The match racing team of (from left) Maximilian Soh, Russell Kan, Andrew Paul Chan, Justin Wong and Christopher Lim (not in pic) beat South Korea 2–0 in the the best-of-three finals to secure gold. (Photo 1 by Jaewon Lee/Sport Singapore via Action Images Livepic)
South Korea, Wednesday, October 1, 2014 — The match racing team of Maximilian Soh, Christopher Lim, Russell Kan, Justin Wong and Andrew Paul Chan came home with Singapore’s third sailing gold medal at the 17th Asian Games when they beat hosts South Korea 2–0 in the J80 open match racing best-of-three finals.
Singapore had also beaten the hot favourites, Japan, twice during the regatta. Skippered by Maximilian Soh, the team faced Malaysia in the semi-finals after qualifying as top seeds from the round-robin qualifying matches.
The team beat Malaysia 3–0 to set up a finals match-up with Korea, who defeated Japan in the other semi-finals.
The Singapore sailing contingent ended the Asiad with three gold, two silver and two bronze medals, bettering the medal haul of two gold, two silver and four bronze medals from the 2010 edition. Almost half the sailing contingent that travelled to South Korea are first-timers at the Asian Games.
Singapore finished joint-second with China with three gold each. Korea topped the table with four gold medals.
Singapore’s best sailing performance at the Asian Games came in 2006 in Doha, when they topped the regatta with five gold, three silver and two bronze medals.
South Korea, Tuesday, September 30, 2014 — Singapore’s sailors added six medals to the nation’s tally at the 17th Asian Games with two gold, two silver and two bronze medals.
Most of the sailors were faced with strong rivals on the final day of racing, with only the 420 women’s pair of Kimberly Lim and Savannah Siew, both 18, in a comfortable position after nailing five bullets and not finishing outside the top three in their previous 10 races.
Jodie Lai,13, also led the Optimist fleet with 18 points on the final day of racing, with her nearest rivals from Thailand (20 points) and China (21 points) hot on her heels.
The Singapore girls did well in both categories to finish with a race to space after race 11, and eventually went on to claim their respective gold medals.
In the 29er Women’s, the Singapore sister pair of Priscilla Low, 25, and Cecilia Low, 23, were tied on points with the Thai team after race 11 but eventually lost out to finish with the silver.
The 420 Boys’ team of Loh Jia Yi, 16, and Jonathan Yeo, 18, and Laser Standard sailor Colin Cheng, 25, were sailing third on the final day of racing and they successfully defended their positions to win a bronze each.
The Optimist Boys’ race provided final day drama. Raynn Kwok, 12, of Singapore was initially out of the medals after finishing fourth.
Kwok had started the final day in fourth position and moved up to bronze medal position after finishing third in race 11.
After finishing fifth in the final race(race 12), Kwok was fourth overall. He then lodged a protest against Thailand’s Suthon Yampinid (second) and Malaysia’s Dhiauddin Rozaini (third) for infringements in the previous race. After a two-hour deliberation, the jury disqualified the Thai and Malaysian and Kwok moved up to the silver-medal position.
In the Laser Radial class, Singapore’s Elizabeth Yin, who flew straight to Incheon from the Olympic Qualifiers held in Santander, Spain, came down with a bad flu bug and struggled with jet lag. She eventually finished fourth overall.
Commenting on the team’s performance in Incheon, Dr Ben Tan, President of the Singapore Sailing Federation said, “Our sailors were up against the big boys of Asia, such as China, Korea, Japan, and they did Singapore proud. The hard work of our sailors and the attention to detail of the support team brought us this excellent set of results. SingaporeSailing will continue to build on our breadth and depth so that we can continue to deliver for Singapore.”
Gold
Optimist Women’s One Person Dinghy – Jodie Lai
420 Women’s Two Person Dinghy – Kimberly Lim and Savannah Siew
Silver
29er Women’s Two Person Dinghy – Priscilla Low and Cecilia Low
Optimist Men’s One Person Dinghy – Raynn Kwok
Bronze
Laser Men’s One Person Dinghy – Colin Cheng
420 Men’s Two Person Dinghy – Loh Jia Yi and Jonathan Yeo
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[…] Singapore’s youngest gold medalist Jodie Lai, 13, became Singapore’s youngest ever gold medallist at the Asian Games, when she won the […]