Swimming champion Yip Pin Xiu got $200,000 while equestrian bronze medallist Laurentia Tan received $50,000, both getting twice the amount they had expected.

This, after the Tote Board announced on Friday increased funding for the Singapore National Paralympic Council's (SNPC) AAA, doubling the initial award amounts from those during the scheme's launch in January this year.

With the increase in the awards, however, the Tote Board decided that the SNPC should now get 25 per cent of the money, with the athlete keeping the rest.

So, applauded by some 130 guests at Oosh restaurant at Dempsey Road, Pin Xiu, 16, received a cheque for $150,000 while Tan, 29, got one for $37,500.

'I'm really surprised that they doubled the award,' said backstroke specialist Pin Xiu, who has muscular dystrophy.

'The $100,000 reward was already a good start, and I didn't expect the changes to the AAA to happen so quickly. I'm really happy. Our aim in the first place was not for the money but for the results. The award is just a great bonus.'

The increase follows a recent debate sparked by the disparity in cash awards for able-bodied and disabled athletes.

Previously, a Paralympian's award was just 10 per cent of that for an able-bodied athlete. An Olympic gold medal is worth $1 million, while a Paralympic gold had been worth only $100,000.

But, after September's Games, in which the Republic clinched its first-ever Paralympic medals - Pin Xiu winning a gold and a silver, and Tan, two bronzes - the public have been expressing displeasure on the award disparity in forums.

Read the full story in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times.