Five memorable moments of the Hangzhou Asian Games

HANGZHOU – Over the past 15 days, Hangzhou has come alive as about 12,500 athletes travelled to the Chinese city to compete for top honours at the Asian Games. The Straits Times team here select key moments that left an impression on them, both in and out of the sporting arena.

A watchful eye

Before coming to Hangzhou, I knew the Asian Games were going to be highly tech-savvy and also heavily surveilled. For someone who has been to China only a handful of times, I got see first-hand how that works in the country.

Right as we left the airport onto the highway, rows and rows of cameras lined the street lights as we made our way to the hotel. Cameras would flash at our van periodically, which I assumed was some kind of vehicular surveillance. At a noodle shop the next day, an auntie told us that we could actually pay with our faces if we signed up for the facial-recognition feature on our Alipay app.

As the days went by, I realised I had not touched physical money at all and everything was linked to my phone. So a picture I set out to take during the Games was to juxtapose a sporting event with an element which would show a surveillance state, and that happened in the first week, when I photographed a Chinese tennis player serving, with a CCTV camera subtly lurking in the background. – MARK CHEONG

Sorrow for Singapore swimmers

In the morning swimming heats on Sept 29, favourites China were disqualified from the women’s 4x100m medley relay after backstroke lead-off Wang Xueer’s false start.

This gave Singaporean sisters Levenia and Letitia Sim, and Quah Jing Wen and Ting Wen a golden opportunity to make the podium and end the Republic’s campaign on a high following 10 fourth-place finishes.

But in a wicked twist of fate, the dream became a nightmare when Ting Wen touched home in third place behind Japan and South Korea to wild celebrations from her teammates, only to realise moments later

she had been disqualified after jumping early

in the changeover. The veteran stared into space while her younger compatriots held their heads in disbelief.

Sport can be cruel, we all know that. Yet, to witness first-hand how the happiness of winning a medal can turn into the horror of losing it in seconds, and for it to happen to fellow Singaporeans, was pretty sickening.

Imagine how the athletes must have felt. But as Letitia said, this will only fuel their ambition and make them stronger. – DAVID LEE

Pereira’s golden moment

Expectations were growing for Shanti Pereira ahead of the final of her pet event, the women’s 200m, on Oct 2. Days earlier, she had just

clinched a silver in the 100m final.

A false start by a rival did not rattle her and she went on to make history as Singapore’s

first Asian Games gold medallist

in athletics in nearly 50 years.

My colleague Mark Cheong and I wanted to capture this historic moment in its full glory and so we applied, and were surprisingly granted access, to plant remote cameras around the finishing line. Mark had a wide-angle lens at the side while I had a telephoto lens aiming for a head-on shot of Pereira’s lane.

These positions offer the cleanest shots and are usually given only to the major international news agencies. Pereira did not disappoint and raced herself into the history books.

I am glad that I had the chance to capture this historic moment in its full glory – with the other medallists on either side of Pereira. – CHONG JUN LIANG

Everyone has a story

Athletes walk through the media mixed zone and sometimes no one stops them.

Maybe there is no media from their nation. Maybe they did not do anything of note.

But everyone has a story

and wants to tell it.

When I stopped Mohamed Rihan Shiham, who came 19th out of 20 in the 400m individual medley and trains in a 25m pool, midway through he told me, “I broke the (Maldives) record just now. By 0.90 seconds.”

Sometimes good news just has to be shared, even if it is with a foreign reporter. I shook his hand. His smile never left. – ROHIT BRIJNATH

Defiant Afghan runner

Watching Afghanistan sprinter Kimia Yousofi at the Asian Games is a moment that will stay with me for a long time.

Her journey to the starting line was fraught with challenges, with the 27-year-old having to resettle in Australia because she has not been able to go back home since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.

For her to

finally make it to her first competition

since the Tokyo Olympics was both heartening and heart-wrenching knowing the circumstances that she went through.

It took determination for her to make it here and Yousofi has displayed courage in the Chinese city, speaking openly about wanting to run for the girls back home in her country who now do not have access to education, work and sport. – KIMBERLY KWEK