Singapore National Games unveils logo, mascot

SINGAPORE, April 16 (Xinhua) -- After three weeks of online voting, the Singapore National Games (SNG) has found its logo and mascot.

Both were unveiled on Sunday by Adviser for the SNG Steering Committee and Minister of State for the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Mr Teo Ser Luck at the start of Community Games 2012 at Senja-Cashew Community Club, local TV Channel NewsAsia reported on Monday.

The mascot "Nila" is a lion designed by Singapore Polytechnic student Beatriceb Cho.

Nila's fiery mane and heart-shaped face represent friendly rivalry.

Yong Wen Yeu from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts designed the colourful logo for the Singapore National Games.

Animated with the alphabets S, N and G, the logo represents the spirit and energy of sports.

The design contest was held in February and saw some 35 logo and 16 mascot entries submitted by various design schools.

Shortlisted designs were put up online for public voting in March.

The Singapore National Games which takes place from September 1 to September 9, 2012 will see community teams pit against one another in 10 sports.

The Community Games, which serves as the qualifying round, kicked off with a total of 43 matches - including badminton, basketball and football.

Teo said participation in the games exceeded expectations.

He said: "We have a thousand over teams participating in this Singapore National Games. We didn't expect that many (number of) teams when we started. There's good support from both People's Association and Singapore Sports Council coming together. They redesigned the game, put it at a national level and encouraged more teams to participate. Most importantly, it's not to have the regular competitors but anyone that is interested in sports coming forward to participate."