Singaporean wins bronze medal

2nd November, Ho Chi Minh City: Shayna Ng Lin Zhi gave Singapore its first medal in the 3rd Asian Indoor Games 2009 despite losing in the Women's Singles semifinals at Saigon Superbowl on Monday. A superb performance by Shayna Ng and Fok Ka Wai to finish third and sixth position at the end of the earlier 6-games Singles event meant that the duo will face each other in the quarterfinals.

In a way, the meeting of two Singaporeans would ultimately see one advancing into the semifinals and thus assuring Singapore at least a bronze medal. Ng easily ousted her less-experience team-mate, 202-143 in the all-Singapore encounter.

But Ng's chance of making further progress was cut short as she went down to No. 2 seed, Maki Sano of Japan, 172-211 in the second semifinals to settle for the bronze medal. Topseed, Son Yun Hee beat fourth-seed, Tannya Roumimper of Indonesia, 206-192 in the other semi. "I didn't make many good shots and I was rushing and pulling my shots," said the 20-year-old Ng, who also won a Team bronze medal at the World Women's Championship in Las Vegas this year. "When I made the mistakes, it must have settled down my opponent in the match." "It didn't really matter who win as I knew either one of us advance, Singapore would win at least a bronze medal," said the 19-year-old Fok. "But I was simply not putting enough focus on my game and made many mistakes.

Son went on to beat the Japanese, 193-158 to win the first gold medal for her country, Korea after her team-mate, Choi Bok Eum had settled for the silver medal in yesterday's men's finals.

Daphne Tan finished 16th in the earlier Singles event with 1159 while Gina Lim could only finish 23rd with 1137. The women will resume competition on Wednesday, November 4th with the Doubles event. Detailed scores: Women's Singles Quarterfinals | Women's Singles Semifinals | Women's Singles Finals | Women's Singles. Photos by Terence Yaw in Ho Chi Minh City.