A Year of Growth and Achievement

The year 2024 was another exciting and action-packed one for Singapore Squash. As we reflect on our journey, we celebrate our key focus areas:

• Expanding community outreach to introduce squash to a broader audience.
• Developing grassroots referees as part of our Capability Development efforts.
• Enhancing our local events calendar, providing athletes and the community with competitive opportunities, including the PSA Satellite series as a pathway to professional squash.

Here’s a closer look at the milestones we achieved in 2024.

Four former national athletes joined our board in 2024, bringing their expertise to new roles. Richard Hill was co-opted in as Assistant Treasurer in July, while Marcus Phua, Tan Zhi Rui, Nikki Pang, and Rahul Khare stepped in as Board Members.

For a full list of SSRA’s Board, please visit https://sgsquash.com/board/.

2024 was the year we completed the revamp of our coaching team. We welcomed Jamie Hickox as Head Coach in March. With a strong track record in Malaysia, Jamie has played a key role in developing elite squash talent. Supporting him in the leadership capacity is our Assistant Head Coach Gurshan Singh, who has been with us since 2022.

Also joined in 2024 were Lawrence Kwan from Malaysia and Rahul Vasishtha from India. Lawrence comes with a wealth of experience as the National Coach in Malaysia and will also be playing the role of Coach Developer, while Rahul was previously the head coach of Shiv Nadar University in India. Most recently in January 2025, we also welcomed ex-international Chua Man Tong into our stable.

Our administrative team also saw strategic hires. Charisse Depallo became Finance Manager in March and has been keeping our books in check, while Benedict Choong joined as Programme Manager to drive Community Outreach.

One of the most frequent questions posed to us is the fate of the Kallang Squash Centre. Minister Edwin Tong has indicated at an engagement session with SSRA in July that the venue will remain operational for another two to three years before redevelopment begins for Kallang Alive and the Home of Team Singapore.

Plans are in place for an interim squash centre to be ready prior to the demolition of Kallang Squash Centre, enabling us to continue our activities without disruption.

The interim centre will eventually be replaced with a permanent squash centre once Kallang Alive is fully developed. Whether the permanent centre ends up located within the Kallang Alive precinct or not will be determined by the authorities at a later date.

Our MARIGOLD Tryouts and Follow-Up Programmes, launched in 2023, gained momentum this year. In 2024, over 1,000 children experienced squash for the first time through our 1.5-hour taster sessions.

Of these, 350 went on to receive structured coaching from WSF-certified coaches through our 12-week Follow-Up Programme. This initiative not only grows the sport but also supports our squash coaching community by providing new coaching opportunities. With Benedict leading our outreach efforts, we anticipate even greater impact in 2025.

We continued our coaching education efforts with three major courses:

• SSRA-CoachSG Level 1 Integrated Course (covering squash fundamentals and sports science in Singapore’s context).
• World Squash Federation (WSF) Level 1 & Level 2 Courses.

A highlight this year would be the WSF Level 1 course, which attracted 15 participants, the highest we have seen in recent years. In some of the topics, we also had the pleasure of having Head Coach Jamie Hickox and his assistant Gurshan Singh share their experiences with the participants.

Our new National Coach, Lawrence Kwan will also be double hatting as our Coach Developer, so expect an even more vibrant coaching calendar in 2025.

Referee development remained a priority. A dedicated Capability Development Workgroup was formed to chart a structured pathway for grassroots referees. In the coming days, this will be shared with all of you.

The VITAGEN Singapore Squash Open provided a great opportunity, with World Squash Officiating’s Roy Gingell conducting a workshop for 15 aspiring referees. This marks a promising step in building a strong refereeing community.

In terms of local tournaments, we ran the Nationals – both open and juniors, two junior circuits, two open circuits and the all-important Pesta Sukan. Additionally, we also had four PSA Satellites, which is a testament of our commitment to encourage our athletes to take their squash a step further. With the sport in the Olympics now, there is no better time to do this!

Samuel Kang and Au Yeong Wai Yhann continued their winning ways at the Singapore Squash Championships, with both winning their seventh consecutive national titles. The win is also Samuel’s eight in total, having also won in 2011.

Samuel beat youngster Jerome Aw, who played in his maiden final, in a closely contested four games. Wai Yhann meanwhile, was dominant in her 3-0 win over Ong Zhe Sim.

In the National Junior Championships, Ong Zhe Sim once again retained the girls title, while Ethan Kuan scored a first by winning his maiden Boys’ Under-19 title. The pair also completed a double when both took home the Under-17 titles.

Three marque events were held – the VITAGEN Singapore Squash Open, ONCOCARE Singapore Junior Open and the return of the HENRI CHARPENTIER Lion City Junior Open. All were staged successfully, which we will further elaborate below.

Having ran two successful editions, this year was no different in terms of the expectations from all stakeholders. As part of the final edition of the three-year agreement with the PSA, we wanted to end on a high note.

