Asian Games debutants Ian Goh, John Wong win sailing silver, windsurfing bronze for Singapore

GAMAGORI – When Ian Goh returned to shore at the Kaiyoh Yacht Harbour on Oct 3, the teenage sailor did so as an Asian Games silver medallist.

But instead of wearing a broad smile, the Games debutant was visibly distraught, burying his face in his hands and struggling to hold back the emotions.

A silver in a major Games debut would be cause for celebration for many athletes, but the 16-year-old was disappointed after letting the boys’ ILCA 4 gold medal slip through his fingers.

Going into the last day of the competition on Oct 3, Ian was in the lead with 22 net points after 10 races in the early rounds, with a one-point advantage over Hong Kong’s Tiago Salgado. He was four better than Ikuto Mori of Japan, with South Korea’s Choi Ji-un five points adrift in the 11-sailor field.

But Ian failed to maintain his advantage in the final two races, as he and Choi were tied on 25 net points at the end and a tiebreaker was needed to separate the two.

With the South Korean having notched three first-place finishes, including in the penultimate race, he was adjudged the champion, as Ian had won twice over the 12 races. Hong Kong’s Salgado, two points adrift, rounded off the podium.

In sailing, the winner is determined by a series of fleet races, where the lowest cumulative point total after discarding the worst two scores wins the gold medal.

Ian said: “This has been three years in the making. I think I put expectations on myself to win. I feel like I didn’t really do my best today. I made many mistakes that I normally don’t make.”

Attributing his expectations to “years of training and racing”, he added: “I’ve won a couple of competitions in Asia, so I’ve proven myself to be at least one of the best in Asia, so I thought I should have won a gold medal, but it is what it is.”

He admitted he had arrived in Japan looking to do one better than his brother Isaac, who made history by winning the silver in the same discipline at the Asiad in 2023 for what was then Singapore’s first medal in the event.

After the mixed zone interviews, Ian hugged his parents, Gary Goh, 49, and Grace Tan, 50 – who said they were very proud of their son – and then burst into tears, before he spoke to his brother Isaac on a video call.

There was more silverware for the Singapore sailing team when windsurfer John Wong clinched a bronze medal in the boys’ event on Oct 3.

This is Singapore’s first windsurfing medal at an Asiad and the first time that an Under-19 division in windsurfing has been staged at the Games.

After the final day of the iQFoil event, Wong, 17, who is also a Games debutant, finished third out of six windsurfers, with 25 points from 11 races.

Hong Kong’s Wong Tsz Ho won gold with 13 points, ahead of silver medallist Masato Kozono of Japan (18).

Three races were initially scheduled for the final day, but only one was held due to a lack of wind.

The Singaporean rued the lack of racing on the final day, which denied him a chance for a higher placing.

John, who picked up the sport only in 2022, said: “If we had done more (races), I would have a chance to get a silver… but in the end, I’m still happy to have got back a medal.”

Along with Sean Kum and Nigel Tan’s boys’ 29er silver, and Jania Ang’s silver in the ILCA 6 on Oct 2, Singapore’s sailors ended the Games with four medals, but no gold – the first time the contingent have gone without one since the 2002 Games.

This is a dip from the Hangzhou Games in 2023, when sailing contributed two of Singapore’s three golds and seven of the 16 medals. The Republic finished sixth in the sailing medal tally, three spots down from the previous edition.

However, kitefoiling champion Maximilian Maeder did not get a chance to compete in Japan as the discipline was omitted from the 2026 programme. The other gold medallist, ILCA 7 champion Ryan Lo, placed fifth overall this time.

Stanley Chan, president of the Singapore Sailing Federation, assessed that the contingent, which consisted of mostly debutants, “did really well”.

He added: “It’s a bit difficult to make comparisons with previous Games because every (edition), some of the classes will be a bit different. So I don’t see a point looking backwards. What’s more important is looking forward, where we analyse and we see that our youths are winning medals in the pathway programmes, and this will potentially inspire a whole generation to come in and sail, to train harder, to want to represent Singapore in the various classes.”