AS A warm-up to the upcoming South-east Asian (SEA) Games, sports editor Marc Lim transported students to the drama of the Singapore v Myanmar soccer semi-final of 22 years ago.
He showed highlights - including soccer defender Lim Tong Hai's own goals - from the 1993 SEA Games, the last time Singapore hosted the event, to the gasps of some 450 junior college students at his talk on the legacy the upcoming SEA Games would leave Singapore beyond the medal haul.
The session anchored the fourth round of The Straits Times-Ministry of Education National Current Affairs Quiz 2015 at Tampines Junior College (TPJC) yesterday.
The clips sparked a spirited question-and-answer session that tackled topics ranging from foreign-born athletes representing Singapore to the viability of sports as a career here.
"The questions went beyond what was reported and gave some thought to issues like the commercialisation of sports," Mr Lim said of the questions, which came from students of TPJC, Temasek Junior College (TJC), Meridian Junior College (MJC) and Victoria Junior College (VJC).
A quiz round followed the session, pitting the four teams against one another. At the last moment, host TPJC used a "Shout In" game card to obtain the right answer from an enthusiastic audience of home ground supporters, catapulting the team to 80 points - just ahead of TJC and VJC, which both had 70 points, as well as MJC, which had 40 points.
"We tried not to gain points too fast early on, because we knew we might get sabotaged," explained 18-year-old Parth Sachin Mehta from the winning team. Together with teammates Saddiq Basha and Jordyn Goh, they bagged $600 in vouchers. Singapore Press Holdings Foundation was the presenting sponsor.
Yishun Junior College will host the next round of the Big Quiz on May 27.
For more information, go to www.straittimes.com/thebigquiz
Additional reporting by Nurul Iiman Said, Laremy Lee and Ang Yiying
