PHNOM PENH – 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 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 touched the wall first at the Morodok Techo National Aquatics Centre.
Singapore had entered these Games with 995 golds. Ju-jitsu exponent Noah Lim made it 996 with the Republic’s first gold medal in Cambodia on Saturday afternoon, before the swimmers joined in the gold rush in the evening.
After Jing Wen won the women’s 200m butterfly final and Jonathan Tan followed up with gold in the men’s 100m freestyle, Quah Zheng Wen retained his 100m backstroke title before the women’s freestyle relay team worked their magic.
Ting Wen said that she realised the quartet could create history after her younger brother Zheng Wen won Singapore’s 999th gold.
The 30-year-old 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.”
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.”
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.”
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.
Track and field legend, the late Tan Eng Yoon, had the honour of winning Singapore’s first gold medal when the then-British crown colony was invited to join the inaugural Seap Games in 1959.
At that Games, which would be renamed the South-east Asian Games from 1977, it was the men’s 4x100m combination of Gan Eng Joo, Gan Eng Guan, Tan Cheow Choon and Fong Hoe Beng who claimed Singapore’s first and only swimming gold medal in 4:15.4.
The swimmers have won gold medals at every Games except at the 1961 edition, amassing 373 golds over 64 years. They have also topped swimming’s medal table at every SEA Games since 2005.
Amanda, 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.
“The feeling has not set in yet, but I think we will be screaming about it in the room tonight.”
Singapore National Olympic Council president Tan Chuan-Jin hailed the landmark gold as a “significant milestone”. He said: “This is testament to Team Singapore’s consistency on the South-east Asian stage since 1959 and the support and efforts invested in Singapore sports.
“In 2029, we will host the Games for the fifth time. As we gear up to welcome the region’s best athletes, let’s celebrate this special moment as a nation and rally together to support Team Singapore in Cambodia. And let this be a motivation for our next lap… let’s go!”
