From the Straits Times Sports Section:
SINGAPORE Airlines (SIA) has defended its decision to sponsor a New Zealand team over the Republic's World Championships junior dragon boat side, saying it cannot be supporting every local sport.
SIA provides sponsorship in cash and in kind to local sports, ranging from the Singapore Sports School and the Singapore National Olympic Council to the Singapore National Paralympic Council, its spokesman Nicholas Ionides said.
'As much as we would like to, it is unfortunately not possible for us to support every sport, however,' he said.
'In this particular instance, the cooperation with the New Zealand dragon boat team was limited and was a local initiative by our New Zealand station to support the community we operate in.'
The national carrier was responding to a letter by Dennis Tan, the father of one of the Singapore dragon boaters, in The Straits Times Forum yesterday. He had expressed disappointment over SIA's choice of teams.
The Singapore team, comprising 45 National Junior College (NJC) students and four from Hwa Chong Institution, had won the World Championships Junior trophy in Prague from Aug 26-30.
Despite making their debut at the competition, Singapore won the award - given to the top Under-18 nation - by winning four golds, three silvers and one bronze. They had to fend off stiff competition from 24 other countries, including powerhouses China and Russia.
Tan's feelings were shared by members of the dragon boat team, among them NJC rower Alyssa Lim.
'The New Zealand team were staying in the same hotel and we saw the Singapore Airlines logo on their polo tees. It was a little disappointing that they sponsored a team from another country.'
However, it is not uncommon for international companies to sponsor sports teams from other countries.
Mr Yong made a follow up clarification:
'We did not approach SIA for sponsorship, so I don?t think we can blame them.'
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment