He may have just won Singapore's first men's cycling SEA Games gold in 20 years, but to Calvin Sim, the gold medal was one that belonged to the whole team.
The 27-year-old scored 140 points to top the 11-strong field in the men's omnium event last night, finishing ahead of Malaysia's Sofian Nabil Omar (136 points), while Nandra Eko Wahyudi of Indonesia took the bronze (135 points).
Team-mate Goh Choon Huat was fourth with his score of 128 at the National Velodrome in Nilai.
The omnium is a category of track cycling involving four events - the 10km scratch race, 10km tempo race, elimination race and 25km points race. Participants are awarded points for each event and the overall winner is the rider with the highest total of points.
Sim's gold is Singapore's first men's cycling gold since 1997, when Bernard Wong won the points race in Jakarta.
Said Sim: "It feels awesome but it's not only my victory, it's a team victory and I couldn't have done it without them."
Sim also gave special mention to the Singapore Cycling Federation's (SCF) vice-president (track) Ang Kee Meng for his guidance.
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1997
The last time Singapore won a men's SEA Games cycling title - Bernard Wong took the gold in the 30km points race in Jakarta.
Entering the points race last night, Sim had been ranked fifth with 96 points while Sofian was in top position.
On his stunning comeback in the final event, Sim said: "Cycling is a team sport - the points gap wasn't too big after the elimination round and Choon Huat and I knew we had to be aggressive by taking laps during the points race.
"Without Choon Huat helping me, we couldn't have done this. If the roles were reversed, I would have been very happy for him too and I would have been prepared to sacrifice myself as well."
This victory last night ensured that the Republic continued to win at least one gold medal for the 12th day in a row. At the 2013 Games in Myanmar, Dinah Chan took gold in the women's individual time trial.
•Additional reporting by Jonathan Wong
