For many athletes, the pursuit of excellence requires a substantial financial investment over years. Only a small percentage of those who train at elite level are ultimately successful in landing a medal at the major games. To recognise their efforts, the Singapore National Olympic Council devised an incentive scheme in the 1990s called the Major Games Prize Programme, which pays a cash award to athletes who win a medal at the Olympic, Asian, Commonwealth and South East Asia (SEA) Games. The programme has since evolved and expanded to include the Asian Youth Games, ASEAN Schools Games, SEA-India Games and a slew of regional competitions.

This year’s prize money will be a whopping $25m, with the top-scorer walking away with $4m and the top three teams sharing $5m. The tournament will be held at Sentosa Golf Club and the field is stacked with world-class players, including Chile’s Joaquin Niemann, Bryson DeChambeau of the United States and Spaniard Jon Rahm, who leads the individual standings.

The self-published Cockman (2022), by Kenfoo, in which a chicken from another dimension is stranded on Earth in human form, was lauded for its “total lack of seriousness and compromise”, and “over-the-top audacity”. The winning title is the latest in a series of comics that have topped the bestseller list at major bookstores.

In the non-fiction category, Straits Times journalist Akshita Nanda’s debut novel Nimita’s Place, which centres on two women named Nimita navigating society’s expectations in India and Singapore, was described as being “skilful, assured, comedic at times and profoundly moving”. 91-year-old National University of Singapore Professor Emeritus Peter Ellinger, who won the Singapore Literature Prize in the English language debut section with Down Memory Lane: Peter Ellinger’s Memoirs (2023), was also commended for “displaying clear-sightedness and ruthless principle”, while his poem Gaze Back “speaks with a clarion call for gender and linguistic reclamation, searing with universal appetite.”

The inaugural winners of the Earthshot Prize were announced on Tuesday evening at a ceremony in Mediacorp Theatre. Launched in 2020 by Prince William’s charity, the prize aims to fund innovative solutions to global environmental challenges, with five winners across the five categories receiving catalytic funds of PS1 million to scale their projects. Each of the winners will work with Conservation International to leverage its long history of spotlighting and financing conservation programmes and sustainability financing in Southeast Asia. Read more here.