Swimmer Toh Wei Soong wins S’pore’s first medal at 2026 Asian Para Games

SINGAPORE – Toh Wei Soong bagged Singapore’s first medal of the 2026 Asian Para Games by winning a bronze on Oct 19. But, for the 28-year-old swimmer, the fun is only just about to start.

Competing in the men’s 400m freestyle S7 final at the Nagoya City General Gymnasium, Toh led the first 100m before finishing third in 5min 24.23sec, behind the Philippines’ Ernie Gawilan (4:56.72) and China’s Zhang Yilong (5:01.36).

Asked for his thoughts on winning bronze, Toh, who earned a silver in this event in the previous edition three years ago, said: “The 400m has never been the primary focus of my race schedule.

“It’s an event that requires a different mindset and approach than the sprints, which I love and I have a natural aptitude for.

“I have the most fun when I’m getting out fast and strong out of the gate and that just suits my natural temperament the best.”

The following days will provide those conditions for Toh, who was Singapore’s most bemedalled athlete of the Asian Para Games in 2023 with three golds and a silver in Hangzhou.

Toh, who has transverse myelitis, a condition caused by inflammation of the spinal cord that restricts the use of his legs, will be defending his S7 titles in the 50m butterfly (Oct 21), 100m backstroke (Oct 22) and 50m freestyle (Oct 23).

On Oct 20, Toh will be racing in the 100m freestyle S7 final, which was not contested at the last edition.

Asked about competing in five events at the Games, Toh said he believes that he has found a “happy medium” to allow him to do his best.

He added: “I’ve been competing internationally for the last almost 14 years now – it’s half my life – with the territory comes the full spectrum of doing too much and doing too little, being too hyped up and not hyped up enough, and then finally figuring out the happy medium that lets you be yourself and lets you do your best.

“It’s taken me a long time to figure out how to swim like me, and I’m very happy with how I’ve developed as an athlete, and as a person.”

The bronze on Oct 19 was the eighth Asiad medal across three editions for Toh, who had also won a silver at the Commonwealth Games in July.

In the women’s 100m free S13 final on Oct 19, Sophie Soon, who swims in the S11 category, finished last out of six, clocking 1:20.45.

Japan’s Ayano Tsujiuchi took home gold in a Games record of 1:00.84, ahead of Uzbeks Mubinabonu Khalilova (1:01.23) and Muslima Odilova (1:02.35).

With no S11 event on the programme, the visually impaired swimmer raced in the S13 class, which is for swimmers with the least severe visual impairment.

S11 swimmers have little to no sight, race in blacked-out goggles, and rely on tappers to signal when they are approaching the wall.

In the men’s 100m free S13 final, Wong Zhi Wei missed out on a podium spot, clocking 58.55sec to finish fourth out of five, behind Uzbekistan’s Egor Bolotov (52.90sec), India’s Ravi Karthik Budigina (56.68sec) and Kazakh Viktor Volkov (57.23sec).

Meanwhile, para-archer Nur Syahidah Alim qualified for the round of 16 of the women’s compound open.

At the Okazaki Chuo Sogo Park Multipurpose Square in Aichi, the 41-year-old Singaporean finished second out of 18 in the ranking round with a score of 629, behind India’s defending champion Sheetal Devi (646) and ahead of China’s Xu Xueqing (623).

Syahidah, who won a silver at the last edition, will face Kazakhstan’s Zhanat Aitimova on Oct 20 for a place in the quarter-finals.

A total of 20 athletes, including eight debutants, are representing Singapore in nine para-sports at the Aichi-Nagoya Games. Besides swimming and archery, Singapore’s para-athletes are also competing in athletics, badminton, boccia, cycling (road), judo, shooting and table tennis.