SINGAPORE SHUTTLER TAY WEI MING DEFENDS HIS SINGLES TITLE

Singapore's badminton players netted gold and silver in 6th ASEAN Para Games at the Sritex Arena, Indonesia today. The Republic's shuttlers took center-stage when they competed in both the BMSTU4 men's singles and doubles finals.

Singles defending champion Tay Wei Ming was in no mood of letting his title slip from him. Tay squared off against Tran Minh Nhuan of Vietnam. The game went down to the wire but Tay kept it together and beat his opponent convincingly in the third set to claim the gold medal. Tay's final score was 14-21, 21-17, 21-8.

In doubles action, both Tay and Kelvin Pung staged a strong showing against Pham Hong Tuan and Tran Monh Nhuan also of Vietnam. The Vietnamese pair proved to be too strong and our boys conceded their game in straight sets going down 20-22, 15-21. But it was good enough an effort for Tay and Pung to take the silver medal for Singapore.

It was another packed day of action at the pool again! With two gold medals already in hand, Theresa Goh increased her personal tally to three gold medals as she topped her S-5, 50m freestyle event in 45.40 seconds.

Paralympic medalist Yip Pin Xiu also took to the pool in the same event and bagged the bronze medal in 1min:01.58 seconds.

Emma Dione Schick was also in top form bagging two more silvers. She finished her S-9, 100m freestyle in 1min:30.50 seconds and later returned to clock 38:27 seconds and claim another silver medal in the S-9, 50m freestyle.

Fellow swimmers Lawrence Tay and Charlotte Lee also increased their personal medal tallies. Lawrence finished second in his ID, 100m breaststroke event in 1min:21.36secs. He was good again for a silver, when he completed the ID, 50m backstroke in 36.67 seconds.

Charlotte clocked 1:59.98 seconds to claim a silver medal in her ID, 100m breaststroke while Han Liang Chou took a bronze in the ID, 50m backstroke in 40:01seconds.

With a bronze medal to her name, Chew Zi Ling completed her S-14, 100m breaststroke in fourth position, while Nadia Xu who also competed in the same event, finished a credible fifth.

Our paddlers played their remaining two games in their class 4 and 5 men's team group stages. Dr William and Eugene Soh put up a very strong showing against their Vietnamese opponents, winning two doubles matches.
But the Vietnamese proved their grit and the Singapore pair lost three singles matches - eventually bowing out 3:2 on aggregate.

Our Para-bowlers also took to the bowling lanes in a Men's trios event, played for the first time at these Para Games. The team of Anuar Saad, Goh Chen Keok and Tan Swang Hee played and came in 4th placing, with1736 pin falls.

On a side note, there was something to cheer about when it was officially announced this morning that Yip Pin Xiu's silver medal for the S-5, 50 meter backstroke will be included in Singapore's overall medal tally as she had managed to break the Games record despite finishing two out of two - in a race that was two classes higher than her own classification.


Today, team Singapore bagged 2 Gold, 7 Silver and 2 Bronze medals.

Singapore remains in seventh position with an overall total of 9 Gold, 10 Silver and 9 Bronze.

Thank you for supporting TeamSingapore.