Sailor Ryan Lo takes home Singapore’s second gold medal at Asian Games

NINGBO, China: Back in the country where his Asian Games journey began, third time proved the charm for sailor Ryan Lo as he won Singapore’s second gold medal at the Asian Games on Wednesday (Sep 27).

He clinched victory in the ILCA7 event after the medal race on Wednesday was cancelled due to poor weather conditions. Based on the ranking from the opening series, Lo finished top in the event.

South Korea's Ha Jeemin took silver and India's Vishnu Saravanan the bronze.

“It was a bit nerve-racking having to wait this long for a race. But just glad to be able to finish this event, win it and qualify the country (for the Olympics),” said Lo.

“I cannot complain and I’m just really satisfied.”

The gold medal means Lo has secured a quota spot for Singapore at next year’s Paris Olympics. A quota place guarantees that an athlete from Singapore will be competing in the event at the Olympics.

Lo finished with a bronze medal in the same event at the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia.

"I came into this Games ... more confident in my ability, in my preparation," he said.

"Five years older, definitely much more maturity, treated this Games as professional as I could. (I) just tried to treat it as any other competition, reduce the pressure and I think I can be quite pleased with how I dealt with it this past week."

Lo also has an Optimist bronze from 2010 to his name, which he won in China.

“To come back here again, back to China, and win a gold definitely means a lot. It’s very special for me,” said Lo.

The Singaporean also paid tribute to his family.

“(It’s been) about 19 years that I’ve been sailing. My family has always been there from the beginning and I could not have been where I'm at without all their support and guidance,” said Lo.

Lo’s gold was Singapore’s second of the day after world champion kitefoiler Maximilian Maeder won the men’s formula kite event.

The final that Maeder would have featured in was also called off due to poor weather conditions, meaning the Singaporean teenager took home the gold medal.

Earlier on Wednesday, Victoria Chan added to the sailors’ impressive medal tally after she took bronze in the Women’s ILCA 6 event. Chan’s medal race was also cancelled.

On Tuesday, Singapore sailors won two silvers and two bronzes, courtesy of Justin Liu and Denise Lim (Nacra 17) and Isaac Goh (boys' ILCA4), as well as Keira Carlyle (girls' ILCA4) and the duo of Kimberly Lim and Cecilia Low (women's 49erFX).

Singapore’s sailors concluded their Asiad campaign with two golds, two silvers and three bronzes, a significant improvement on the previous haul of one gold and one bronze at the 2018 Games.

Speaking to the media on the sidelines of the final day of competition, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong hailed a “really fantastic showing” by the sailors.

“I think this does set us up quite well for the next couple of months as we lead into Paris 2024,” he said.

“The reality is they didn't win the medal only today. They had a nice run-in, very competitive, very tough competition. The last five, six days was really where the medal was won, hard work was done there, and I'm very happy for them.”