Five business leaders raise S$50,000 to support new badminton world champion Loh Kean Yew

Singapore

FIVE business leaders in Singapore have come together to set up a fund of S$50,000 for badminton player Loh Kean Yew, after the 24-year-old became the first Singaporean to win the Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Championships on Sunday (Dec 19).

The 5 business leaders are: Ang Kiam Meng, executive director and group chief executive officer (CEO) of Jumbo Group; Daryl Neo, co-founder and CEO of DC Frontiers; Dora Hoan, group CEO and co-chairman of Best World International; Eugene Ang, managing director of JK Technology; and Wei Chan, managing director of Pine Garden's Cake.

They were mentioned in The Business Times article on Thursday, "Smash hits from the court: 6 business leaders serve up lessons from badminton".

Last Sunday, Loh, who was then ranked No 22 in the world, upset India's world No 14 Srikanth Kidambi 21-15, 22-20 in the men's singles final of the BWF World Championships in Huelva, Spain.

He has since climbed to a career-high world ranking position of 15 after the tournament.

After learning about Loh's win, Wei Chan of Pine Garden's Cake was spurred to set up the fund to motivate the national shuttler in his sporting pursuits.

It also came to his attention that Loh did not receive any prize money from his win at the BWF World Championships - a ranking tournament where the winner is conferred the title of world champion and awarded a gold medal.

The longstanding badminton enthusiast reached out to others with a keen interest in the sport and they collectively raised S$50,000 - a sum they hope will be an encouragement to Loh.

"Loh Kean Yew's win shows what we, as a little red dot, can achieve in the global badminton sporting arena," said Chan.

"We hope that this fund will be a catalyst for Loh to continue pursuing his dreams, and encourage other budding badminton players out there about what's truly possible in this sport," he added.

Readers who are interested in contributing to the fund can contact Wei Chan at weichan@pgcake.com.