By Les Tan/Red Sports. With additional research by Shenn Tan and Lim Yong Teck

jodie lai sailing asian games

Jodie Lai (centre) of Singapore won gold in the Optimist category to become the youngest Singaporean gold medallist ever at the Asian Games. (Photo 1 by Jaewon Lee/Sport Singapore via Action Images Livepic)

Incheon, South Korea, Saturday, October 4, 2014 — The 17th Asian Games closed today and Singapore’s contingent of 223 athletes in 20 sports finished with five gold, six silver, and 13 bronze medals (5–6–13).

Of the 223 athletes, 158 made their Asiad debut in Incheon. 19 debutants went home with a medal.

Eighty-four athletes (37.6 percent) were 21 years old and under. Eighty of them were debutants and 11 medalled.

Thirty-seven athletes (17 percent) accounted for all of Singapore’s 24 medals.

Singapore is one of only seven countries which has competed in all 17 editions of the Asian Games since 1951.

Here are 12 notable facts about Singapore’s performance at the 2014 Asian Games.

1. Singapore finished 15th in Asia
Singapore’s medal (5–6–13) haul saw it finish 15th on the medal table, one place better than in the 2010 Asian Games.

China (151–108–83) topped the table while hosts South Korea (79–71–84) finished second. Japan (47–76–77) was third.

2. Singapore finished 3rd among Southeast Asian countries
Singapore’s medal haul saw it finish as the third-best Southeast Asian country. Malaysia (5–14–14) finished one place above Singapore in 14th while Thailand (12–7–28) finished sixth on the table.

3. Singapore athletes set two Asian Games records
Jasmine Ser set a new Asian Games record of 590 in the women’s individual 50m rifle 3 positions while Joseph Schooling did so in the men’s swimming 100m butterfly with a time of 51.76 seconds.

Schooling’s medal was the first men’s gold medal for swimming in 32 years. He also won a 50m butterfly silver and a 200m butterfly bronze to complete a set of podium finishes.

Singapore athletes also set three national records (two in shooting and one in swimming) and 13 personal bests (seven in shooting, five in swimming and one in athletics).

4. Singapore’s youngest gold medalist is 13
Jodie Lai, 13, became Singapore’s youngest ever gold medallist at the Asian Games, when she won the women’s Optimist one-person dinghy race.

5. Singapore’s youngest medallist is 12
Raynn Kwok, 12, became the youngest medallist for Singapore when he won a silver medal in the men’s Optimist race.

6. Singapore won a first-ever Asian Games fencing medal
Fencer Lim Wei Wen, 29, won a first-ever fencing bronze for Singapore in the men’s individual Epee event.

A 15–11 victory over a Hong Kong opponent in the quarter-final saw Lim earn a semi-final spot where he eventually lost to Asian Games champion and Olympic bronze medallist Jung Jin-sun of South Korea in the semi-final.

7. Singapore won a first-ever women’s team-of-5 bowling medal
The women’s bowling team of Cherie Tan, Daphne Tan, Shayna Ng, New Huifen, and Jazreel Tan secured a first-ever gold in the women’s team of five event. They beat South Korea by 71 pinfalls.

8. Singapore’s most bemedalled athlete is Jazreel Tan
Bowler Jazreel Tan finished with one gold, two silvers and one bronze medals at the Games. Her four medals is the best showing by any Singaporean athlete in Incheon and also ranks her among the most bemedalled athletes at a single Asian Games in recent history.

9. All of Singapore’s medals came from eight sports
While Singapore athletes took part in 20 sports, it was eight sports that delivered all the medals – Bowling, Fencing, Sailing, Sepak Takraw, Shooting, Swimming, Table Tennis, and Wushu.

10. Sailing is Singapore’s best sport
The Singapore sailing contingent came home with three gold, two silver, and two bronze medals.

The sailors won 60 percent (3 out of 5) of the gold medals, 33 percent (2 out of 6) of the silvers, and 23 percent (3 out of 13) of the bronze medals.

Their seven medals accounted for 29 percent (7 out of 24) of Singapore’s total medal haul.

Singapore finished joint-second with China, behind South Korea, on the medal table.

11. Singaporeans are good in individual sports
All the medals came from individual sports, except for sepak takraw.

However, the sepak takraw bronze was won even though Singapore did not qualify for the semi-finals.

Laos, who did qualify, did not show up for their semi-final, and Singapore were awarded the bronze on a count back basis.

The Singapore water polo team had the best finish among team sports when they beat Kuwait 10–6 to finish fifth.

The Singapore hockey team finished ninth with a 5–3 victory over Sri Lanka while the Singapore football team did not make it out of the first round.

The last time Singapore won a team medal at the Asian Games was a water polo bronze in 1986 at the Seoul edition of the Games. The water polo team has a gold medal in 1954, silver medals in 1951, 1958, 1966, and bronze medals in 1962 and 1978 as well.

The closest a Singapore football team came to winning a medal was in 1966 at the Bangkok edition of the Games, where Singapore lost 0–2 to Japan to finish fourth.

12. All the medal sports involved either water or are indoors
True to our status as an island nation, we have shown our comfort with water. The Singapore swimming contingent came home with one gold, two silvers, and two bronze medals. Their medal haul of five was the next best after sailing.

Away from the water, our winning athletes are from indoor sports. Wushu, fencing, table tennis, speak takraw, bowling and shooting essentially train and compete indoors only.

SPORTGOLDSILVERBRONZETOTAL
Sailing3227
Swimming1225
Bowling1214
Table Tennis0033
Shooting0022
Wushu0011
Fencing0011
Sepak Takraw0011
TOTAL561324

GOLD MEDALLISTS
Swimming
100m men’s butterfly
Joseph Schooling

Sailing
Optimist women’s one person dinghy
Jodie Lai

Sailing
420 women’s two person dinghy
Kimberly Lim and Savannah Siew

Sailing
J80 keelboat match racing
Maximilian Soh
Justin Wong
Andrew Paul Chan
Russell Kan
Christopher Lim

Bowling
Women’s team of 5
New Hui Fen
Shayna Ng
Cherie Tan
Daphne Tan
Jazreel Tan
Joey Yeo

SILVER MEDALLISTS
Swimming
50m men’s butterfly
Joseph Schooling

Swimming
50m women’s butterfly
Tao Li

Bowling
Women’s singles
Jazreel Tan

Bowling
Women’s trios
Cherie Tan
Jazreel Tan
New Hui Fen

Sailing
29er women’s two person dinghy
Priscilla Low and Cecilia Low

Sailing
Optimist men’s one person dinghy
Raynn Kwok

BRONZE MEDALLISTS
Fencing
Men’s individual Epee
Lim Wei Wen

Sepak Takraw
Men’s doubles
Muhammad Farhan Bin Amran and
Muhammad Hafiz Nor Izambin Jaafar

Swimming
100m women’s butterfly
Tao Li

Swimming
200m men’s butterfly
Joseph Schooling

Shooting
25m centre fire pistol men’s
Gai Bin

Shooting
25m standard pistol men’s team
Gai Bin
Poh Lip Meng
Nigel Lim Swee Hon

Sailing
Laser men’s one person dinghy
Colin Cheng

Sailing
420 men’s two person dinghy
Loh Jiayi and Jonathan Yeo

Wushu
Women’s Changquan
Tan Yan Ni

Bowling
Women’s all events
Jazreel Tan

Table Tennis
Women’s team
Feng Tianwei
Isabelle Li
Lin Ye
Yu Mengyu
Zhou Yihan

Table Tennis
Women’s singles
Feng Tianwei

Table Tennis
Men’s doubles
Gao Ning and Li Hu