REPORTING FROM MYANMAR
'So near, yet so far.'
Sprinter Calvin Kang best summed up Singapore's experience in the Southeast Asian Games 4 x 100m relay sprint, after the men missed out on a gold medal to Thailand by just 0.04s Sunday afternoon at the Wunna Theikdi Stadium in Myanmar.
It was double the agony given the photo-finish at the last Games that also relegated Singapore to a silver placing behind hosts Indonesia.
This year's time of 39.79s was an improvement from the 39.91s recorded in 2011, but the Thais were just the better team, said Kang.
The 23-year-old felt that the quartet of himself, Elfi Mustapa, Lee Cheng Wei and Amirudin Jamal matched the Thais for ground speed but lost out on baton exchanges.
After an inspiring start by Elfi, who replaced Gary Yeo from the 2011 team, Singapore paced neck-and-neck with Thailand via Kang and Lee and in the end it was left to anchor runner Amirudin to battle for gold with Srikharin Wannasa.
'I tried very hard to chase the Thai as much as I could,' said the 26-year-old. 'I'm quite sad and disappointed that my best just wasn't enough.'
'I'd say we gave them a good scare, but in the end that's all we could give them,' Amirudin added.
Kang was optimistic in defeat, crediting his teammates for 'really fighting for each other'.
He then spoke of changes afoot for Singapore's relay men over the next few years - hinting at the inclusion of young talents and the possibility of having two teams to train all the way to the 2015 SEA Games in Singapore.
The Nanyang Technological University student remarked that 'both times (in 2011 and now), we lost by less than a hair length... it shows we're in the league of medal contention'.
'But gold is definitely the main target,' said a defiant Kang. 'And come 2015, we want to claim our victory on home ground.'
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