Laos, Friday, December 11, 2009 – Team Singapore picked up three more gold medals on the third day of competition at the 25th South East Asian (SEA) Games to stay within the leading pack at the top of the medal tally.

After five golds in the pool yesterday, the swimmers delivered only one more today, but not without the lack of effort. The women’s 4x100m freestyle relay quartet of Mylene Ong, Amanda Lim, Lynette Lim and Quah Ting Wen ripped through the waters of the National Sports Complex Pool and won it in a new Games and national record of 3 minutes 45.73 seconds.

It was the same fantastic four which obliterated the rest of the field in yesterday’s 4x200m freestyle relay final, which they won by over six seconds. They topped today’s shorter relay by more than two seconds, as all three podium finishers broke the Games record of 3:51.86s.

There were medals, national records and personal bests galore as other Team Singapore swimmers displayed their mettle in the face of the region’s best athletes. Lynette put up a brave fight in finishing second in the women’s 400m freestyle final, setting a new national record of 4:11.24s, which also went below the pre-race Games’ mark. Ting Wen took a bronze in the same race.

Roanne Ho clinched another silver medal in the women’s 100m Breaststroke, while Joshua Lim’s 2:05.33s bronze-medal winning time in the men’s 200m individual medley was good enough to set another national mark.

Russell Ong picked up a bronze as well in the men’s 100m freestyle, and his time of 51.05s was just five hundredths of a second off Bryan Tay’s national mark. It was an excellent performance from Singapore’s swimmers for the day as all but Ting Wen and Roanne clocked personal bests.

The shooting team made it four golds from their squad as they added another one today from the three yesterday. Nigel Lim, Poh Lip Meng and Gai Bin teamed up to win the Men’s 10m Air Pistol team final, while Lip Meng claimed the silver medal in the individual event.

There was a pleasant surprise from the Billiards team as well as the Snooker doubles team of Ang Boon Chin and Lim Chun Kiat surged to victory after staring elimination in the face during the quarter-final stage.

Trailing two frames to one in the best of five against the Vietnam pair, they won the final two to advance 3-2, and then proceeded to whitewash Thailand and Malaysia, their opponents in the semi-final and final respectively, 3-0 to finish first. Ang and Lim clinched the gold medal in dominant fashion as they won their final eight frames of the competition.

Team Singapore won another Bronze in the Karate competition, after Tay Qingyuan’s loss in the semi-finals of the men’s individual Kumite event.

In other events, the golfers had a great start to the individual and team competition. Jonathan Leong and Johnson Poh carded 69s to tie for first place after the day one of competition, and helped Team Singapore to the top of the team event leader board as well.

Our shuttlers advanced to the final four of the team competition. The women’s team easily despatched the hosts 3-0, and will face Indonesia in the semi-finals tomorrow. The men’s team had a tougher time against the Vietnamese, and trailed 2-1 after dropping two of three singles matches.

But the pairs of Hendra Wijaya and Terry Yeo, and Hendri K Saputra and Ronald Susilo won their doubles matches in three sets to set Team Singapore on its way to a semi-final match-up with mighty Malaysia tomorrow.

Singapore lie second in the medal tally with 14 golds, 6 silvers and 12 bronze medals, and trail Vietnam only by the silver medal count.

Day 3 results:

Badminton:

Men’s Team Quarter-Finals:
Singapore 3 (Derek Wong, Ashton Chen, Ronald Susilo, Hendra Wijaya, Terry Yeo, Hendri K Saputra) Vietnam 2

Women’s Team Quarter-Finals:
Singapore 3 (Zhang Beiwen, Xing Aiying, Fu Mingtian) Laos 0

Billiards/Snooker:

Men’s Double (Snooker):
Quarter-Finals: Singapore (Ang Boon Chin and Lim Chun Kiat) beat Vietnam 3-2
Semi-Finals: Singapore (Ang Boon Chin and Lim Chun Kiat) beat Thailand 3-0
Final: Singapore (Ang Boon Chin and Lim Chun Kiat) beat Malaysia 3-0 (Gold)

Boxing:

Men’s 57kg Featherweight Quarter-Finals:
Muhd Ridhwan Bin Ahmad lost to Wuttichai Masuk (Tha)

Golf:

Men’s Individual:
Jonathan Leong: 69 (Tied 1st)
Johnson Poh: 69 (Tied 1st)
Jonathan Woo: 73 (Tied 14th)
Lam Zhiqun: 75 (Tied 22nd)

Men’s Team:
Johnson Poh, Jonathan Leong, Jonathan Woo, Lam Zhiqun: 211 (1st)

Karate:

Men’s Individual Kumite:
Quarter-Finals: Tay Qingyuan beat Hnin Oo (Mya)
Semi-Finals: Tay Qingyuan lost to Jintar Simanjuntak (Ina) (Bronze)

Women’s Individual Kumite:
Quarter-Finals: Ng Pei Ru lost to G. Vathana (Mas)
Repercharge: Ng Pei Ru lost to Puspita Triana G. (Ina)

Shooting:

Men’s 10m Air Pistol Final:
Poh Lip Meng: 672.5 points (Silver)
Nigel Lim: 669.6 (4th)
Gai Bin: 669.2 (5th)

Men’s 10m Air Pistol Team Final:
Nigel Lim, Poh Lip Meng, Gai Bin: 1719 points (Gold)

Women’s 10m Air Pistol Final:
Fan Xiao Ping: 472.4 points (6th)
Zhao Hui Jing: 367 (13th)
Teo Shun Xie: 366 (14th)

Women’s 10m Air Pistol Team Final:
Teo Shun Xie, Fan Xiao Ping, Zhao Hui Jing: 1113 points (4th)

Women’s 50m Rifle Prone Final:
Jasmine Ser: 585 points (11th)
Aqilah Sudhir: 582 (15th)
Lim Chea Rong: 580 (17th)

Women’s 50m Rifle Prone Team Final:
Lim Chea Rong, Aqilah Sudhir, Jasmine Ser: 1747 (6th)

Swimming:

Men’s 100m Freestyle:
Russell Ong: 51.05s (Bronze) (heat time 51.93s, 5th)

Men’s 100m Breaststroke:
Ng Jia Hao: 1:04.14s (4th) (heat time 1:04.48s, 3rd)
Mark Tan: 1:04.96s (7th) (heat time 1:05.32s, 7th)

Men’s 200m Individual Medley:
Joshua Lim: 2:05.33s (Bronze, national record) (heat time 2:09.80s, 5th)
Pang Sheng Jun: 2:06.60s (4th) (heat time 2:09.08s, 2nd)

Women’s 400m Freestyle:
Lynette Lim: 4:11.24s (Silver, national record) (heat time 4:27.78s, 2nd)
Quah Ting Wen: 4:17.85s (Bronze) (heat time 4:28.07s, 4th)

Women’s 100m Breaststroke:
Roanne Ho: 1:12.54s (Silver) (heat time 1:13.18s, 2nd)
Cheryl Lim: 1:13.60s (5th) (heat time 1:14.86s, 7th)

Women’s 4x100m Freestyle Relay:
Mylene Ong, Amanda Lim, Lynette Lim, Quah Ting Wen: 3:45.73s (Gold, Games and national record)