SINGAPORE: Kayaker Stephenie Chen on Tuesday (Oct 3) clinched a silver medal in the single 500m event to deliver Singapore’s best showing at the Asian Games to date.
Veteran of 4 Asiads becomes the second Singaporean to win a medal in the sport, but former world champ Loh falls on Games debut.
Veteran Stephenie Chen clinched Singapore’s second-ever canoeing/kayaking Asian Games medal on Tuesday, 3rd October morning, as she came in second in the women’s K1 500m final.
31-year-old Chen clocked 2 min 0.074sec finishing just behind China’s gold medallist Li Dongyin (1:58.931) at the Fuyang Water Sports Centre while Iran’s Hediye Kazemi was third in 2:00.635.
Chen, a five-time SEA Games gold medallist who is competing in her fourth Asiad, led for the first 250m after a superb start, but Li stepped up a gear in the second half of the race as Chen faded, and powered to victory ahead of the Singaporean.
Before this, Mervyn Toh’s bronze in the K1-200m event at the 2018 edition in Palembang had been Singapore’s first-ever medal at the quadrennial meet.
Chen who had earned a direct ticket to the final after coming in second in her heat on Sunday, was only fourth-fastest among the qualifiers.
On Tuesday morning China, the 31-year-old signalled early intent at the Fuyang Water Sports Centre in Hangzhou, by shooting out of the blocks and holding the lead for over half the race.
Only a late surge from China’s Li Dongyin helped secure a gold medal for the homegrown favourite in 1:58.931s, with Chen coming in second at 2:00.074 while Iran’s Hediye Kazemi finished third in 2:00.635.
Speaking to reporters after, Chen said, with a laugh, that the plan was to start fast to just get out there and scare the living daylights out of everyone else.
Beyond that it was “a bit” like hanging on for dear life at the end, she added.
31-year-old Chen will savour her silver medal having finished fourth in the K1-200m in 2018 and just narrowly missing out on bronze in her other event, the K2-500m – this year.
The Singaporean who has been representing her country since 2009, is a five-time Southeast Asian Games champion.
She described her Asiad medal as a stepping stone, and said : “I’ve checked this box and I can move on now … I’ve still got work to do.”
Lucas Teo Her teammate came in 5th in the K1-1000m final on Monday, before pairing up with Brandon Ooi for a sixth-place finish in the K2-500m.
Later on Tuesday, Singapore’s men’s K4 of Daniel Koh, Sean Teo, Kendrick Ang, and Jovi Jayden Kalaichelvan finished eighth in their 500m final.
Chen finished fourth in Monday’s women’s K2 500m final with Soh Sze Ying. She had also finished 4th in the women’s K1 200m at the 2018 Jakarta Games.
With her silver-medal showing, Chen became the second Singaporean to earn a medal in canoeing/kayaking, after Mervyn Toh clinched a bronze in the men’s K1 200m event in 2018.
There was, intense disappointment for former world champion Loh Kean Yew, as the Singapore shuttler stumbled at the first hurdle of the men’s singles competition, crashing out 12-21, 14-21 to Malaysia’s Ng Tze Yong in the round of 32 at the Binjiang Gymnasium.
The current world No.9 could not seem to figure out his opponent, who has a 3-1 lead in their head-to-head record, and had knocked the Singaporean out at last year’s Commonwealth Games as well as this year’s Japan Open.
Loh’s exit marked an Asian Games debut to forget, as he also lost his singles tie to Japan’s Kenta Nishimoto in the opening round of the team event, which Japan won 3-0.
Beating the Maldives’ Nibal Ahmed 21-8, 21-12 Teammate Jason Teh made it through to the last-16, to set up a clash with Indonesia’s top-seeded Anthony Sinisuka Ginting next.
Yeo Jia Min also made it into the women’s singles round of 16, after defeating Kazakhstan’s Karina Smagulova 21-7, 21-7. She will next face reigning Olympic champion, China’s Chen Yufei.
