SEA Games: Michelle Sng wins Singapore's first women’s high jump gold in 52 years after successful appeal

KUALA LUMPUR — From gold to silver to gold again, confusion reigned at the 29th SEA Games women’s high jump final for Michelle Sng.

The 30-year-old was eventually awarded joint-gold on Friday afternoon (Aug 25), making her the first Singaporean female high jumper in 52 years to win gold at the SEA Games.

It was only the Republic’s second ever gold in the women’s event after Cheong Wai Hing’s victory at the 1965 edition, but the medal came after a successful appeal lodged by Team Singapore.

At the final on Thursday evening at Bukit Jalil Stadium, both Sng and her Viet opponent Duong Thi Viet Anh had cleared 1.83m, but not 1.86m.

The pair agreed not to break the tie and share the gold after being asked by the referee whether it was a scenario they were okay with – only to be asked to do a jump-off 10 minutes later.

“They had cleared off the markings on the track and brought off the bar to indicate that it was the end of the competition, and Michelle took off the tapings for her knee,” said Yip Ren Kai, the team manager for Singapore’s athletics contingent at this Games.

“The technical officials then received a call to say there cannot be two gold medals given out and told the athletes they needed to do a jump-off.”

After both failed to clear 1.86m and 1.84m in the jump-off, Duong cleared 1.82m while Sng failed, which saw officials award the gold to Duong outright and silver to Sng.

That did not sit right with Singapore officials, who submitted a protest to the appeals jury and then received news at around 4.30pm on Friday that the joint-gold would stand after all.

“To us, we felt that it (jump-off) was disadvantageous to both athletes because they’ve already cooled down and the mindset is that you’ve completed,” Yip said.

“We felt…we should do a protest, not really to make the wrong right but to ensure both athletes get the result they deserved.

“We are very happy that the appeal is successful and we thank the organisers and jury.”

Even after that decision, there was a bit of drama at the holding area before the victory ceremony.

Slated to begin at 5.10pm, it was delayed by close to 35 minutes as officials from both Vietnam and Singapore contingents converged for discussions.

It is understood that while Vietnam had nothing against Singapore, they were unhappy with the organisers’ decision and felt the result of the jump-off should have been allowed to stand.

There was no official appeal lodged, however, and the situation was eventually resolved with the help of the Malaysian Organising Committee’s CEO, Dato’ Seri Zolkples Embong.

It is not the first time that there has been a joint-gold at the SEA Games, with at least one other incident in 2007, where Singaporean twins Nicole and Tabitha Tay were crowned joint-winners in the individual women’s all-round event.

The fracas overshadowed an emotional return to the venue for Sng, who regarded making it to the start line as an achievement in itself after coming out of retirement in 2014 and setting a new national mark of 1.84m in 2015.

“I came to Malaysia to train because I felt I needed a change in environment…and it was here in Bukit Jalil that I made the decision to retire,” she said on Friday, unable to stop the tears from flowing.

“I hadn’t been back here even after I made the comeback… Obviously it’s the perfect ending to what sort of took six years to come full circle.”

She started crying while walking out to the podium and the waterworks continued throughout as she sang the national anthem, after which she was roundly embraced by the 50-odd supporters and fellow athletes at the stadium.

“It’s been a very rough two years, with a lot of personal challenges and at one point in time, I wasn’t sure I was going to make it here,” said a more composed Sng afterwards.

“Every athlete has struggles but you put that away on game day, you turn up and perform… I was really ill last week and had an injury before I came here, but when you look at it that way, it’s all excuses.

“You give yourself some time, then you put it in a box and you lock it up on game day, and you do the best you can.”

Sng described the gold as a bonus but hopes it will boost her efforts to raise the profile of high jump in Singapore.

“it means a lot to me because for the past two years, I’ve been working very hard,” she smiled.

“I hope with this gold medal, I’m able to do even more and encourage athletes not to just join the sport, but stay in it and believe they can make it to SEA Games and beyond.”

Meanwhile, pole vaulter Rachel Yang failed to retain her silver from 2015 as she finished third with an attempt of 3.60m, which is 0.31m off her own national record. It is the second ever medal that Singapore has won in the SEA Games women’s pole vault.

Defending champion Chanyanisa Chomchuendee of Thailand won gold with 4.10m, while Malaysia’s Chuah Yu Tian nabbed silver with 3.80m. 

In the women’s shot put, Zhang Guirong’s bid for a seventh consecutive gold failed miserably as she threw 13.42m to finish fourth. The 39-year-old’s attempt was well off her national mark of 18.57m and she missed out on the podium for the first time in nine editions. Indonesia’s Eki Febri Ekawati won gold with 15.39m, while Thais Areerat Intadis and Sawitri Thongchao threw 15.33m and 14.26m for silver and bronze respectively.