Highlights of the Asian Youth Games: The Top 10 Team Singapore moments

1. The boys and girls bowling team had exceptional last blocks of games to surge to their respective silver medals at the death. The boys team were lying 4th before the final game but bowled a score of 918 to clinch the silver. The girls also went from 3rd to 2nd place with a final game of 928. From left to right: Darshini Krishna, Anthea Soh, New Hui Fen, Ilma Nur Jannah Fadzal, Brandon Lee, Christopher Hwang, Basil Low, Justin Lim. (Photo 1 © Marvin Lowe/Red Sports file photo)

2. Our flag-bearer Quah Ting Wen not only led the contingent out in the opening ceremony, but helmed the gold medal charge for us as well. The new swim queen won 4 golds, the first of which was the 200m Freestyle. With 50m to go, she turned just behind in second place but accelerated away to finish in a new national record of 1:59.21s. This places her as the 6th fastest Asian in this event this year. She said, "I'm very happy to make it under two minutes." (Photo 2 © Les Tan/Red Sports file photo)

3. The medley relay in swimming is supposed to be swum by the best on the team for each discipline. But our girls defied logic when 3 freestyle specialists were sent out to the starting blocks, and a little over 4 minutes later, returned with the bronze medal. Quah Ting Wen started the race off on the backstroke leg and after Roanne Ho and Lynette Lim returned on their breastroke and butterfly legs in 4th place, it was Amanda Lim’s turn on her favourite freestyle. She overtook the Kazakhstan swimmer and anchored Singapore home to a bronze. Their time of 4:13.34s, despite a lack of butterfly and backstroke specialists, was only 0.16s off the current national record. From left to right: Quah Ting Wen, Roanne Ho, Lynette Lim, Amanda Lim. (Photo 3 © Les Tan/Red Sports file photo)

4. The golden girls of the 4x100m Freestyle relay team ended the swimming programme with a big splash, clinching the gold medal and national record to boot. Their time of 3:46.91s obliterated the previous mark by more than 6 seconds and was achieved by a team who averaged 16 years and 2 months old. From left to right: Koh Hui Yu, Quah Ting Wen, Amanda Lim, Lynette Lim. (Photo 4 © Les Tan/Red Sports file photo)

5. In Singapore’s football opener against Iran, substitute Hanafi Akbar hit a scorcher from outside the penalty box to make it 1-1, but Singapore could not hold on for a draw against the eventual bronze medallists and conceded a goal 7 minutes from time to lose 1-2. Hanafi’s skills on the ball made him a pleasure to watch throughout the tournament. (Photo 5 © Les Tan/Red Sports)

6. Basil Low clinched Team Singapore’s 9th and final gold medal of the Games with his Masters win. 7 strikes and a spare in the first game set him on his way to a 236-220 lead, and Basil's stupendous second game further extended the advantage. He did not have the best of starts when he split the pins in the first frame, but then proceeded to string together 9 consecutive strikes to seal the gold medal, winning 501-433 in the step-ladder final. (Photo 6 © Marvin Lowe/Red Sports file photo)

7. Isabelle Li was one game away from at least a bronze medal in the table tennis girls’ singles competition, and North Korea’s Kim Song I stood in her way. It was an epic 7-setter which might have ended differently had Isabelle won the third set after leading 10-4, but she did not, and Kim won 9-11, 11-7, 12-10, 10-12, 11-3, 8-11, 11-7, leaving one of our brightest young paddlers fighting back her tears after the match. (Photo 7 © Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports file photo)

8. Sailor Darren Choy was peerless in the boys’ Byte CII category, racking up 9 first-placed finishes in 11 races to clinch the gold with aplomb. He was so dominant that he sewed up the gold with a race to spare. (Photo 8 © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)

9. The boys FIBA33 basketball team had the best Singapore team performance in the Games when they advanced to the quarter-final round. After an opening defeat against favourites China where they gave a good account of themselves, they beat Uzbekistan and India to set up a quarter-final showdown with South Korea, where they finally bowed out 24-34. Left to right: Russel Low, Goh Kong Tat, Larry Liew, Jabez Su. (Photo 9 © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports file photo)

10. Bowling sensation New Hui Fen sparked off our gold rush by winning Singapore’s first gold of the Games. The 17 year old faced tough opposition in the girls’ singles, but overcame a slow start with consistently good bowling, and averaged 226.5 pinfalls over 6 games to clinch first place by 45 pinfalls. (Photo 10 © Marvin Lowe/Red Sports file photo)