ONG ENCOURAGED BY SILVER DOUBLE

BANGKOK Despite the heartbreak of losing three medal matches in a day, Singapore archer Madeleine Ong saw the positives as she collected silvers in the compound women’s team and individual events at the Sports Authority of Thailand field on Dec 18.

- David Lee Senior Sports Correspondent

Amid unpredictably windy conditions, the Singapore team comprising Ong, Ellie Low and Jean-nice Low lost 228-227 to Indonesia's Nurisa Ashrifah, Ratih Fadhly and Yurike Pereira in the team event, missing out on a historic gold by just a point, before Nurisa pipped Ong 142-140 in the individual final.

Indonesia proved to be the scourge of Singapore as Nurisa and Prima Wardhana beat Ong and Woon Teng Ng 153-150 in the compound mixed team bronze playoff.

Ong, 31, said: "When I took my shots, the wind actually picked up, so it was very difficult to aim. I just did my best to stay calm, because having the dot out of the target sometimes was very scary, because that would mean that if the arrow gets released at the wrong time, that's a miss. So I had to control my nerves."

While it was a painful day for her, she also put things in perspective.

She said: "Of course, there's definitely heartbreak in losing. I will be lying if I said I wasn't sad, because my team and I put in so much effort and definitely I wanted to bring home gold for Team Singapore.