Origins of canoa polo in Singapore

[the deacon]

Hi Guys,
Is there anbody out there who could help me in sourcing the origins of canoe polo in Singapore? Who started the ball rolling, when and where. What rules were originally used, etc
Any details to help me on my thesis on the world of canoe polo?
Appreciate any help I can get.
:cheers:

[M@D]

To the best of my knowledge, canoe polo was started in S'pore during the mid to end 80s. :drunk:

Some kayak instructors and members of People's Association (PA) Seasports Club (Changi; Changi is the name of a place) heard of the game from somewhere and started trying it out. However, after some time the sport (if it could be called that at that point of time) started to fade from the local scene.

Years later around the mid 90s, the same instructors members mainly Ken aka Keat Yeow, LC Cheng and some others (I'm not very sure about the names, but unless I'm mistaken these are the people) revived canoe polo when they entered university.

These founders of canoe polo worked hard to introduced the sport to the others, namely the polytechnics, universities, other seasports clubs and many others. :worship:

Well, these efforts were not in vain :cheers: and the number of teams in S'pore started to increase. By 1999, we have our 1st Canoe Polo Championships organised by the S'pore Canoe Federation (SCF).

In 2000, SCF started out 1st National team. There wasn't any selections at that time, the 1st placed team in the OPEN cat. during the Nat. Champs were simply asked to represent S'pore in competitions. However, due to financial difficulties, the team did not go for any competition.

In 2001, in additional to the National Championships, People's Association(PA) Seasports Clubs in conjunction with the National University of Singapore (NUS) organised S'pore's 1st canoe polo league.

In either 2001 or 2002, the National University of Singapore (NUS) canoe polo team represented S'pore during the Asian Canoeing Championships(??) in Hong Kong. (someone correct me if I'm wrong, I'm not very sure about the year).

In late 2002, SCF held S'pore's 1st canoe polo selections for the Nat. team. The team is now training every weekend under Mr. Sean Chan (Nat. team coach). I don't know much of the rest of the year, maybe someone else can fill in the blanks.

In 2003, not much happening yet. The canoe polo Championships will be somewhere in Aug. The last I heard the S'pore ladies team are trying to get some funds for the Oceanics, don;t know whether they are successful yet, but NUS is definately sending at least a team there. If the SARS situation in Taiwan clears, :guns: the Nat. team will be attending the Asian Canoeing Champs in Nov.

Rules wise I don't know much about, but unless I really got the thingie really screwed up, we only started playing by the ICF rules from about the mid 90s.

Thats about it, just my two :twocents: worth, hope thats helpful.

Anyone who knows anything please add on and if I have made any mistakes, please correct me. :stupid:
I think its rather interesting to know how canoe polo actually started in S'pore, I've never really thought about it till now.:drunk: