Mikkel bags two more golds at Asean School Games

Swimmer Mikkel Lee bagged two individual golds in the 50m backstroke and 50m freestyle on the final day of competition at the Asean School Games yesterday.

That took the 15-year-old's Games tally to four golds and one silver.

Earlier, he had also won gold medals in the 50m butterfly and 4x100m freestyle relay, and a silver medal in the 100m freestyle in the swimming competition at the Singapore Sports School.

He told The New Paper: "I really thought I was going to lose in the last 15 metres of the 50m backstroke because my Thai opponent (Sridilok Passakorn) was about half a body length away.

"When I touched the board and saw my name on the screen, I was very shocked. As for the 50m freestyle, I normally take two to three breaths, but I was really fatigued after the backstroke event, so I took in six breaths instead.

"The game plan for today was to take down the 50m back, then the 50m free. I wanted to take one event at a time.

"Overall, I am really happy with my performance."

Mikkel pipped Thailand's Passakorn (27.77 seconds) to the 50m backstroke gold in 27.75sec, and then recorded a personal best of 23.73sec to win the 50m freestyle.

Singapore's third gold medal yesterday was secured by Raffles Girls' School student Cherlyn Yeoh in the 50m freestyle. She registered a personal best of 26.24sec.

The 16-year-old then took part in the 4x100m medley with teammates Chelsea Khoo, Charity Lien, and Elizabeth Lee but narrowly missed out on the gold to Indonesia (4min 22.51sec) with a timing of 4:24.78 to finish second.

Rhys Ng also won a silver medal in the 200m butterfly with a personal best of 2:05.58.

Meanwhile, rhythmic gymnast Aiko Tan clinched a bronze medal in the Ball Individual apparatus final.

In badminton, boys' doubles pair Andy Kwek and Jason Teh won a silver medal. Table tennis brought in one gold, one silver and two bronzes.

Thailand topped the medal tally with 29 golds, while Indonesia were second with 25 golds. Singapore were third with 24 golds, 27 silvers and 27 bronzes.