SINGAPORE: National swimmer Yip Pin Xiu on Wednesday (Sep 11) clinched Singapore’s first medal at the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships, taking gold in the women’s 100m backstroke S2.
Yip finished the race in London more than 20 seconds ahead of the runner-up, Canadian Aly Van Wyck-Smart, the Singapore Disability Sports Council said in a news release on Thursday.
She clocked a time of 2 minutes 18.61 seconds, ahead of Van Wyck-Smart’s 2 minutes 39.27 seconds and Italian Angela Procida’s 2 minutes 42.71 seconds.
Yip Pin Xiu receiving her medal at the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships. (Photo: Marc Morris/SportsNewsAgency)
“It feels really good to be a world champion. I’m really happy,” Yip said following her victory.
“I’ve been swimming for 15 years now but victory is special to me and recognition for all the hard training I do. The journey is important to me and I’m happy to be at this point now.”
This is the first of two races Yip is taking part in. The second race, the 50m backstroke, will take place on Friday.
Yip, a three-time Paralympic gold medallist, holds the world record in the 50m backstroke S2 and the 100m backstroke S2. She also won a gold medal in the women’s 50m backstroke S4 (1-4) at the 2018 Asian Para Games last year.
Other athletes like Sophie Soon Jin Wen and Toh Wei Soong will also represent Singapore in the next few days at the championships.
In the years since the release of the runaway success by indie studio Chucklefish, the sprawling survival sandbox has garnered tens of thousands of players, an extensive range of updates and tonnes of fan-made mods — a list which spans the certifiably awesome to the outright bizarre.
Recently, a uniquely Singaporean mod has been brought to light: a righteous weapon of justice featuring the Ministry of Home Affair’s SGSecure app. May the light of Minister K. Shanmugam guide you.
SINGAPORE – Traces of drugs including ketamine were found in blood and urine samples of a delivery driver who crashed his van into a tree in Bukit Timah Road, killing his two passengers.
The two men – Mr Aaron Prem Michael, 25, and Mr Chioh Hong Heng, 43 – were friends of the 25-year-old driver, Joseph Low Moh Boon.
They were out earlier that night celebrating Low’s birthday.
On Wednesday (Sept 11), Low pleaded guilty to causing the death of his friends by driving in a rash manner.
The court heard that after completing his last delivery on Oct 19 last year, Low headed back home in the direction of Woodlands and picked Mr Chioh up on the way at around 10.30pm.
While Low took a shower, Mr Chioh went to meet Mr Michael, who lived nearby.
The delivery driver initially told Mr Chioh that he did not wish to go out as he was tired but the older man insisted as it was Low’s birthday the next day.
The trio then went to a pub in Jalan Besar where they ordered three jugs of beer. Low admitted to drinking some of the alcoholic beverage.
Singaporeans are most embarrassed by their social media posts relating to actions such as drunken behaviour, kissing someone and sleeping somewhere they should not have been, and being photographed in their underwear, a new study has found.
Cyber-security company McAfee on Wednesday (Sept 11) released the results of the study that narrowed down the top 10 kinds of posts Singaporeans found most embarrassing.
This survey of 500 Singaporeans found that drunken behaviour, making offensive comments and wearing an embarrassing outfit were the top three kinds of posts that Singaporeans regretted putting up on their social media accounts.
This was followed by posts relating to embarrassing places or events, accidental exposure of their private parts, kissing someone they should not have been and being photographed in their underwear.
A coffee shop patron was applauded after he helped the police subdue a drunk man on Saturday evening.
A video of the incident showed four officers trying to subdue the struggling drunk at Block 892C Woodlands Drive 50 when the patron stepped in and brought the man to the ground.
Other patrons could be heard in the video applauding the unknown man for his actions.
Police said a 35-year-old was arrested at about 10pm for causing a public nuisance.
Chinese evening newspaper Shin Min Daily News reported that the suspect had been drinking at the coffee shop for close to five hours that evening.
