How Singapore won 1,000 SEA Games golds
In 64 years of the South-east Asian Games, Singapore has demonstrated its prowess in sport. With the women’s swimming relay team bagging Singapore’s 1,000th gold, we look back at its golden milestones, starting from gold No. 1.
As the South-east Asian Games unfold in Cambodia this weekend, Singapore finds itself scoring a monumental achievement - winning its 1,000th gold medal in the history of the Games. The milestone serves as proof of the nation’s commitment to excellence in sport and its remarkable journey towards becoming a sporting powerhouse in the region.
Women’s swimming brings home gold
1,000
Quah Ting Wen, Nur Marina Chan, Quah Jing Wen and Amanda Lim
It was a team effort that delivered the milestone goal for Team Singapore, as the women’s swimming 4x100m freestyle relay quartet of Quah Ting Wen, Nur Marina Chan, Quah Jing Wen and Amanda Lim led from start to finish and touched the wall first at the Morodok Techo National Aquatics Centre on May 6.
900
Gong Qianyun
Singapore had never checkmated its way to gold until Gong emerged on top on Dec 3. The woman grandmaster started with three wins and one draw in Subic before losing to Ummi Fisabilillah, but the Indonesian later dropped points as Gong went on to land a historic 900th gold.
800
Jovina Choo, Terena Lam, Dawn Liu and Daniella Ng
On a day when a lack of sailing wind had delayed races by more than two hours, Singapore's women’s keelboat sailors delivered the 800th gold without racing due to a timeout on June 9. The gold medal was awarded to Choo, Lam, Liu and Ng, who had won all their previous round-robin races.
700
Feng Tianwei and Sun Beibei
In her second SEA Games, Feng Tianwei made up for the disappointment of losing the mixed doubles final by winning the women's doubles gold with Sun Beibei. They survived a scare to beat Thai pair Nanthana Komwong and Aisara Muangsuk 3-2 (11-7, 7-11, 11-6, 7-11, 11-9) on Nov 15 in Jakarta to smash the 700-gold mark as Singapore went on to sweep all seven table tennis golds for the last time.
600
Chan Keng Kwang
In a discipline dominated by the Filipinos, Singapore had not won an individual pool gold at the Games until "secret weapon" Chan Keng Kwang beat Vietnam's Luong Chi Dung 11-5 in the final on Dec 4 and pocketed the Republic's last gold in Manila and 600th gold overall.
500
Joscelin Yeo
In her fifth SEA Games, Jaws-lin showed her bite in Brunei to help Singapore seal its 500th gold on Aug 13. Despite nursing an elbow injury, she fended off Thailand's 16-year-old Pilin Tachakittiranan to set a new women's 50m freestyle Games record of 26.23sec.
400
Joscelin Yeo
Still only 13, Yeo made a huge splash at her home Games when she won nine gold and one silver medals to just miss out on Junie Sng's 10-gold feat from 1983. Her seventh gold on June 16 would be Singapore's 400th gold as she won the 200m freestyle in 2min 6.03sec, more than 1.5 seconds quicker than Indonesia's Meitri Widya Pangestika.
300
Men’s water polo team
Another ton of gold medals was completed in Bangkok when the men's team beat Indonesia 11-8 on Dec 13 despite suffering eight sackings to the opponents' two. The victory extended their unbeaten run to 11 editions since the sport made its Games debut in 1965.
200
Tan Thuan Heng, Marc Tay, David Hoe, Soen Lay Heng
Perhaps a sign of the swimming dominance that was to come for Singapore, its men's 4x100m freestyle team comfortably touched the wall first in 3:50.24 on Dec 14 in the last Seap Games in Bangkok before they were renamed South-east Asian Games.
100
Khong Yiu Lan
Since the first gold, Singapore needed 12 years and six Games - the 1963 Cambodia Games were cancelled – to reach the 100-gold mark, as 16-year-old Khong claimed the honour by clocking 1:26.69 to beat Malaysia's Rosanna Lam on Dec 12 in Kuala Lumpur, where she also won the women's 200m breaststroke final in 3:04.04.
1
Tan Eng Yoon
The 31-year-old won the men's 400m hurdles in 54.90sec on Dec 13 as he beat compatriot Gunasena Migale by more than two seconds in Bangkok. This also marked the first time the Singapore’s flag was raised at the regional Games. Tan, who died in 2010, went on to win the triple jump gold with a leap of 14.86m and a 110m hurdles bronze in 16.00sec.
A testament to Team Singapore’s consistency on the South-east Asian stage since 1959Singapore National Olympic Council president
More than 60 years after Singapore made its debut at the 1959 South-east Asian Peninsular (Seap) Games in Bangkok, the Republic won its 1,000th gold medal at the 32nd SEA Games in Cambodia on Saturday.
It was fitting for the island nation that its swimmers ended up making the breakthrough as the regional giants have consistently plundered medals in the pool.
Singapore is the sixth and smallest nation from the 11 participating countries to join the 1,000-gold club, after Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines.
The swimmers have won gold medals at every Games except at the 1961 edition. They have bagged 373 golds over 64 years, including what they have won so far at this year’s event. They have also topped swimming’s medal table at every SEA Games since 2005.
Gold medals by year
Singapore has netted gold in 45 different sports from 1959 to 2022.
Swimming sits at the top for gold earners with a whopping 369 medals. Table tennis is next at 79 golds, followed by athletics, sailing and shooting.
How it felt to bring home Singapore’s 1,000th gold medal
Ting Wen, 30, said that she realised the quartet could create history after her younger brother Zheng Wen won Singapore’s 999th gold. She said: “On the way to the reporting room, I was telling the other girls, if everything goes according to plan, we could win the 1,000th gold medal.”
“It made me a little more excited and a little more nervous also... it is a huge honour for the four of us to do it and I’m very proud of us.”
Amanda Lim, 30, said: “We are always very proud and honoured to be part of the Singapore swim team, especially when we walk into the pool and we know we are going to dominate. This is the ninth SEA Games for Ting Wen and I, so this achievement means even more.
Nur Marina Chan, 25, whose father Bernard and aunt Patricia are well-known names in swimming, added: “A relay gold is always a bit more special because it’s a collective effort that showcases all of our strengths, and this one even more so because it’s our country’s 1,000th.”
Quah Jing Wen, the youngest of the four at 22, said: “Being one of the younger ones on the team, it feels like I’m carrying on the legacy following on from my seniors who have done such a good job earning more than a third of the 1,000 gold medals we had, and it feels a little bit stressful. But I love racing with them.”
The South-east Asian Games is now in its 32nd edition and will take place from May 5 to May 17, 2023 in Cambodia. Team Singapore comprises a total of 558 athletes across 30 sports. Follow The Straits Times’ coverage of the SEA games here.