Photo by SNOC
REPORTING FROM INCHEON, SOUTH KOREA
It was a day loaded with hope and promise for Singapore's athletes at the Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea.
Shooter Jasmine Ser was competing in the 50m rifle 3 positions, her pet event which yielded a gold medal at this year's Commonwealth Games.
And Singapore's female bowlers, featuring a mix of top-ranked Asian Games medalists, were taking to the lanes in the doubles event, buoyed by Jazreel Tan's silver in the singles on Wednesday.
In the end, neither delivered, and the Republic's lone medal of the day was a bronze won by Gai Bin in the men's 25m centre fire pistol.
Yet it was Gai's teammate Ser who had the Ongnyeon International Shooting Range buzzing with excitement after a brilliant performance in qualifying.
The 24-year-old finished first out of 40 competitors with 590 points - the feat broke her personal best, the national record and Asian Games record.
Unfortunately, she could not replicate those results two hours later in the finals, and was eliminated in sixth position with a score of 411.3 points.
'Of course it's a little disappointing,' said a stoic Ser, who also missed out on medaling in the 10m air rifle individual and team events on Monday after finishing fourth in both. 'But that's how sport is. You can do your best every time, and maybe once you'll win a medal, but the second time you may not.'
'You just have to keep on trying,' she added.
Jazreel Tan (Photo by Action Images / Sport Singapore)
'We failed'
Later that evening, Singapore's bowling national head coach Remy Ong found himself making promises along the same lines after his female charges wound up empty-handed in the doubles event.
Jazreel Tan and New Hui Fen finished fourth out of 38 pairs with 2,447 pinfalls, while Cherie Tan and Shayna Ng placed sixth. Further back in 26 th position were Joey Yeo and Daphne Tan.
Much more was expected of the likes of Ng, a world champion and singles silver-medalist at the last Games, as well as this year's Asiad singles runner-up Jazreel - a fact not lost on Ong.
'We failed today. Singapore bowling failed because we didn't medal,' was his frank assessment. 'But moving forward to the next event, we're just going to get stronger and stronger.'
Ong, a former world champion and three-time Asian Games gold medalist, added: 'At the end of the day, we want to win the medal everybody is looking for.'
'I believe we are working towards that very, very hard and we are not going to chicken out for sure.'
SEE ALL OF SINGAPORE'S MEDALISTS AT THE 2014 ASIAN GAMES HERE:
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