Team Singapore at the Tokyo Olympics: 25 July
Reporting from Tokyo
TOKYO — A round-up of Team Singapore athletes in action on Day 3 of the Tokyo Olympics on Sunday (25 July):
Yu Mengyu advances easily, but Clarence Chew's debut ends
Paddler Yu Mengyu made light work of her opening women's singles match at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium, defeating Portugal's Shao Jieni 4-0 (11-3, 11-2, 11-8, 11-9) to advance to the next round.
There the world No.47 will face Taiwan's Cheng I-Ching, who is ranked 39 spots above Yu.
In the men's singles, Clarence Chew's run in his Olympic debut ended after he lost 1-4 (7-11, 9-11, 8-11, 11-6, 10-12) to Austria's Daniel Habesohn in the second round.
Chew, ranked world No.186, had beaten Senegal's Ibrahima Diaw in the first round, but could not match up with Habesohn, who is ranked in the world's top 50.
Amita Berthier falls to veteran opponent in opening match
Fencer Amita Berthier fell 4-15 to world No.5 Lee Kiefer in her opening match in the women's foil individual competition at the Makuhari Messe Hall.
Berthier, who is ranked world No.60, was making her Olympic debut against Kiefer, a three-time Olympian and multiple world championships medallist. The American raced to a 6-2 lead in the round-of-32 match and never looked back.
Berthier was the first Singapore fencer to qualify outright for the Olympics, with Kiria Tikanah Abdul Rahman following soon after.
Kiefer won the gold medal in the event later in the evening.
Quah Zheng Wen misses out on 100m backstroke s-finals
Swimmer Quah Zheng Wen failed to make the cut for the men's 100m backstroke semi-finals after finishing third in his heats in a time of 53.94 seconds, just over his national record of 53.79sec.
The 24-year-old did not progress to Monday's semi-finals as only the top 16 swimmers with the fastest times qualify.
Quah will also be taking part in the men's 100m and 200m butterfly races in Tokyo.
Eliminated after horse was bleeding from fresh cut
Equestrienne Caroline Chew was eliminated from dressage qualifiers at the Equestrian Park, after her horse Tribiani was found to be bleeding from the mouth from an earlier cut.
Dressage rules, designed for horse welfare, state that a horse will be eliminated from competition if it shows fresh blood.
Chew said in a released statement, "This type of incident happens from time to time, and we can only put it down to bad luck on the day. (Tribiani) was trending well before the judge stopped the test. She would have performed a high score if not for this."
Tan Sze En elminiated from all-around competition
Gymnast Tan Sze En scored 11.833 points in her floor exercise routine to finish 13th out of 17 competitors in her subdivision at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre.
She also scored 11.033 points in the balance beam event, finishing 17th out of 19 gymnasts in her subdivision.
As the 21-year-old did not take part in all the four events of the women's all-around event, she did not finish in the standings and was eliminated from the competition.
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