2023 SOUTHEAST ASIAN (SEA) GAMES
- Saturday, May 6th – Thursday, May 11th
- Morodok Tecno National Aquatics Center, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
- LCM (50m)
- World Championships/Olympic Games Qualifier
- Meet Site
- Days 1 & 2 Recap/Day 3 Recap/Day 4 Recap/Day 5 Recap
- Live Results
The 2023 Southeast (SEA) Games wrapped up tonight from Cambodia but not before the nation of Singapore strung together another series of victories.
21-year-old Ong Jun Yi topped the men’s 200m fly for Singapore, clocking a time of 1:59.44 as one of only two sub-2:00 swimmers in the final.
Yi touched in 1:59.44 to hold off Thai athlete Navaphat Wongcharoen who scored silver in a result of 1:59.64. Vietnamese 17-year-old Duy Khoa HO Nguyen rounded out the top 3 in 2:00.60.
For Yi, this 2fly represented his only event of the competition with his time tonight coming within a second of his lifetime best of 1:58.70 posted at the 2021 Age Group Championships.
Also topping the podium for Singapore to cap off the meet was the foursome of Faith Elizabeth Khoo, Letitia Sim, Quah Jing Wen and Quah Ting Wen. The squad earned gold in the 4x100m medley relay, collectively putting up a time of 4:06.97.
That established a new Games Record, also surpassing the Singaporean national record of 4:07.05 logged at the 2019 SEA Games. Both Quah siblings were members of that last relay, racing in the same positions as this 2023 version.
Splits for the new 4:06.97 record included a 1:04.23 opener from Khoo then a 1:07.32 breaststroke leg from University of Michigan swimmer Sim. Jing kept the speed at 59.10 on her fly split while Ting raced to the wall with a 56.32 anchor.
Additional winners on the night included 27-year-old Thai swimmer Jenjira Srisa-Ard wrangling up her 3rd individual medal here and 2nd gold by taking the women’s 50m fly.
Srisa-Ard stopped the clock at 26.65, just .12 off her Thai record of 26.53 registered at the 2022 SEA Games. Ting Wen was behind her in 26.66 while Filipino swimmer Jasmin Alkhaldi bagged bronze in 27.02.
Indonesia’s Felix Viktor Iberle was the men’s 50m breast victor this evening, with the 17-year-old earning gold in 27.70. Behind him was another 17-year-old in Singapore’s Nicholas Mahabir, who touched in 2791 to produce a new national record.
Vietnam’s national record holder Huy Hoang Nguyen got the job done in the men’s 400m free, posting the only outing of the field under 3:50. Nguyen clocked 3:49.50 to rack up his 3rd individual medal here. He already topped the men’s 1500m free podium and also secured bronze in the 200m free.
When all was said and done, Singapore ended the meet with a total of 44 medals, including 21 gold, holding a big advantage over the next-closest team of Vietnam. Vietnam wound up with 16 pieces of hardware, including 7 gold, while Thailand rounded out the top 3 nations with 23 medals and 4 golds.
The top 6 nations finished in the same place as last year’s edition of the SEA Games in terms of overall swimming medals, save for Malaysia and the Philippines who switched spots this time around. Indonesia saw the biggest drop in overall medals between 2022 and 2023, with the former year’s total resting at 15 medals while this edition saw the nation capture just 8 in all.
Final 2023 SEA Games Swimming Medal Table
Just an FYI, Jung Yi’s last name (surname) is Ong, not Yi.
Also, somehow the live timing doesn’t reflect the results of the 800m freestyle which Gan Ching Hwee (SGP) won in 8:41.05 (a new PB) and Ashley Lim (also SGP) finished second in 8:46.88, beating her previous PB of 8:56.98 by some 12 seconds.
Singapore’s final medal tally is 22 golds, 15 silvers and 10 bronzes (47 in total, their best ever return in a single Games, and one gold off their joint best gold haul of 23 in 2015 and 2019).
Quah Ting Wen also won her 60th career SEA Games medal with the gold in the final event (medley relay). She later hinted that it may be… Read more »
I believe Ching Hwee’s 800m free PB is 8:39.01 (2019 Queensland C’ships), and Ashley’s previous PB was 8:58.98 (2022 SEA Games).
I think Levenia Sim would be great in fixing the relatively sub-par backstroke leg that the Singapore women has (compared to their other strokes), so I hope that happens!
Ching Hwee’s time is indeed not a PB, but her 2nd fastest ever. The commentators called it wrongly. Ashley’s was a huge PB though.
I think we’ve almost certainly seen the last of Ting Wen at the SEA Games level. Jing Wen said that was her last SEA Games relay with her sister.
I have also wondered about that Sim-Quah sisters medley relay before. How amazing would that be! Possibly a little too late already, but at least the Quah siblings got their first ever mixed medley relay gold together with Quah of the day, Nick Mahabir.
Levenia’s an enigma. I keep seeing her name on the Asia Games and World Champs (both this year)’s rankings for Singapore, yet she’s… Read more »
When was the last time you won an event, goodloopsoop? Yeah, I thought so. Pretty sure Mahabir won 5 medals, three national records.