SINGAPORE - Singapore's youth paddlers won 11 out of 13 titles on offer at the 24th South East Asian (SEA) Junior & Cadet Table Tennis Championships, posting their best performance in the annual competition, which ended on Sunday (July 8) in Naga City in the Philippines. The team also won three silver and 10 bronze medals.

The Republic's previous best gold-medal haul was 10, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in 2016. Singapore claimed eight gold medals when it hosted the competition last year.

This year's sterling performance saw the young paddlers claim all the Junior (Under-18) and Cadet (U-15) boys' and girls' singles events - Koen Pang won the boys' junior title and Wong Xinru won the girls' junior title, while Andy Wong claimed the boys' Cadet gold and Zhou Jingyi won the girls' Cadet title.

Singapore also won the gold, silver and bronze medals in the Junior mixed doubles event, with the pair of Koen and Goi Ruixuan claiming the title.

In a statement, Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA) president Ellen Lee said: "Surpassing the best medal mark is certainly exceptional.

"Our athletes have worked and fought hard over the last five days and we are very proud of their achievements.

"This milestone is testament of our efforts, and their achievements further attest that the STTA is on the right path of grooming our high potential talents into world-class athletes."

Held across five days, the 24th edition featured 127 competitors from six other Asean countries - Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei.