Written By: Shahrom Asmani
(ex-football reporter for a few magazines and newspapers)
39-year old Football Crazy Person has
been in love with football ever since he attended Singapore National Team’s
matches at Kallang Stadium in the roaring 80’s. Has been a goalkeeper for a
good part of the decade for a variety of teams but joined WaF4H last year
because of the team’s mission and values.
WaF4H does not only allow
participants to play football, holistically the team concentrates on various
other aspects as well such as food, nutrition and personal well-being.
Hopefully WaF4H can lengthen this writer’s career, be it in the football field
or in the part-time writing arena as well.
TEN-3GEN at Toa Payoh Stadium
30th November 2019 marks
another milestone in Walking Football for Health’s (WaF4H) remarkable young
journey.
The date will forever be remembered
as the day when Member of Parliament for Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC Mr Saktiandi
Supaat officially launched TEN-3GEN at the Toa Payoh Stadium.
MP Mr Saktiandi Supaat Launching
TEN-3GEN
Mr Saktiandi has been supporting
WaF4H’s cause for quite some time and he has fully believed in the ground-up
initiative led by Celebrity Exercise Physiologist and Nutritionist Dee Dee
Mahmood. Thanks to him and the support of Active SG and other organizations,
Toa Payoh Stadium has been Waf4H’s training ground for the past few weeks.
MP Mr Saktiandi Sportingly Kicked the
Official Match Ball
MP Mr Saktiandi Trying to Score
Against a Much Younger Opponent
WaF4H is a research initiative under
Dee Dee Mahmood as part of her Associate Adjunct Senior Lecturer work for Edith
Cowan University Australia.
The WaF4H movement is also fully
supported by Toa Payoh Novena CSC, International Sports Academy and Walking
Football Association UK.
Hence it was no surprise that many
important people were in attendance as well for the official launch, besides
our MP Mr Saktiandi Supaat.
Dr Dee Dee Mahmood Addressing the
Participants
Professor Robert Newton, Associate
Dean, Medical and Exercise Sciences and Research Professor, Exercise and
Medicine Research Institute at Edith Cowan University, Australia, and his fellow
Operations Manager, Keith Rappa, flew in from Australia to grace the occasion.
Professor Robert Newton Acknowledging
the Crowd
Professor Robert Newton Receiving a
Token of Appreciation from MP Mr Saktiandi
Flying in all the way from United
Kingdom were also Paul Carr, CEO of Walking Football Association, London, John
Garrett, Non-Executive Director and Stuart Langworthy, Manager of the England
Walking Football Team, Queen’s Award.
Paul Carr Receiving a Token of
Appreciation from MP Mr Saktiandi
Stuart Langworthy Giving a Briefing
for the Celebrities Team and Univerity of Malaya Team
If that is not enough to impress you,
the event also attracted University of Malaya’s Walking Football team and also
a team of celebrities and also famous personalities who are trying out the game
for the first time. Toa Payoh Novena CSC also registered a team to play, naming
themselves aptly as team TEN. It was definitely an honour for Waf4H’s team
members to play against many teams that are supporting the cause and ground-up
initiative.
International Sports Academy
Executive Director Joel Lim Giving a Speech
Mr Moliano and his Band Upped the
Glamour and Entertainment Factor
Team TEN - MP Mr Saktiandi’s Team
That Finished 3rd for the Event
One of Team WaF4H’s Representatives
Mentally Preparing for the Matches
Mr Saktiandi explained to everyone
the significance of the launch in his opening speech. He said, “Why TEN-3Gen?
It is Toa Payoh East Novena, not the number ten.
Because Novena, Novena Square, Tan
Tock Seng Hospital, they fall under my constituency hence why TEN is a nice way
to group everything collectively.
Why Gen? The reason is because we
want to make sure that we want the family unit, from the young ones, parents,
grandparents, hopefully great grandparents can play Walking Football together.
So today, this is the first time we
are organizing an event whereby the children, parents and grandparents are
playing in the same team. This is very encouraging because Walking Football is
a game where everyone can play and walk together.
In terms of community, we are
encouraging residents to come to Toa Payoh Stadium every Sunday (5 pm to 7 pm),
to join and learn about Walking Football and hopefully the families can spend
more time together.
From today’s event, you can see the
element of multi-racialism and also an element of a strong community within the
vicinity. Toa Payoh East Novena has a lot of elderly residents so we are
definitely encouraging them to be a part of the Walking Football training
sessions at Toa Payoh Stadium.
With Walking Football, we hope this
is another good channel for the families to bond together. Not only in Toa
Payoh East Novena, but for everyone else in Singapore as well.
I’d like to encourage everybody to
embrace the community, to welcome anyone who is willing to come to Toa Payoh
Stadium every Sunday for a fun game of Walking Football. We are encouraging
more residents of all ages and races in the area to join Walking Football. This
is one of the reasons why I am supporting the use of the Toa Payoh Sports
Stadium via ActiveSG” Mr Saktiandi said.
Walking Football - A Game for Anyone
and Everyone
https://www.beritaharian.sg/setempat/300-sertai-kegiatan-bola-sepak-berjalan-tiga-generasi?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1575162370
https://berita.mediacorp.sg/mobilem/sukan/keluarga-3-generasi-wakili-s-pura-ke-sukan-bola-sepak-berjalan/4370626.html
About Dr Dee and Walking Football4Health:
https://iamdeedeemahmood.blogspot.com/2017/10/i-am-dee-dee-mahmood.html
https://iamdeedeemahmood.blogspot.com/2017/10/i-am-dee-dee-mahmood.html
Walking Football4Health 2019 in Review