall silver. Yap, a Republic Polytechnic student and coach by his brother Marcus Yap – also a powerlifter and a two-time world record holder, lifted 208kg on his last attempt to break the world mark of 207.5kg, set by Swede Eddie Berglund in Texas in 2016.^[7][8]

ASEAN Paralympic Games

Singapore had 2 athletes represent the country in the sport of Paralympic Powerlifting for the 8th ASEAN Paralympic Games. Kalai Vanen and Melvyn Yeo both participated in the ASEAN Para Games which took place at Marina Bay Sands in December. Vanen won a bronze medal with a benchpress of 140 kg (308 lb) in the U97kg weight class. Yeo lifted 110 kg (242 lb) in the benchpress in the 65 kg weight class. The president of Powerlifting Singapore, Say Tan along with the Vice-President, Zulhairy Bin Zolkaffeli were both apart of the organization of the event.^{[9][10][11][12][13]}

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