Singapore's Gold medals

Singapore's swim team finished the Asean Para Games with 16 golds, six silvers and 11 bronzes to finished third in the overall standings in the pool, behind Vietnam (19-22-21) and Thailand (17-17-16).

Yesterday, Yip Pin Xiu and Lawrence Tay won gold in the women's 50m backstroke S5 (S2-S5) and the men's 50m backstroke S14, respectively.

Tay (200m individual medley S14) and Han Liang Chou (men's 50m backstroke S14) also bagged a silver each.

Theresa Goh (women's 50m backstroke S5 (S2-S5) and Han (200m individual medley S14) also won bronze medals.

"The team have performed above my expectations and I am very happy about that," said team manager Kang Tze Wei, who is also the Singapore Disability Sports Council sports development executive in charge of para-swimming.

"I hope this has given the swimmers confidence that they can do better in the future... whether it be the Rio Paralympics next year, the Asian Para Games in 2018, or the next Asean Para Games in 2017."

He hopes more disabled people will be inspired to take up swimming after learning of the exploits of swimmers like Goh, Yip, Benson Tan and Toh Wei Soong over the last week.

The 27-year-old said: "We hope we have shown that swimming can be a platform for people to perform... and hopefully in five or six years we will have a new group of swimmers coming up."

Mick Massey, who coaches Goh and Yip, hopes that their feats will inspire Singaporeans to take up and continue in elite sports beyond the youth level.

He said: "For a young girl (Yip won her Paralympic gold at age 15) to come back at 23 and show the rest of the people in Singapore that you don't have to finish sports early... even at the Paralympics or the Olympics, the people of Singapore have to be encouraged to carry on."

- LIM SAY HENG