Hangzhou 2022: Team Singapore’s climbers scale new heights

By Jeremiah Ong

Team Singapore’s sport climbers scaled to new heights at the Shaoxing Keqiao Yangshan Sport Climbing Centre with a commendable top-four finish in the men’s relay as their Asiad debut drew to a close after the conclusion of the boulder and lead event on Friday (Oct 6).

In Tuesday’s (Oct 3) men's speed relay qualification, speed team captain Tan Bing Qian finished 18th out of 25, missing out on the round of 16 by over half a second.

But Tan was keen to make amends in the speed relay event.

“For the individual event, I would say I messed up pretty badly and could have had a better timing. After I knew that I didn’t qualify for the top 16 finals, all focus was on the relay event the next day. And I would say that paid off pretty well, giving positive energy and reassurance that we would do well as a team,” Tan said.

Tan missed out on the round of 16 after finishing 18th in qualification. (Photo: SportSG/ Bryan Foo)

The trio of Tan, Denzel Chua and Amar Hassan Mohamad Kamal found their breakthrough in the speed relay event, coming in sixth (20.293 sec) out of 10 to advance to the quarterfinals against third-placed Iran.

Chua said: “I think the team did very well in the relay event. We knew that there were many fast teams in the competition and we knew he had to rely on our consistency to be able to stand a good chance and hence our game plan, to be consistent and avoid any major slips.”

“I think we pulled it off quite well and it allowed us to get a good qualifying position of 6th thanks to our smooth run while many teams made mistakes.”

Up against an Iranian team that included Asian Games champion and former world record holder Reza Ali Pour Shenazandi Fard, the team could not afford any slip-ups.

But this time, the slip-ups came in their opposing lane as a false start during one of Iran’s transitions gifted them a semifinal berth against home favourites, China.

However, the top four would be as high up the rankings as they would climb after a 16.152 – 20.632 semifinal loss to the hosts was followed by a 17.827 – 23.169 loss to South Korea in the bronze medal match.

“Though we made some mistakes against China and Korea, I think we can be proud of ourselves for reaching the top four as it surpassed all our expectations and we managed to beat many strong teams and finish ahead of world-class teams like Iran and Kazakhstan,” Chua said.

Despite missing out on a medal, their showing in Hangzhou was much improved since Palembang where they did not make it out of qualification in the relay.

Returning to the Asian Games, Amar, who hit two competition personal bests, felt the team’s performance was a “redemption”.

“For me, since I debuted at the 2018 Asian Games, I feel it is redemption for me as we did not make the knockout rounds in the last speed relay event. However, this time we surpassed our expectations, making it to the semifinals and going for a bronze medal match was surreal and definitely one of the best moments in my life!”

The relay team gave a good account of themselves, making the top four in the event. (Photo: SNOC/ Kong Chong Yew)

Having only started formal training in February, the team’s results were commendable but they are already looking towards making new strides.

“I think our consistency and communication helped get us this good result but there is a lot to improve on like our own personal timings so that we can really put pressure on the top contenders and hit even faster timings. We also made mistakes in the semifinals and bronze medal match so we can further work on our consistency. So there is still a lot of work to do when we get back to training,” Chua said.

The team faced off against home favourites, China, in the semifinals. (Photo: SNOC/ Kong Chong Yew)

For Tan, the debut top-four finish only motivates him more.

“I don’t feel like I have achieved anything yet. The fire inside is still burning, knowing how much we can and should improve as a country and I hope that this will improve the speed climbing scene in Singapore as well,” he said.

With competition climbing only being part of the Asiad programme since 2018 and making its official Olympic debut in 2020, the sport is relatively new to the major Games.

Tan hopes that their performance at the Games can spike more curiosity towards the sport.

“I’m hoping that this will make Singaporeans more curious about what's going on in the speed climbing scene, and opt to try it more and maybe we will have more speed specialists in the future.”

Goh and Chua finished 13th and 18th overall in the men’s boulder and lead combined final. (Photo: SportSG/ Alfie Lee)

In the boulder and lead combined events, Luke Goh (114.6) and Dennis Chua (99.9) finished ninth and 10th in qualification to make the top 20 required to compete in the semifinals on Friday.

There, Goh finished 13th (50.7) while Chua came 18th (26.9) overall and missed out on the eight-man final.

The 19th Asian Games are held in Hangzhou, China from 23 September to 8 October 2023. For the latest Team Singapore coverage and news, follow Team Singapore on their social media channels (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok) or visit the official Team Singapore website.