Singapore Women's canoe team sweep all 3 golds, dedicate wins to Sabah quake victims

SINGAPORE - Singapore swept all three gold medals in the women's 500m races on Monday morning at the Marina Channel, bringing the total of canoeing golds to five so far, the country's best ever performance at the SEA games.

In the K1 race, Stephenie Chen raced to a clear lead by the final 200m, eventually finishing in 1 min 55.531 secs to beat Indonesia's Erni Sokoy (1:59.986) and Vietnam's Vu Thi Linh (2:03.644).

The team won their second gold in the K4, when Geraldine Lee, Soh Sze Ying, Annabelle Ng and Sarah Chen finished in a time of 1:39.506, more than two seconds ahead of Thailand (1:41.586) and Vietnam (1:44.419).

Stephenie Chen then recovered from her first race to compete in the K2, the final race of the day. Partnering Suzanne Seah, they struck gold after a tight race with Thailand. The hosts just edged ahead of the Thais to win in a time of 1:45.951, just ahead of Thailand (1:46.571) and Indonesia (1:49.921).

Said Ng: "I've raced in the K4 three times and this is our first gold so we're really happy!"

But she said the team's thoughts were also with the victims of the Sabah earthquake.

Added the Serangoon Junior College teacher: "At the same time, we want to give a shoutout to those involved in the Sabah earthquake... We're with you and we want to do this for you."

Singapore's two other canoe golds came in the men's K1 1,000m race and K2 1,000 event.

ngxtc@sph.com.sg

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