Singapore win second synchronised swim gold
Republic's synchronised swim team finish on a high with another victory
Hosts Singapore ended their South-east Asia (SEA) Games synchronised swimming campaign at the OCBC Aquatic Centre on a high last night.
Winning the gold for the team free combination final last night ensured that Singapore bagged two out of three titles in the sport.
On Wednesday, they won the nation's first gold for synchronised swimming at the Games in the team technical and free routine.
Last night, with a score of 77.0667, the 10-woman strong team finished almost four points ahead of runners-up Malaysia's 73.7333, a significant gap indeed. Indonesia took the bronze with 71.6667 points.
"We are proud of ourselves for today's win because we trained really hard for it and put in our best efforts," said Singapore captain Stephanie Chen.
TEAMWORK
They wowed the crowd and judges with impressive twists and flips incorporated into their free combination routine, demonstrating strong teamwork throughout.
"We've always been better at the combination events compared to other teams, so we were more confident about this routine," said Chen.
At the 2011 SEA Games in Indonesia, Singapore team won only silver medals, losing to Malaysia in the duet and team free events.
They are now looking ahead, especially at next month's World Championships in Russia where they hope to get into the top-12 ranking."
Malaysian swimmer and team captain Katrina Ann Abdul Hadi, 22, said her team were happy with the result.
"We worked hard and had a two-month intensive training camp. We were targeting gold for the duet."
Earlier yesterday, Katrina and partner Zylane Lee clinched Malaysia's first gold medal for the Games in the duet technical and free routines.
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