Singapore’s athletes achieve fourth-best away performance at 2023 Asean Para Games

SINGAPORE – The Republic’s athletes wrapped up their Asean Para Games (APG) campaign with two gold, one silver and six bronze medals on their final day of competition in Cambodia on Thursday.

This brings their total to 12 golds, 15 silvers and 17 bronzes, which is Singapore’s fourth-best performance at an away APG.

Their showing at the inaugural edition in 2001 (16 golds, nine silvers and 12 bronzes) in Kuala Lumpur remains their best on foreign soil, followed by Manila 2005 (15-10-9) and KL 2009 (14-6-3). The Republic’s best record came on home ground in 2015, when the total was 24-17-22.

Swimmers Colin and Sophie Soon contributed two golds in the men and women’s S13 50m freestyle on Thursday, with both rewriting Games records.

Colin came home in 27.02sec, 0.36sec ahead of Indonesia’s Marinus Melianus Yowei, while Singapore’s Wong Zhi Wei was third in 27.43sec. Sophie clocked 33.26sec to finish ahead of her only competitor Firstania Amir of Indonesia.

The Soon siblings have had podium finishes in every event they have raced in.

Sophie, who won three golds overall, said: “Overall, it was pretty decent. I’m glad to have added to the medal tally for Singapore but mostly super grateful for my whole team for being a huge part of my journey and contributing to my results.

“(I’m) super relieved it’s all over. And now we all can have some fun before going home.”

Colin, who won four golds and one silver, said: “Throughout the competition, I actually didn’t feel so confident because I felt that I could have prepared just a bit more...

“I really did much better than I can ever ask for and I’m thankful for everything that helped lead me to such a great competition this time round.”

Thursday’s sole silver medal went to table tennis player Claire Toh, who finished second out of three participants in the women’s singles class 1-2, which was played in a round-robin format.

“(I’m) not very satisfied as I feel that I can do better. I told myself it’s okay and I just have to be patient and play up to my standard,” said Toh.

Her win against her first opponent, Thailand’s Suthida Saenthasan, was not an easy one. The 30-year-old trailed 9-11, 8-11 but rallied to win the next three games 11-3, 11-6, 15-13.

However, she could not repeat the comeback act in the second match against Thailand’s Chilchitparyak Bootwansirina, who won 11-3, 9-11, 11-9, 11-9.

“One of the challenges was because there’s something wrong with my wheelchair. But I told myself to just focus on the game,” said Toh. She will be headed for the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Para Opens in Taipei and Taichung in July.

Besides Wong’s bronze, there were two other third-placed finishes in women’s swimming from Janelle Tong (S10 50m free) and Danielle Moi (S14 50m free).

Tay Wei Ming and Rodrick Lee won joint-bronzes in the men’s badminton SU5 singles and men’s table tennis class 2 singles respectively, while boccia players Aloysius Gan and Toh Sze Ning finished third in the mixed pairs BC3 category.

The APG’s closing ceremony will be held on Friday.