Singapore women’s 4x100m medley relay team were disqualified at the Asian Games on Friday, Sep. 29 after finishing third.

Two sets of sisters Levenia and Letitia Sim, as well as Quah Jing Wen and Ting Wen, saw their bronze disappear at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre.

This was after Singapore finished behind winners Japan and runners-up South Korea, but last swimmer, Ting Wen, had jumped in 0.1s early during the handover from Jing Wen.

Ting Wen was swimming the final freestyle leg.

She completed the race in 4min 00.87sec behind Japan (3:57.67) and South Korea (4:00.13).

It was supposed to be Singapore's second medal in the pool at this Asian Games.

Hong Kong got moved up from fourth place to third due to the disqualification, and with a time of 4:01.72.

Apologies

In a Sep. 30 Instagram post, Ting Wen, 31, apologised to her team and supporters for her error.

She wrote that she knew she had made a mistake when she finished and was too scared to celebrate, as she watched the elation of her team mates turn into disappointment.

Ting Wen wrote: "I look up at my sister, she's grabbing my shoulder, elated, telling me we've done it, we've really done it this time. I hear the Sim sisters yelling in excitement, they are so happy. In my heart I have a sinking feeling. I've done enough relays to know that I did something very wrong."

She added that this mistake, jumping into the pool too early, was last made when she was seven years old.

She also wrote that she had swum so many relays before with her sister, only for this to happen at one of the biggest competitions.

Her post was accompanied by a photo she took when she first got to the Asian Games in China.

The swimmer expressed her regret at how things have gone down as this was her fifth and final Asian Games, and she said she felt like she blew it for herself and her team:

I took this photo it when we had first arrived to the Games. This is my 5th, and last, Asian Games, and I was full of excitement and eager to do something good. We were given an opportunity in this final event, and I feel like I wasted it. I wanted to leave with something tangible here to prove to myself that I made the right choice with swimming and with my life. So my teammates could leave with something tangible. Sometimes I am not strong enough to survive on just self-belief.

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Ting ❍ (@quahtingwen)

Responses

In response to her post, many commenters comforted Ting Wen and said this was the nature of sports and she tried her best.

Many expressed their support for her to keep going and she will soon heal and put this episode behind her, like how many have in sports.

Tough Asian Games for Singapore swimmers

This has been a tough Asian Games for Singapore’s swimmers, as they finished fourth in 10 of the 41 events, according to The Straits Times.

Teong Tzen Wei’s men’s 50m butterfly silver is the only piece of swimming silverware for Singapore.

The lack of a first place finish in swimming this Asian Games has broken Singapore's run of winning at least one gold since 2006.

In the 2018 Games in Indonesia, Singapore won two golds, one silver and three bronzes.

Joseph Schooling personally contributed both golds and two relay bronzes that year.

However, there is a silver lining.

Singapore had 32 finalists in this Games compared to 20 in 2018.

The swimmers also secured 14 personal bests and five national records in 2023, not far from the 15 and seven respectively at the last Games in 2018.

Top photos via Quah Ting Wen Instagram & CNA YouTube