Double delight for Tingjia

Three months ago, he won a silver medal in the javelin event at the National Schools' Track and Field Championships.

Yesterday at the 9th Asean Schools Games (ASG), Wang Tingjia again had to settle for second place in the 700g javelin final at the Bishan Stadium.

But the 16-year-old had more than one reason to be happy with his achievement.

After all, the Hwa Chong Institution student threw a personal best of 59.76 metres to claim the silver medal, an improvement from the bronze he won in last year's Games in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

He also out-performed his senior Justyn Phoa, who had won the gold medal at the National Schools' Track and Field Championships three months ago with a national schools record of 59.06m, about three metres better than Tingjia.

At the ASG yesterday, Tingjia's effort was 2.35m further than 18-year-old Justyn's throw of 57.41m, which was good enough only for fifth place.

Lozanes James (66.39m) of the Philippines won the gold medal and Dechochai Pornpraphan (59.49m) from Thailand took the bronze.

"I really wanted to improve on the disappointment from the National Schools Championships in April," said Tingjia.

"It feels good to see your hard work pay off."

Singapore also won a gold medal through Wu Xin Yao in the girls' 3,000m walk on the final day of the athletics competition. The Republic finished with a medal tally of two gold, four silver and two bronze medals in athletics.

Noah Ong, team manager of the ASG athletics team said: "I think the athletes have surpassed their own expectations - and ours, too.

It feels good to see your hard work pay off. Hwa Chong Institution student Wang Tingjia

"We didn't expect them to perform so well as most of them peaked in April (during the National Schools' Track and Field Championships), and it's hard for them to peak again in such a short period."

Over at Bishan Sports Hall, Singapore's rhythmic gymnasts bagged two medals yesterday.

The team of Aiko Tan, Leah Chew, Cheryl Lee and Jordan Prem won silver in the team all-around event with a score of 114.954, finishing behind Malaysia (133.353) and ahead of Thailand (109.871).

In the individual all-around, Raffles Girls' School student Aiko secured a bronze medal to join Malaysia's Izzah Binti Amzan (first) and Rayna Hoh (second) on the podium.

Singapore's gymnasts have won nine gold, five silver, and five bronze medals so far.

Leah, who finished fifth in the individual all-around, was delighted with her team's silver-medal performance.

The Singapore Sports School student said: "We didn't expect it as we aimed for only a bronze.

"We're really happy with this result, and we're improving step by step."

Individual medallist Aiko was thrilled with her two medals yesterday but insisted she can do even better.

The Secondary 3 student said: "I really performed and I made sure it was for the audience.

"It means a lot to me (to win these medals), but there's still room for improvement."

The 15-year-old will be competing in the hoop, ball, clubs, and ribbon individual apparatus today.

She said: "The ribbon is my favourite apparatus and I really connect with it. With my strengths, I believe I can do well in the ribbon.

"My opponents are strong, but I want to do my best. I'm hoping I can perform better and get a gold for Singapore."

In bowling, the boys' quartet team of Dani Aqil, Joyan Khoo, Xavier Teo and Kieran Tan struck gold, while the other boys' quartet of Jomond Chia, Jarred Lim, Tommy Lee and Aidan Poh bagged a bronze.

The girls' quartet team of Vanessa Choong, Chan Jing Wen, Jenna Princess Jennifer and Alicia Teo won a silver.

The bowling team also added a gold and a bronze in the boys' All Events and a silver and a bronze in the girls' category.

Singapore's tennis mixed doubles pair of Daniel Choo and Tessa Wong also won a bronze medal after finishing joint-third with Indonesia.