Singapore skippers win big at AAU Junior Olympic Games and Skipping Australia National Championships

Contributed by Mae Yak. Photos courtesy of Rope Skipping Singapore.

While the recent Beijing Olympics might be over, few might have known about the triumphs of a much younger group of athletes. While the world’s top athletes congregated in Beijing in August, some of the very best junior athletes made their presence felt at the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Junior Olympic Games held in Detriot, USA. One sport featured in the game is jump rope, or more commonly known as skipping. A four day jump rope competition, all the top rope skippers in America and the world came together to compete for the coveted Junior Olympic Games medal.

After two months of preparation including the final three weeks of daily training, the Singapore contingent started our adventure in the United States. The Singapore Team consisted of 24 rope skippers, some as young as eight years old. Together, they garnered 2 golds, 7 silvers, 7 bronze medals and 24 ribbons (4th to 10th place). The two show teams were also placed a very respectable 4th and 5th.

The four peaks of the Singapore Rope Skipping Team’s performance would be Ben Ong winning the Freestyle Individual; Ariel Yue coming in second out of 70 competitors in the Individual Speed and Individual Power categories. The Double Dutch Speed Relay team of 10 year olds also beat 52 other teams in the ‘aged 12 and under’ division to come in champions with a record breaking performance. Ben Ong, Wei-An, Yu Cheng and Daniel are now record holders in the Junior Olympic Games book records, matching the Junior Olympic record of 556. Both the show teams’ performance were also commendable, coming in just behind the medal winners.

It was definitely a once in a lifetime adventure preparing and participating for the Junior Olympic Games for the whole team, the larger team of parents, assistant coaches and school staff included. Not only that, the rope skippers made many friends in Detroit and the Americans have even asked them to return to the next Junior Olympic Games!

In a separate event, the Singapore Jump Rope team also competed in the Skipping Australia National Championships from 27-29 September. The first international team to compete in this tournament, the team was made up of 13 rope skippers including eight of the youngest athletes ever to represent Singapore overseas in a sports competition. These eight year olds trained for almost six weeks before departing for Gold Coast, Australia. Training systems had to be developed for such young athletes and their equipment and competition strategies had to be carefully planned to reap the full potential of these yearlings. They brought home one gold, one silver and seven bronze medals.

Friendship was built with the Australians as the rope skippers made friends and exchanged emails and pins at the competition and workshop. They also got to visited the Currumbin Wild Life Santuary and Warner Bros Movie World to relax and enjoy the sights and sounds of Australia.

Skipping Australia National Championships results

SINGAPORE TEAM 2 (Amy Yue, Joe Chua, Kaitlyn Ng, Grace Goh)
Double Dutch pair speed – Gold
Speed relay – Silver
Double Under relay – Bronze
Overall – Bronze

SINGAPORE TEAM 3 (Leonard Shi, Thurston Liew, Serene Ng, Jamie Liew)
Double Dutch pair speed – Bronze

JOE CHUA
Speed 30s – Bronze
Speed 60s – Bronze
Double under 60s – Bronze
Master overall – Bronze

THURSTON LIEW
Masters overall – 7th Ribbon

AMY YUE
Masters overall – 8th Ribbom

LEONARD SHI
Masters overall – 8th Ribbon

For more pictures, click here.