SEA Games: No wins but double-silver medallist Samantha Yeo’s two new national records feel like gold

KUALA LUMPUR — Beaming from ear to ear, Samantha Yeo waved to the swathe of Singaporean fans at the National Aquatic Centre on Thursday night (Aug 24) as she walked to the podium to collect her medal for the women’s 100m breaststroke.

While it was a silver medal, the achievement was, to her, as good as gold.

Up against Malaysia’s defending champion Phee Jinq En, the 20-year-old put in a lung-bursting swim in 1:09.44, but Phee proved too quick to catch. The home favourite claimed gold in a Games record time of 1:09.00, while Yeo and Indonesia’s Anandia Treciel V Evato (1:10.82) finished second and third.

It was only when Yeo was heading to the media mixed zone that she received the news from team manager Edwin Ker: She had just broken Nicolette Teo’s national mark from 2007.

It was also the second time in one night that she had bettered a long-standing national record.

Just 50 minutes earlier, she had broken Singapore swim queen Joscelin Yeo’s last remaining national mark - the 200m individual medley record of 2min 16.86sec set in 2004.

Bursting into tears of joy at the mixed zone, Yeo had to take a couple of deep breaths to compose herself before speaking to media. After coming close to breaking Teo's 10-year-old mark at the 2013 Singapore Open, Yeo said: "This was unexpected for me, and I'm really happy with my swims this evening.

"Oh my goodness, no I didn't think I would break the 200IM record. Just before reporting to the call room, Roanne told me that I got the record. I was also really inspired by what (Quah) Ting Wen did yesterday, swimming three races back to back.”

Ex-national swimmer Joscelin - who won a record of 40 golds at the SEA Games during her career – was delighted to hear of Yeo’s achievement and congratulated the swimmer.

“I am extremely happy for Sam Yeo. She has buckled down and found a way to improve herself,” said Joscelin, who is also the vice-president (Swimming) of the Singapore Swimming Association.

“This is fantastic news, and it is necessary for the growth of the sport. The team has been doing awesome and I am very very proud of them.”

Thursday night also saw Joseph Schooling and Quah Zheng Wen winning their third individual gold medals in the 100m freestyle and 100m backstroke respectively, before the duo joined forces to win the 4x200m freestyle relay.

Quah’s rematch against Indonesia’s I Gede Siman Sudartawa, who usurped his 50m backstroke crown on Monday, was a thriller as he held off Siman to power to gold in 54.81sec. Teammate Francis Fong took bronze in 55.92sec.

Quah, who pumped his fists into the air after his win, said: “A lot of it was just frustration after losing the 50m. I knew it was going to be either me or him, or a surprise from Francis and I’m glad I pulled off a win for Team Singapore.”

While Schooling, Danny Yeo, Pang Sheng Jun and Quah trounced Vietnam and Malaysia in the 4x200m freestyle relay, the quartet missed out on breaking their SEA Games record of 7:18.14 by finishing in 7:18.94.

Schooling, who has now won five out of the six SEA Games golds he had targeted, is looking to get some rest and relaxation before his final swim in the men’s 4x100m medley relay on Friday.

“I’m looking forward to some rest time before finishing strong on Saturday,” said Schooling who plans to catch up on the Netflix series ‘Designated Survivor’ during his rest day.

While some have questioned his slower times at these SEA Games – he has not clocked new national  records in his individual events in Kuala Lumpur – Schooling said he does not care for such comments.

“They can say whatever they want, my job is to help the team win the SEA Games, and that’s all I care about,” replied the Olympic champion.

“You can’t always go best times, and I’m just trying to win as many races as I can.

“I set out with a target of hitting six golds. I will look back on this as a pretty successful meet.

“It’s been a long summer and it’s been a while since I swam this many events back to back in consecutive days.

“This is a good chance to see where I’m at and I have a lot of things to reflect on when I’m back in Austin (with my coaches).”

Team Singapore’s aquatics contingent are on track to better their best away gold medal haul of 19 from the 2011 Palembang SEA Games after winning one gold in men’s waterpolo, three in synchronised swimming, and 14 gold in swimming with two days of racing to go.