SINGAPORE: Firms in the service industry will get a leg up to further drive transformation and become manpower-lean with the new Service Industry Transformation Programme (SITP) launched on Wednesday (Sep 11) by Manpower Minister Josephine Teo.
Co-developed by the Singapore Productivity Centre and Workforce Singapore, the programme will equip firms with tools to develop their service delivery model, as well as job redesign techniques needed to catalyse and start their business transformation.
This programme is part of the Lean Enterprise Development Scheme (LEDS), which helps enterprises adopt manpower-lean initiatives and drive business growth.
In her speech, Mrs Teo highlighted how some firms have already embarked on efforts to facilitate lean processes. She noted the usefulness of such a move amid the uncertainties that surround today’s economy, including possible labour constraints.
“Some people are naturally a little bit worried and they may even ask: ‘Why are we spending time thinking about transformation and jobs of the future, shouldn’t we instead be thinking about survival, and jobs of the present, not jobs of the future?’”
Manpower Minister Josephine Teo speaking at the Service Industry Transformation Conference on Sep 11, 2019. (Photo: Eva Lee)
“We have to do both,” she said alluding to how Singapore is fundamentally labour-constrained.
“On the Government’s part, please be assured that we will continue to support businesses in your transformation journeys. We are in this together,” said Mrs Teo.
The SITP will cover two tracks in helping firms optimise their deployment of the current workforce, and improve job quality to attract and retain more talents.
The four-month programme comprises a two-day workshop and nearly seven days of on-site training, plus individual company project guidance.
Companies embarking on transformation projects under the SITP will also receive funding support of up to 90 per cent.
Six firms have signed up since the programme was piloted in August, said Mrs Teo.
One of them is vegetarian food joint Greendot, which was established in 2011. It now has more than 10 outlets across Singapore.
As the industry does not typically appeal to the younger generation, Greendot has hired more than 100 elderly workers. Though this may solve the manpower crunch, there are concerns over quality and service standards.
Greendot’s CEO, 30-year-old Fu Yong Hong said: “I don’t want to see the elderly workers as staff that are here to clear and serve food.
“How can we increase the value? Move from lower-value jobs to higher-value jobs by helping them to ease into our roles.”
Mr Fu also spoke of enhancing the customer experience, something he hopes to achieve through the programme.
“We have been expanding over the years and I want to enhance the customer experience because some customers have told us that our ordering and queuing processes are a bit confusing,” he said.
“I hope to go through this programme to see how can we streamline the processes and let customers have a better experience at Greendot,” he added.
A 32-year-old woman who was arrested for dangerous driving has come under scrutiny after videos of her travelling against traffic and swearing at witnesses went viral online.
It was earlier reported by Stomp that the incident occurred along Upper Cross Street in Chinatown on Friday night (Sep 6).
The woman was subsequently arrested and had her driving licence suspended, police told Stomp.
Update: See comments section for additional video footage of driver. ___________________________________ Driving…
Esports are simply inescapable in 2019. There’s obviously big money in it — a teen scored $4.1 million for being a Fortnite Champ; professional Dota 2 players brought home over $20 million for coming out on top in a global tournament; Razer’s CEO is pledging $10 million to build up Singapore’s esports and gaming industry.
There’s no doubt that Southeast Asia is the place to be for all things games and esports — especially since we’ve been fortunate enough to host a myriad of conventions and exhibitions that cater to various dimensions of geeky fandom.
You’ll also know that GameStart is one of the cons to look out for in your regional gaming calendar.
With six years under its belt and a steadily increasing number of visitors since its debut, GameStart 2019 is set to bring a line-up of buzz-worthy personalities and exhibitors to the Lion City for a yet another weekend of interactive entertainment.
Not all heroes wear capes — this particular one welds a pair of tongs and a trash bag in hand.
In a Facebook post uploaded by Ivan Choong on Tuesday (Sept 10), he shares an encounter he had with a Japanese man who was picking up litter along the Boon Tiong Road.
I: Hi there, may I ask what you are doing? T: I’m picking up litter. I: Oh, but why are you doing that? Do you live…