The event saw our generous donors and supporters – VITAGEN, YLF Marketing, Dymon Asia and IOI Properties returned with their support, while we also attracted Henri Charpentier and Disk Precision into the fold this time round.

The Welcome Dinner was held at the swanky Churchill Room at The Tanglin Club, where donors, guests and players enjoyed an evening of socialising accompanied by great food. Earlier in the day, the top seeds along with the Singapore wildcards also participated in a Peranakan tile painting activity with students from the Northlight School.

Ali Farag, the world number one was back to defend his title, along with the usual suspects Diego Elias and Paul Coll in the men’s draw. In the women’s event, we welcomed world number three Hania El Hammamy and world junior champion Amina Orfi for the first time, who both aptly contested in the final.

The competition was exciting as always, with both the finals going the distance. Mr Fantastic Ali Farag once again did the unthinkable – coming back from two games down to snatch victory from Diego Elias in the final, while teen prodigy Amina Orfi claimed her biggest tour title after edging Hania El Hammamy.

The new tour structure also brought joy locally, as we were awarded two wildcards per gender. Singapore was represented by Cassandra Ong and Jerome Aw who made their debut, while Samuel Kang and Au Yeong Wai Yhann returned once again.

The ONCOCARE Singapore Junior Open took place on 11-15 December 2024 where we recorded a record entry of 415 participants from 25 nations. By virtue of having over 400 participants, the event will now be elevated to a Platinum event the following year.

It was a challenge for us as our biggest tournament-grade facility at the Kallang Squash Centre could not support the numbers. For the first time, we ran the event over two venues, with the Singapore Swimming Club coming in to support our needs.

Top five nations in participation are Malaysia (155), Singapore (113), Hong Kong, China (42), China (14) and Australia (12). Malaysia took top honours with six of the ten titles followed by Singapore with two titles, while Hong Kong, China and India took one each.

The event ended on a high note when ONCOCARE increased their donation for the development of junior squash in Singapore by a further SGD10k to SGD45k.

The Lion City Junior Open was revived this year, thanks to the support of our donor HENRI CHARPENTIER. The event was last held in 2019 as an AJSS Silver event, but this time round, we managed to elevate it to Gold status thanks to the great support from member nations. Held at the Kallang Squash Centre from 29 May to 2 June, the event attracted 308 participants from 12 countries. Over the five days of competition, over 600 matches were played.

Malaysia topped the charts once again, taking half of the ten titles at stake, with Singapore taking two and one a piece for Pakistan, Japan and China.

There was further joy at the end of the event when title partner and donor HENRI CHARPENTIER, through its CEO Ami Arita, announced that they would continue to support this event in 2025!

Having invested in our juniors heavily in the last 3-4 years, we began achieving the results we were working towards. Amongst the biggest success on the High Performance front is Kareena Sashikumar, who amassed a whopping six titles in the calendar year – including two AJSS Platinum events.

The juniors also participated at the Southeast Asian Junior Individual Championships held in Bangkok in May and returned with three titles – Kareena Sashikumar (GU11), Jacintha Han (GU13) and Ong Zhe Sim (GU17). Kaelen Low (BU11) and Naisha Singh (GU15) also took home the silver medals after falling short in their respective finals, while Kelihla Cheong (GU13), Rachel Markose (GU13), Jackrish Sashikumar (BU13), Rehaan Singh (BU15), Ethan Kuan (BU17) and Lee Zi Fang (GU19) took home the bronze.

At the Asian Junior Individual Championships held in Pakistan in June, nine athletes participated across seven categories. Of the nine, there were six top ten finishers. The team was guided by Coach Gurshan Singh and Team Manager Li Li.

Five of our athletes – Anders Ong, Timothy Leong, Lee Zi Fang, Gracia Chua, Naisha Singh, also had the opportunity to compete at the Asian Doubles Championships in Johor, Malaysia. With no International Doubles court to train in Singapore, the team had little chance to prepare yet gave their all.

The Asian Team Championships was another event which the team took part in. Fielding both men’s and women’s team with a mix of experience and youth, our men’s team improved their ninth seeding to finish seventh, while the women justified their eighth seeding.

In the men’s event, the team upset Sri Lanka in the pool matches to ensure a top eight finish. They then produced yet another great performance in the playoffs to upset Iran to finished seventh. For the women, a loss to Iran in the group stage pitted them against India in the quarters before losing out to Macau, China in the playoffs to end in eighth.

While we bid farewell to the Singapore Squash Open, we are gearing up for our next big event—the Squash Ball. This fundraiser, last held in 2022, was a tremendous success, and we aim to surpass that this time.

Referee development will continue as a focal point, with structured pathways and training courses in the pipeline. There will be something for everyone – regardless whether you have aspirations to be a world-level or simply a club-level referee.

As we step into 2025, we celebrate a strong start—our young girls’ team has already secured a podium finish at the Asian Junior Team Championships in Hong Kong. We look forward to another exciting year of growth and achievement for Singapore Squash!