'Well-deserved’ congratulations pour in marking Loh Kean Yew’s big win as Sportsman of the Year!

Thursday night (Nov 10) was a big night for badminton player Loh Kean Yew, 25, as he won Sportsman of the Year at the Singapore Sports Awards. Yu Mengyu ranking high as a table tennis player won the  award for Sportswoman of the Year.

Loh, who marked a career-high earlier this week as he ranked third in badminton world rankings, bested former pool world No. 1 Aloysius Yapp in the Sportsman of the Year category.

Yu Mengyu ranking high in esteem especially since her creditable performance in the Tokyo Olympics won the Sportswoman of the Year award over fencer Amita Berthier and bowler Shayna Ng.

Yu won plaudits at the Tokyo Games in 2021 after fighting through an injury in the semi-final against China’s eventual gold medallist Chen Meng, before losing to Japan’s Mima Ito in the third-place playoff, as the Straits Times reported.

https://twitter.com/YahooSG/status/1590729714766733313 https://twitter.com/zulabrBH/status/1590727723663904769

Meanwhile, Loh shared a tweet from Berita Harian journalist Zulaiqah Abdul Rahim after the award was announced, but has otherwise yet to publicly comment on his win.

True to his humble and gracious nature, he acknowledged his parents after receiving his trophy and a $10,000 cheque at the awarding ceremony.

“One of the most important sacrifices they made was to send us (Loh and brother Kean Hean, also a national badminton player) to Singapore. I can’t imagine what they went through every day with their children being away from them. That is one of the biggest sacrifices – not being able to spend time with us,” The Straits Times quotes the athlete as saying, adding that Loh also said he’ll be spending time with his parents to celebrate his win.

He also said, "Definitely one of the most special weeks of my career. It has not always been smooth-sailing, and there were definitely times when I felt very low last year. It's satisfying that after persevering through the lows, I could win this award. But yeah, it's back to work after this week,” reported Yahoo!news.

  https://twitter.com/YahooSG/status/1590729714766733313

Congratulations have been pouring in since Loh’s win was announced on Thursday night.

The Penang-born athlete, who acquired Singapore citizenship in 2015, was also congratulated by netizens from Malaysia.

/TISG

https://theindependent.sg/this-feels-so-surreal-loh-kean-yew-reaches-3rd-position-in-badminton-world-ranking/