Stephenie Chen clinches silver for Singapore kayakers' best performance at Asian Games

SINGAPORE: Kayaker Stephenie Chen on Tuesday (Oct 3) clinched a silver medal in the single 500m event to deliver Singapore's best showing at the Asian Games to date.

Prior to this, Mervyn Toh's bronze in the K1-200m event at the 2018 edition in Palembang was Singapore's first-ever medal at the quadrennial meet.

Chen had earned a direct ticket to the final after coming in second in her heat on Sunday, and was only fourth-fastest among the qualifiers.

But on Tuesday morning at the Fuyang Water Sports Centre in Hangzhou, China, the 31-year-old signalled early intent by shooting out of the blocks and holding the lead for over half the race.

Only a late surge from China's Li Dongyin helped secure a gold medal for the homegrown favourite in 1:58.931s, with Chen coming in second at 2:00.074. Iran's Hediye Kazemi finished third in 2:00.635.

Speaking to reporters after, Chen said, with a laugh, that the plan was to start fast to "just get out there and scare the s*** out of everyone else".

Beyond that it was "a bit" like hanging on for dear life at the end, she added.

Chen will savour her silver medal having finished fourth in the K1-200m in 2018 and just narrowly missing out on bronze in her other event - the K2-500m - this year.

The Singaporean has represented her country since 2009 and is a five-time Southeast Asian Games champion.

She described her Asiad medal as a stepping stone, saying: "I've checked this box and I can move on now ... I've still got work to do."

Her teammate Lucas Teo came in fifth in the K1-1000m final on Monday, before pairing up with Brandon Ooi for a sixth-place finish in the K2-500m.

Singapore's men's K4 of Daniel Koh, Kendrick Ang, Sean Teo and Jovi Jayden Kalaichelvan finished eighth in their 500m final later