Sailors Cecilia Low, Kimberly Lim aiming to retain Asiad gold amid tougher competition

SINGAPORE – National 49erFX sailors Cecilia Low and Kimberly Lim are aiming to retain their Asian Games gold in September, but they are expecting a much tougher challenge in Hangzhou.

The duo believe that since the last Asiad in Jakarta, the field has become stronger with many of their rivals gaining more experience over the last five years.

Their recent outing at the Princess Sofia Regatta in Mallorca, where they finished 28th out of 60 pairs earlier in April, also allowed them to get a better sense of the competition they will be up against.

Low, 32, said: “Everyone has more time in the boat, getting more experienced coaches, so everyone’s gotten much faster and stronger, it’s going to be a different ball game.”

The pair were speaking on the sidelines of an event at One15 Marina Sentosa Cove to announce the Singapore Sailing Federation’s new apparel sponsor Hong Seh Marine on Wednesday. The luxury yacht company will be sponsoring $70,000 over three years.

On their rivals’ progress, Lim added: “The last Asian Games, they were quite new to it... they had two years in the boat but, by the time we went to Tokyo, everyone was a bit more experienced.”

There is also uncertainty over the equipment, which has changed since the delayed Tokyo Olympics in 2021, with Low saying that “any tweak on the boat makes a huge difference”.

They noted that, in the previous campaign, they had a good idea of the set-up a year before the Olympics but the equipment changes for the Paris Games have yet to be finalised.

Things have also been quite different for the duo, who returned to their studies after the Tokyo Olympics, where they made history by becoming the first Singaporean sailors to qualify for the medal race at the quadrennial competition.

But they believe they have made good progress in the last few months.

Lim, 26, said: “We’re using our hours a lot better than we did in the last campaign; it’s something that comes with experience. If we didn’t do that campaign we did, we would not think the same way.”

But they are looking to return to training full time in Europe from May until the Sept 23-Oct 8 Asian Games. Lim will graduate from the Singapore Management University in April while Low, who has a few modules left at the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Asia, is looking to defer her studies.

While they are unsure over whether they will pursue a second Olympic campaign, the Asian Games and the period leading up to it will be crucial in helping them decide.

In August, they will be heading to the Netherlands for the World Sailing Championships, which also serve as Paris 2024 qualifiers.

Low added: “It’s going to be a standing point for us to see where we are then, what we can improve on, how much we can improve. The Olympics are only one year away, there’s not actually a lot of time to learn the new equipment.”