Phnom Penh, Cambodia, May 6, 2023: The first day of swimming at the 32nd Southeast Asian Games provided a memorable moment for Singapore – their 1,000th gold medal in SEA Games history.
The milestone was achieved by Singapore’s women’s 4x100m freestyle relay team of sisters Quah Ting Wen and Quah Jing Wen along with Nur Marina Chan and Amanda Lim at the Morodok Techo Aquatics Centre on Saturday, May 6.
“I think the 1,000 sounds like a number – and it’s always great to achieve something like that,” Lim told Channel News Asia.
“But ultimately, like any gold medal, it’s how we treat the gold medal that we just got – and, because of these other three ladies, the effort and the crowd support and all the love we get from here as well as the crowd in Singapore that’s something that’s always very special.”
Quah Jing Wen added: “It feels amazing, it looks nice on paper, it sounds good, so all the better.”
The 1,000th gold medal was the fourth of the night for Singapore in the pool, adding to the three gold medals won earlier in the evening by Olympian Quah Zheng Wen (men’s 100m backstroke), Jonathan Tan (men’s 100m freestyle) and Quah Jing Wen (women’s 200m butterfly).
Over 370 of Singapore’s 1,000 gold medals have come from swimming, while the three Quah siblings have won over 60 of those gold medals.