S’pore sailors on another golden mission

SINGAPORE — Like most BFFs (best friends forever), teenagers Savannah Siew and Kimberly Lim spend a lot of their time hanging out. So much so they jest about being each other’s family, as the 18-year-olds — who were school-mates at Tanjong Katong Girls’ School before graduating to Raffles Institution — are often spotted eating, studying and socialising together.

The women’s 420 pair have been inseparable since linking up in February 2012, forging a winning partnership that has yielded gold medals at last December’s SEA Games and the 420 Ladies World Championship this year in the Under-18 category, as well as a silver in the open category for the latter.

The Incheon Asian Games next month would be a bittersweet one for Siew and Lim, as it will be their last competition together. In a bid to qualify for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Siew is considering a move to the bigger 470 class, while Lim could pair up with Cecilia Low in the 49er FX.

“This is our first and last Asian Games together and something we knew we would finish with when we paired up in 2012,” said Lim in a media conference for the Asian Games-bound contingent at the Singapore Sports Institute yesterday, where the athletes were presented with a watch by official timekeeper Seiko.

Added Siew: “I really feel very emotional when I think of our experiences together. When you go overseas to compete without your family, the person you are closest to is your partner.”

She added: “We are going to put everything we learnt over the past two-and-a-half years into it and do our best there.”

The women’s 420 pair are among the 17-strong Singapore sailing team bound for Incheon’s Wangsan Marina, where Team Singapore hopes to match their Guangzhou haul of two gold (men’s and women’s 420), two silver and four bronze medals.

Among Singapore’s 17 sailors are world youth champions (men’s 420 Jonathan Yeo and Loh Jia Yi), Asian champions (29er women Priscilla Low and Cecilia Low) and Olympians Colin Cheng and Elizabeth Yin (laser standard and laser radial). But the Singapore Sailing Federation (SSF) were coy when asked about their medal target.

“The goal is to match the previous performance from 2010; that is a safe and reasonable expectation from them. I am confident they will deliver,” said general manager Chung Pei Ming.

“China, South Korea and Japan are always strong, and some of the Koreans, even their juniors, have been training full time since last year.

“The Middle East countries are also (strong), so it’s no longer a six-boat race for some events, but 12-boat races that are more competitive.”

Men’s 420 pair Yeo and Jia Yi, who finished third in this year’s Asian Sailing Championship in Incheon — a test event for the Asiad — will be wary of the threat from Malaysia’s Mohammad Faizal Norizan and Ahmad Syukri Abdul Aziz and Japan’s Ibuki Koizumi and Kotaro Matsuo.

The Singaporean duo clinched gold at the ISAF Youth World Sailing Championship this year ahead of these two nations and expect a tough fight at the Asiad.

“The winds in Incheon will be light, just like Singapore, but the wind patterns there are different,” said Raffles Institution student Jia Yi, 16, a double gold medallist at the Optimist World Championship last year. “This is my first year racing in the 420 and I’m getting used to the experience. But we know what we have to do there.”