The Inter-Professional Games (IPG) 2017 proved to be an eventful one for SMA, as well as the other five professional bodies involved. After much sweat-filled and nerve-wracking competition on the court and greens, the SMA teams found themselves on the receiving end of very different results.
On 30 September this year, Dr Jonathan Pang, who has been the captain of the SMA Squash team for more than 25 years, led his players to a hard-earned victory for the second time since they first lifted the championship trophy in 2009. Dr Pang attributed the win to his teammates' tenacity on the courts, "It has been a long time since SMA won the IPG championship for squash, as we usually finish third out of the three or four participating teams. Kudos to the players!"
The Association's other championship title from IPG 2017 was snagged by the SMA Chess team, led by Dr Jeevarajah Nithiananthan, after fighting tooth and nail with the International Masters and fierce contenders present in the opposing teams. The SMA chess players emerged victorious by a mere half-point margin to recapture the championship title from their lawyer counterparts.
SMA Golf captain Dr Gary Chee and his players experienced an unlucky streak during their 25 October tournament, which was coincidentally held at the same venue as this year's SMA Annual Golf Tournament – Seletar Country Club (SCC). The highly-skilled SMA golfers were not given the opportunity to play to their full potential as inclement weather jeopardised our players' performances on the SCC greens for the third time this year. Additionally, points were computed based on the number of holes that had been played, which saw the reigning SMA Golf championship team emerge in a joint third position with ISCA and LSS.
As this year's IPG came to a close and players hung up their SMA jerseys for the year, we hope that the spirit of the Games – to build collegiality, good relations and camaraderie among the six professional bodies through sporting activities – is not forgotten.
