Singapore reaps 10 golds from 5 sports in single day

Singapore women’s Underwater Hockey team celebrates after a goal against the Philippines in the 2019 SEA Games in Vermosa Sports Club. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

MANILA/CLARK – It was a bountiful day for Team Singapore at the 30th SEA Games on Wednesday, with the athletes claiming 10 golds on the fifth day of action.

The first to deliver were the lawn bowlers, who ended the nation’s 20-year wait for a gold medal at the biennial Games.

The trio of Lim Poh Eng, Goh Quee Kee and Shermeen Lim edged out Toyco Nancy, Bruce Asuncion and Knight Ainie 16-13 to take the top honors in the women’s triples event.

The last time the sport struck gold at the SEA Games was in 1999 when Rosemary Tessensohn won the women’s singles.

Next up were Singapore’s 4×4 underwater hockey teams. The men beat the Philippines 5-0 at the Vermosa Sports Hub on the outskirts of Manila while the women also came up trumps against the hosts, winning 4-2.

This is the first time the sport has been included in the biennial Games’ program.

The winter sport athletes also did some heavy lifting for Singapore, adding two golds through speed skaters Cheyenne Goh and the men’s 3,000m relay team.

Goh captured her second title of these Games, winning the women’s 1,000m race in 1min 39.272sec to finish top of the nine-woman field.

She had won the 500m title a day earlier at the SM Megamall ice rink.

Speed skater Goh captured her second title of the SEA Games, winning the women’s 1,000m race.

The relay team crossed the finish line first in a time of 4:23.256, ahead of Thailand (4:24.549) and Indonesia (4:24.780).

The fencers continued their fine form as well, with Kiria Tikanah emerging victorious against home favorite Abella Haniel in the women’s individual epee final.

It was Singapore’s second fencing title after Amita Berthier captured the women’s individual foil on Tuesday.

The charge was led by the three Quah siblings – Ting Wen, Zheng Wen and Jing Wen – who all struck gold in Games record times.

Singapore’s Quah Jing Wen swims in the women’s 200m butterfly final during swimming competition at the 30th Southeast Asian Games in New Clark City, Tarlac province, northern Philippines on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2019. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)

Jing Wen won the women’s 200m butterfly, Zheng Wen the men’s 100m backstroke and Ting Wen the women’s 100m freestyle.

Zheng Wen was also a member of the victorious men’s 4x200m freestyle relay alongside Joseph Schooling, Jonathan Tan and Darren Chua.

Team Singapore now sit on 18 golds with one week left before the Games closes on Dec 11.

While 10 golds is an unusually high single-day haul for Team Singapore, it is not a record.

The benchmark remains the 15 they captured on June 8, 2015, when Singapore staged the Games over 12 days.

The Singaporeans actually breached the 10-gold mark on three occasions at those home Games: June 6 (10), June 8 (15) and June 9 (11).

In 2017, their best single-day gold haul was eight and that took place on Aug 29.

In terms of total medals, Singapore’s best haul in one day was the 38 (nine gold, nine silver, 20 bronze) on June 7, 2015.