All England

Wong Peng Soon

23 December 1999

BADMINTON CHAMP IS SINGAPORE'S GREATEST ATHLETE

Wong Peng Soon has been crowned Singapore's Sports Personality of the Century.

The Singapore Sunday Times ran a ranking of the nation's 50 greatest athletes, in which readers could put forward their nominations, and four-times All-England champion Peng Soon, who died in May 1996, emerged as number one, ahead of Olympic silver medallist weightlifter Tan Howe Liang.

At a ceremony organised by the newspaper, Prime Minister Mr Goh Chok Tong presented the award to Peng Soon's widow, Mrs Doreen Wong.

Paying tribute to Singapore's athletes, the Prime Minister said: "To rank them and to pick the greatest amongst them is not easy. For one reason, the athletes came from different fields of sports. It would be like comparing apples with oranges."

Asked for his personal choice, he continued: "I would choose Tan Howe Liang as the greatest apple for his crunchy strength, and Wong Peng Soon as the best orange for his fluid mastery of the game."

Peng Soon was posthumously appointed to the IBF Hall of Fame earlier this year, and was most renowned for his performances in the 1950's, which saw him take the All-England title in 1950, 1951, 1952, and again in 1955 at the age of 37. He was also awarded an MBE in the 1956 New Year's Honours.

IBF would like to congratulate Mrs Doreen Wong for her late husband's remarkable achievement - it is certainly a proud achievement for badminton.

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