Asian Games 2023: Silver for kayaker Stephenie Chen, Loh Kean Yew crashes out
Veteran of 4 Asiads becomes the 2nd Singaporean to win a medal in the sport, but former world champ Loh falls on Games debut
SINGAPORE — Veteran Stephenie Chen clinched Singapore's second-ever canoeing/kayaking Asian Games medal on Tuesday morning (3 October), as she came in second in the women's K1 500m final.
The 31-year-old clocked 2min 0.074sec to finish just behind China's gold medallist Li Dongyin (1:58.931) at the Fuyang Water Sports Centre. Iran's Hediye Kazemi was third in 2:00.635.
Chen, a five-time SEA Games gold medallist who is competing in her fourth Asiad, led for the first 250m after a superb start, but Li stepped up a gear in the second half of the race as Chen faded, and powered to victory ahead of the Singaporean.
Chen had finished fourth in Monday's women's K2 500m final with Soh Sze Ying. She had also finished fourth in the women's K1 200m at the 2018 Jakarta Games.
With her silver-medal showing, Chen becomes the second Singaporean to earn a medal in canoeing/kayaking, after Mervyn Toh clinched a bronze in the men's K1 200m event in 2018.
Loh Kean Yew crashes out in Games singles debut
There was, however, intense disappointment for former world champion Loh Kean Yew, as the Singapore shuttler stumbled at the first hurdle of the men's singles competition, crashing out 12-21, 14-21 to Malaysia's Ng Tze Yong in the round of 32 at the Binjiang Gymnasium.
The current world No.9 just could not seem to figure out his opponent, who has a 3-1 lead in their head-to-head record, and had knocked the Singaporean out at last year's Commonwealth Games as well as this year's Japan Open.
Loh's exit marked an Asian Games debut to forget, as he also lost his singles tie to Japan's Kenta Nishimoto in the opening round of the team event, which Japan won 3-0.
Teammate Jason Teh made it through to the last-16, beating the Maldives' Nibal Ahmed 21-8, 21-12 to set up a clash with Indonesia's top-seeded Anthony Sinisuka Ginting next.
Yeo Jia Min also made it into the women's singles round of 16, after defeating Kazakhstan's Karina Smagulova 21-7, 21-7. She will next face reigning Olympic champion, China's Chen Yufei.
However, the women's doubles pair of Jin Yujia and Crystal Wong were eliminated by Malaysia's Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan 12-21, 16-21 in their round-of-32 tie.
Shanti Pereira completes campaign with 4x100m race
Meanwhile, Asian Games gold-medallist sprinter Shanti Pereira completed her Hangzhou campaign with her 4x100m teammates Elizabeth-Ann Tan, Roxanne Enriquez and Bernice Liew as the Singapore quartet finished fifth in the relay race with a time of 45.34 seconds.
China emerged winners of the race in 43.39sec, Thailand claimed silver in 44.32sec while Malaysia got the bronze medal in 45.01sec after Bahrain, which came in third in the race, were disqualified.
Pereira had won Singapore's third gold of the Games with an iconic victory in the women's 200m final on Monday, and also cliched a silver medal in the 100m sprint on Saturday.
Team Singapore has now won three golds, six silvers and four bronzes at the Hangzhou Games.
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