SEA Games 2023: Three golds for Singapore in fencing, cricket, xiangqi
Fencing gold equals six-gold haul in previous Games, while cricket gold was Singapore's second-ever in the sport
SINGAPORE — After dominating the individual events - winning five out of the six available golds - Singapore's fencers found the going much tougher in the team competitions at the SEA Games in Cambodia.
After the three teams events, there were one silver and two bronzes won, but still no team gold for the city-state at the Chroy Changvar Convention Center by Monday morning (15 May).
Thankfully, the gold finally came on Monday afternoon from probably the most reliable source: the women's foil competition, where Singapore have won golds in the past three times the event was contested (2015, 2019 and 2022).
The team of Cheung Kemei, Tay Yu Ling, Tiffany Seet and individual champion Maxine Wong easily defeated Vietnam 45-23 in the final to make it a fourth straight gold in the event.
The gold, Singapore's sixth at the Games, also equalled the city-state's six-gold haul at last year's Hanoi Games, where it was the top performing fencing nation.
Earlier on Monday, the men's sabre team of Dan Wei Zuo, Nicholas Loo, Lucius Loh and Jorelle See managed to reach the final for the first time ever, but had to settle for silver after losing to defending champions Vietnam 31-45.
On Sunday, the men's epee team and the women's sabre team earned bronze medals after losing the semi-finals of their respective events.
Second-ever cricket gold as men's six-a-side team triumph
Team Singapore also earned a gold medal in cricket on Monday, as the men's six-a-side team emerged triumphant among four contesting nations in the competition.
They had lost by four wickets to the Philippines in their opening match on Sunday, but recovered to beat Indonesia by 14 runs on the same day at the AZ Group Cricket Oval.
On Monday, they defeated hosts Cambodia by 26 runs to finish level with them on two wins and six points each. However, a superior nett run rate gave Singapore the gold medal.
This is Singapore's second-ever cricket gold medal at the SEA Games, after they clinched the Twenty20 gold at the 2017 Games in Kuala Lumpur.
Gold in xiangqi for men's blitz team; men's water polo gold within reach
The third gold won by Team Singapore on Monday came in xiangqi (Chinese chess), as the men's blitz team of Alvin Woo and Low Yi Hao emerged tops among five other competitors at the Royal University of Phnom Penh.
They won four out of five rounds of matches, losing only to Vietnam's Ha Van Tien and Tuan Hai Chu. The results put them level on points with the Vietnam pair as well as the Malaysian pair of Sim Yip How and Yeoh Thean Jern, but the Singapore duo eventually won by having a superior individual win sum.
This is the second xiangqi gold for Singapore at the Games, after Ngo Lan Huong won the women's singles competition on Sunday.
Singapore's men's water polo have also virtually sealed the gold medal they had been waiting four years to regain, following a routine 10-4 win over the Philippines in their penultimate match at the National Olympic Stadium Swimming Centre.
They face Cambodia in their final match on Tuesday morning, and considering that the hosts are bottom of the round-robin table after losing all their matches, Singapore look odds on for earn their fifth win of the competition to top the table and win the gold.
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