5 Remarkable First’s for Singapore at the 2017 SEA Games
This year's SEA Games was one for the books for Singapore at this year’s Southeast Asian Games that was held from August 19 to 30 at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. But I bet you did not know that SEA Games 2017 was full of historic first’s for the country, didn't you?
Here are 5 remarkable first’s for Singapore at the 2017 SEA Games.
1. Yu Shuran
History was made when winter sports made its debut at this year’s Southeast Asian Games. With that comes a historic achievement for Singapore as 17-year-old figure-skater, Yu Shuran, bagged Singapore’s first winter sports gold medal. Yu wowed the spectators with her routine that was accompanied by Lana Del Rey’s ‘Young and Beautiful’ and followed by a rendition of ‘Crazy in Love’ from the movie soundtrack of ‘The Great Gatsby’. With it, Yu glided her way to first place, with a score of 82.24.
Fellow Singaporean figure-skater, Chloe Ing, also came in second at the same event, scoring 82.93 points.
Source: TODAY Online
2. Calvin Sim
On August 28, Calvin Sim won Singapore’s first track cycling after the 20-year title drought. Sim first entered the tracking scene at the 2009 in road and has come a long way since. It has been two decades since Singapore has struck gold since Bernard Wong’s win in 1997. Sim, however, came through and made it happen once again for the country.
Luo Yiwei also made history as she bagged a silver medal for Singapore in the women’s omnium event.
Source: TODAY Online
3. Michelle Sng
Moving over to the field, Michelle Sng soared to victory as she won first place at the women’s high jump event, making it Singapore’s first track-and-field Gold at the Games. Sng’s victory was only made possible after a successful appeal since she was tied with Duong Thi Viet Ang from Vietnam. But after much consideration by the organizers, Michelle Sng came out as the victor.
Sng’s victory was also the nation’s first Gold since 1965, when Noor Azhar Hamid took Silver in the 1973 South-east Asian Penisular (SEAP) Games in the men’s category.
Source: Yahoo! News
4. Muhd Haziq and Nujaid Hasid
The brother duo prevailed in the Silat artistic men’s ganda doubles by clinching a bronze medal for Singapore, which is the country’s first-ever medal in the sport, Silat. Despite their triumph, the siblings admitted that they expected more from themselves during the competition, but they hope to do better in the next SEA Games. Out of all 7 teams, the brothers managed to score 544 points, coming in third. Taqiyuddin Hamid and Rosli Sharif from Malaysia came in first with a score of 582, while Indonesian duo Yolla Primadonna and Hendy won a silver medal with 554 points.
Source: TODAY Online
5. Singapore’s Men’s Cricket Team
Along with winter sports, Cricket was also another addition to the list of new sports introduced in this year’s SEA Games and our Singapore Men’s Team also clinched first place. This was Singapore’s first gold medal for the sport. The Singapore Cricket team coach, Arjun Menon said that the team “played boldly and took their chances”.
The President of the Singapore Cricket Association, Mahmmod Gaznavi also expressed his excitement for their victory and was not one to be shy about it. He also mentioned that with the Singapore Men’s Cricket team’s performance at this year’s SEA Games, they will definitely soar high not just in the regional level, but the international level as well.
Source: Myactive SG
Although the 2017 Southeast Asian Games have come to a close, this is only the beginning for Singaporean teams and athletes. It has been such a successful year for Singapore at this year’s SEA Games – taking home 57 gold, 58 silver, and 73 bronze medals. It was certainly filled with many victories and many first’s.
We cannot wait for what is to come at the next SEA Games and even the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan! Do you think Singapore will come out as victorious or even better? We will just have to wait and see!
