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WINNING FOR SINGAPORE
(Fine Performances In Table Tennis, Swimming, Cuesports)
A record of six gold medals by our paddlers at the Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships in Jaipur, India. An impressive haul of 38 gold, 27 silver and 23 bronze medals at the 31st South-east Asia Age-Group Swimming Championships in Singapore. Adding to these winning feats by Team Singapore athletes, cueist Peter Gilchrist (pix) clinched the Asian Billiards Championship crown at the Qatar Billiards and Snooker Federation Hall in Doha.
Table Tennis
For the padders, their success in India marked our best efforts since the championships began in 1971. Among those who shone were Gao Ning and Sun Beibei. Gao beat India's Commonwealth Games champion Sharath Kamal Achanta before edging out teammate Yang Zi for the men's singles title. Sun upstaged top seed and team mate Wang Yuegu for the women's singles crown. The mixed doubles gold went to Yang and Wang who also partnered Sun for the women's doubles title. Earlier, Singapore had bagged the men's and women's team titles for a historic double.
Swimming
In the pool, Nicholas Ho, 12, and Quah Ting Wen, 14, shone with seven gold medals each. Nicholas did particularly well in the 50m free (25.86 secs) and 100m free (55.70 secs) to beat the meet records set by Sng Ju Wei way back in 1993. Ting Wen excelled in events like the 100m back and 200m free with new meet records.
Cuesports
As for Peter Gilchrist, bronze medallist at the 2006 Asian Games, the latest win in Doha was a huge boost. He beat Thailand's Thawat Sujaritthurakarn 5-2 in the final to win his first title since becoming a Singapore citizen last July. Earlier in the competition, the two-time world professional champion overcame India's Asian Games gold medallist and world champion Pankaj Advani 4-3.
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