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Asian Games: Long, lonely journey for Joan Poh, but rower's not giving up on her dream

JAKARTA — On her second day at the Athletes' Village in Palembang, rower Joan Poh was taking a shower in her room when the water suddenly stopped running. Shampoo suds still in her hair, the 27-year-old wrapped herself in a towel and went searching for a functioning bathroom elsewhere.

Rower Joan Poh Xue Hua at Palembang.

Rower Joan Poh Xue Hua at Palembang.

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TODAY features three national athletes who are making their debuts at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang, Indonesia from Aug 18 to Sept 2.

Rower Joan Poh, 27, teenage swimmer Gan Ching Hwee, 15, and 82-year-old contract bridge player Jane Choo talk about their pre-game jitters, their goals, and what competing in the region's biggest and most prestigious sports event means to them.

JAKARTA — On her second day at the Athletes' Village in Palembang, rower Joan Poh was taking a shower in her room when the water suddenly stopped running. Shampoo suds still in her hair, the 27-year-old wrapped herself in a towel and went searching for a functioning bathroom elsewhere.

When that proved fruitless, she had to resort to washing herself with bottled water.

While most people would have marched straight to the management office to complain about the water supply cut, Poh stayed put, and she even chuckled good-naturedly as she recounted her experience to TODAY.

"It was a funny experience. I looked quite ugly with shampoo still in my hair," she said. "It was just a hiccup and it wasn't that bad. But I play it safe after and shower at the rowing practice venue."

While the amenities at the Athletes Village and the "windy" rowing venue in Palembang have been less than perfect, Poh is not about to let a little hiccup ruin her Asian Games debut in the sport.

After all, this minor inconvenience is nothing compared with the challenges she has faced, including making a go at three different sports — dragonboating, sailing, and rowing — and taking loans from friends to pursue her sporting dreams.

In short, this athlete with a never-say-die attitude has learnt to roll with the punches.

Perhaps her calm is because the Indonesia Asiad is not Poh's first experience at the quadrennial Games – she competed in Guangzhou in 2010 with the national women's dragonboat team, finishing fourth in the 250m and 500m events.

A decade ago, Poh, then an unfit nursing polytechnic student, decided to try her hand at dragonboat, and she eventually made the national team after putting in many extra hours on the track and in the gym.

She made the switch to sailing when her varsity's dragonboat captain secretly signed her up for a trial conducted by the Singapore Sailing Federation.

When her partnership with then-national sailor Dawn Liu did not work out, Poh got another chance to chase her Olympic dream when a friend suggested she try her hand at rowing.

Despite a disastrous first outing which saw her boat capsizing, as well as having to push on without funding and a coach, Poh told TODAY that she finally feels at home in her new sport.

Her journey to the Asian Games saw Poh taking no-pay leave this year from her job as a nurse at Tan Tock Seng Hospital to train full-time with the Hong Kong national team, before she travelled to Ireland in May to train with her coach John Holland.

As her family is not well-to-do, she struggled financially, emptying her savings account and taking loans from in order to qualify and compete at the Games. She estimates that she has spent some S$15,000 in the last nine months, paying for airfares, lodging, food and other expenses.

Having made the cut, she finished ninth on Sunday (Aug 19) in the women's singles sculls heats at the Jakabaring Sport Centre Lake. She will compete in the repechages on Tuesday.

She said after the heats: "I was hopeful in trying to qualify for the final… the race conditions were rough and tough. Despite how stiff the competition is here, I am still going to give it my all to the very end."

Training and competing on her own in Palembang has sometimes been a lonely affair, as Poh said: "I get asked a lot by the other rowers if I'm here alone. But it gives me a sense of satisfaction as I worked my way here.

"To have qualified for the Asian Games after sculling for just two years, that's an achievement in itself."

The Asian Games is just the start for this self-confessed late bloomer, as Poh — who finished seventh at the Asian Rowing Championships last year – is aiming for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. If she makes it to Japan, she will be only the second Singaporean rower to qualify for the Olympics after Saiyidah Aisyah Mohamed Rafa'ee, who competed in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2016.

Having come from a broken home where her parents are divorced and she lived with her grandparents for some time, Poh will not let obstacles — not even a malfunctioning bathroom — stop her from achieving her dream.

"I really worked hard for this, and I went above and beyond the pain that I had to go through," she said.

"I'm excited to be here as I know that my journey is just starting, and I'm excited to keep going. This Asian Games is not the end… it is affirmation for me, to see how far I can go." 

First-timers from Team SG gear up for Asian Games

Read about 15-year-old swimmer Gan Ching Hwee's journey to the Games here: No curry, no cry, swimmer Ching Hwee focused on making waves

And the octogenarian's hopes for medal glory here: A debutant at 82, contract bridge player Jane Choo wants a shiny medal

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