Quah Ting Wen grabs 2 golds, men's foil fencers triumph in Manila
SINGAPORE — Since 2005, Quah Ting Wen has been steadily amassing SEA Games medals in the swimming competitions. While she may not be as prolific as past Singapore swim queens such as Patricia Chan or Joscelin Yeo, she is widely recognised as the finest female swimmer of her generation.
On Saturday (7 December) in Clark City, the 27-year-old added two more golds to her medal collection. First, she swam a superb lap in the women’s 50m butterfly race to set a new Games record of 26.50sec for the win.
Thailand’s Ard Jenjira Srisa was second in 26.64sec, while Jasmine Alkhaldi of the Philippines took the bronze.
Quah then teamed up with sister Jing Wen, Amanda Lim and Cherlyn Yeoh to clinch the women’s 4x100m freestyle gold medal, extending Singapore’s winning streak in this event to 10 years and five SEA Games editions.
They clocked a Games and National record 3min 40.92sec to finish ahead of Philippines (3:47.05) and Thailand (3:48.30).
Earlier, Darren Chua – who had already won two relay golds – added an individual gold in the men’s 200m freestyle, clocking 1:48.26 to finish ahead of Malaysia’s defending champion Welson Sim (1:48.52) and Vietnam’s Quy Phuoc Hoang (1:48.59).
Ting Wen now has four golds at this year’s Games – leading all Singapore swimmers, including younger brother Zheng Wen (three), who clinched a silver medal in the 50m backstroke (25.65sec) behind Indonesia’s I Gede Siman Sudartawa (25.12sec).
In all, she has amassed 22 golds, 17 silvers and four bronzes since 2005.
Gold for men’s foil team
At the World Trade Center in Manila, the men’s foil team of Darren Tan, Kevin Chan, Jet Ng and Joshua Lim swept to a dominant 45-26 victory over Thailand to earn Singapore’s fourth fencing gold at the Games.
The fencers shot to a 10-0 lead after two bouts, before Thailand reduced the deficit to three points by the fourth bout. However, Singapore pulled away in the subsequent bouts to win back the gold they last won in 2015.
The women’s epee team of Kiria Tikanah Abdul Rahman, Cheryl Lim, Victoria Lim and Rebecca Ong had to settle for silver, losing 39-45 to the Philippines in the final.
Ryan Lo retains men’s laser standard sailing title
There was also good news in Subic, when sailor Ryan Lo retained his men’s laser standard class title at the Subic Bay Yacht Club.
In a competition disrupted by the Typhoon Kammuri earlier in the week, Lo held his nerve to garner nine points in eight races to clinch gold. Singapore sailors also collected three silvers through Kenan Tan (men’s optimist), Radiance Koh (women’s optimist) and Victoria Chan (women’s laser radial).
Silver for Games debutants Koen Pang/Josh Chua
At the Subic Bay Exhibition and Convention Center, Singapore’s table tennis world junior No. 1 Koen Pang won his first SEA Games medal, a men’s doubles silver medal with Josh Chua, even though they lost 6-11, 10-12, 12-10, 4-11 in the final to Vietnam’s Doan Ba Tuan Anh and Nguyen Anh Tu.
There was a shock in the women’s doubles event, as Singapore failed to win gold for the first time since 1997. Both the Republic pairs of Feng Tianwei/Lin Ye and Goi Rui Xuan/Wong Xin Ru lost in their semi-final ties and could only settle for joint-bronzes.
At the New Clark City Athletics Stadium, sprinter Shanti Pereira clinched a bronze medal in the women’s 200m race, clocking a season-best 23.77sec. She finishes behind the Philippines’ Kristina Marie Knott (23.01sec) and Vietnam’s Le Tu Chinh (23.45sec).
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