asean para games

Theresa Goh with her gold medal after setting a new Games record in her SB5, 50m breaststroke event. She sliced 11 seconds off the old record of 1:08.95 with a time of 57.90s. (Photo 1 courtesy of SDSC)

Solo, Indonesia, Friday, December 16, 2011 — Swimmer Theresa Goh won Singapore’s first gold medal at the 6th ASEAN Para Games.

A second Singapore gold followed when bowler Mohamed Ismail B. Hussein took top spot in his TPB3 singles event with 990 pinfalls.

In track and field, Muhammad Firdaus bin Nordin clinched the bronze medal in his T54- 100-metre race.

Theresa Goh set a new Games record in her SB5, 50m breaststroke event, slicing 11 seconds off the old record of 1:08.95 with a time of 57.90s.

“It was a bit nerve-wracking at first because I have not been swimming the breaststroke for a while,” said Theresa. “Finally getting the first race out of the way is a big relief. I can now focus on my second and last race respectively.”

Fellow Singaporean swimmers Benson Tan and Chew Zi Ling secured silver and bronze medals in the S14 50m freestyle with times of 28.26s and 37.49s respectively.

Singaporean track and field athletes Norsilawati Bte Sa’ad and Jack Lai were also in action, coming in fourth and sixth in their T52 100m and T53 100m races respectively.

Over at the Sritex Arena, our national para-shuttlers competed in the BMSTU4 men’s singles and the BMSTU4 men’s doubles group B.

Current games BMSTU 4 men’s singles defending champion Tay Wei Ming secured his first win of the competition, defeating Vietnam’s Pham Hong Tuan, 21-10, 21-16.

Fellow shuttlers Muhammad Ashik Ishak and Kelvin Pung were stretched in their singles competition. It was not an easy outing for Ashik. He suffered two consecutive defeats in his Group A matches, going down 11-21, 21-23 and 4-21, 4-21 to Mohamad Hamizan of Malaysia and Tran Minh Nhuan of Vietnam respectively.

Kelvin’s fate was also sealed in his first group B match when he went down 14-21 and 13-21 to Indonesia’s Koriyosua.

But Kelvin Pung did better when he paired with Tay Wei Ming to win Singapore’s first group match against Malaysian pair Mohamad Hamizan and Issa Mohd Noor, 21-23, 21-17 and 21-14.

Table Tennis paddler Eugene Soh bowed out in the Class-4 open men’s singles quarter-final stages after going down to Thai first seed Wichaiwatana 2-11, 2-11, 5-11.

Dr William Tan’s Class-4 open men’s singles journey ended in the first round after his 11-2, 11-9, 11-9 loss to Thailand’s Jedsada Yodyangeang.

Again Dr Tan and Eugene Soh got together in their Class-4 men’s doubles, but they went down 3-11, 2-11-2, 2-11 to Indonesia’s Adios Astan and Herman Sefrianto in the quarter-final stages.

Overall Team Singapore ended today with 2 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze medals.

asean para games

Singapore paddlers Eugene Soh (left) and Dr William Tan in action against Wittaya Wichaiwatana and Anurak Lauwong from Thailand. The challenge from the Thais proved too strong and our paddlers eventually conceded in straight sets, 5-11, 7-11, 7-11. (Photo 2 courtesy of SDSC)