By Liew Hanqing

WHO says sports and studies do not mix?

Certainly not 12-year-old Benjamin Ban, who, since he was 5, had only one goal - to become a table tennis champion.

The Yu Neng Primary School student was among the eight shortlisted for Singapore's Youth Olympic Games table tennis team, but narrowly missed the cut for the top four.

This year, he took part in his first international tournament - the Asean Primary School Sports Olympiad - in Jakarta, where he was silver medallist.

Yesterday, he added another feat to his list of achievements. He was one of his school's top PSLE students this year, with four A*s and a T-score of 270.

For excelling in both academics and sports, he was presented the school's inaugural Ng Beng Chok all-rounder award yesterday. Mr Ng is chairman of the school's advisory committee.

The soft-spoken boy told The New Paper: 'I was surprised because I thought I wouldn't do that well for Chinese.'

That was no mean feat considering he could squeeze in only about an hour of study time every night.

He said: 'After school I would go for table tennis training. Most of the time, I would only be able to start studying at about 10pm.'

But juggling sports and studies has never been a problem for him.

'I just thank God that I have always had the energy to cope with both,' he said.

Benjamin's form teacher, Mrs Janet Lee, 50, described him as a student who always participated actively in class discussions.

She said: 'Though he sometimes missed classes because of training sessions, he was always up-to-date with his work.'

She said he also excelled at mathematics.

She said: 'He represented the school in many mathematics competitions, and even won a silver in a maths Olympiad.'

With him as he collected his results were his parents, older brother and younger sister.

His father, Mr Ban Boon Heong, 46, said tearfully: 'We're very proud of him.'

The technical manager said his son has always been a focused student, but added: 'Sometimes, of course, we would need to remind him to study.'

Benjamin said it is now time to concentrate on studies. He hopes to attend Raffles Institution next year, where his brother Dylan, 14, is currently studying.

This article was first published in The New Paper on Nov 21, 2008.