Record number of Singapore athletes on key Spex programmes ahead of 2029 SEA Games

SINGAPORE – Limited by his budget, ju-jitsu exponent Jedd Tan had to plan his overseas competitions in the most “cost-efficient” manner as he was mostly self-funded.

But the full-time national serviceman, who won gold in the men’s 77kg category on his SEA Games debut in December 2025, can now count on more support as he was awarded the Sport Excellence (spex) Scholarship on April 29.

Tan said his ju-jitsu teammates had told him this will ease his financial burden.

The 19-year-old added: “Before this, I had to budget a lot and plan which competitions to go to so I could be more cost-efficient… But now with this support, it can give me an ease of mind and just focus on training fully and not having to limit myself based on how much I have to save.”

He was among 22 athletes who received the spexScholarship for the first time, taking the total number to 107 across 30 sports – the largest cohort to date. The previous highest was 105 from 24 sports in 2023.

At the Singapore Sport Excellence Athletes Investiture at the Singapore Sports School (SSP), 87 athletes were also inducted into the spexPotential programme, taking the total number to a record 140 from 31 sports.

Both spexScholarship and spexPotential programmes provide support for athletes within the high-performance sports pathway, but the latter aims to prepare promising athletes to succeed at the SEA Games level before their transition to the former, which supports them to excel at the Asian and world stage.

The backing that they receive include a monthly stipend, support for local and overseas training and competitions, sports science and medicine, education, career and personal development.

The support for more athletes comes ahead of the 2029 SEA Games and Asean Para Games on home soil, which are “important milestones on the horizon”, noted Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth David Neo at the investiture.

“With a larger number of athletes, we will invest in broadening and deepening support for our athletes and national sports associations (NSAs) – through the new SpexSG, to help our athletes perform at their best,” he said.

Launched on April 1, SpexSG is a high-performance entity which consolidates the High Performance Sport Institute, SSP and the Unleash the Roar! national football project.

There will also be support for NSAs to deepen their technical expertise in areas such as recruitment of additional coaches, specialist staff, and initiatives to enhance coaching standards and expertise, as well as plans to help athletes, who are not in the spexScholarship and spexPotential programmes, to undertake full-time training.

Pistol shooter Teh Xiu Yi was one of nine athletes from the 2025 spexPotential programme who received the spexScholarship in 2026.

The 30-year-old, who coaches shooting at SSP, said: “I am very grateful that I will get more support with the spexScholarship and higher budget to allow us athletes to travel overseas to train.

“I knew all along that I wanted the scholarship, but I needed more data-points and results to get in.”

Meanwhile, there were five new recipients of the spexEducation scholarship, which supports athletes’ academic pursuits at universities.

One of them is cyclist Valencia Tan, who is hoping to pursue undergraduate studies in business at a local university.

While the 20-year-old, who is also in the spexPotential programme, has not received a place at a university yet, she is optimistic, saying: “I’m quite grateful because for me, university education is not very affordable for my family. Since last year when they launched this scholarship, I was actually kind of eyeing it and really wanted to get it.

The spexPotential programme provided funds which enabled her to improve on the track by competing overseas.

She said: “I’m doing track cycling and we don’t have a velodrome in Singapore, so a lot of the experience training and racing I have to do overseas and I feel like it really helped me to progress a lot in the past year.”

SportSG chairman Kon Yin Tong, who also helmed the spexScholarship and spexEducation undergraduate scholarship selection committees, said: “It is encouraging to see more spexPotential athletes progressing to spexScholarship this year, as this shows that more athletes are willing to commit to their sporting journey and believe that sport can be a viable career pathway.

“At the same time, this also demonstrates the effectiveness of the spex programmes in nurturing athletes with potential. With the formation of SpexSG providing strong integrated support, I am confident our athletes are poised to reach new heights on the world stage.”