Dear Stakeholders,
The Singapore Badminton Association (SBA) is mindful of the rapidly evolving COVID-19 situation and we are committed to doing all we can to keep all in the Singapore Badminton Community safe.
In these extremely challenging times, I would like to seek everyone’s support. The health and safety of our athletes, coaches, staff and everyone in the badminton-playing community are our priority and we are committed to doing all we can to keep all safe.
We act on the advice of the authorities, especially the Ministry of Health and SportSG, and have, since end-January 2020, pro-actively and progressively implemented a range of precautionary measures, including:
- Daily temperature taking before start of any activity for players, coaches and staff
- Health and travel declaration from all players, coaches and staff
- Leave of Absence (LOA)/Stay-Home-Notice (SHN) for players, coaches and staff in tandem with evolving guidelines by the authorities
- Split-team arrangement for SBA staff as part of our Business Continuity Plan
- Split-team arrangement for National Team where one team trains at OCBC Arena, while the other trains at the Singapore Sports School
- Cancellation and postponement of large-scale events such as the Singapore Badminton Open 2020, SBA Charity Dinner and SBA-Sanctioned Tournaments
- Safe/Social distancing arrangements during activities such as:
- For SBA Coaching Course:
- Seats placed 1 metre apart
- Coaches placed into groups of 8 during practical sessions
- Discussions, when held, are done in groups with no more than 6 people
- For National Team training session:
- 10 people or less in each group with no cross-mixing of groups
- Athletes and coaches maintain a distance of at least 1m spacing between them, with training format modified to accommodate this criteria
- Each person involved having at least 16sqm of usable space
- Rest area of 1 metre apart between players
- For SBA Coaching Course:
- Suspension of National Intermediate Squad training involving students from different schools at OCBC Arena to avoid inter-school interaction
In addition, as the National Sport Association for Badminton, SBA would strongly advise all SBA-affiliated clubs and other private badminton clubs/academies to comply with the following guidelines, especially the guideline given in bold in paragraph 2, by SportSG:
SBA seeks your understanding and cooperation in these challenging times. We will keep you informed as the situation evolves.
Please do not hesitate to contact us at (65) 6344, 1773 or secretariat@singaporebadminton.org.sg for any further clarification. We wish you good health and safety in this difficult time. Thank you for your continued trust in us.
Warm regards,
Gerald Heng
Chief Executive Officer
Singapore Badminton Association