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SINGAPORE: Swimmer Gan Ching Hwee clinched a silver medal in the women\u2019s 800m freestyle final on Friday (Sep 25), winning her third medal for Singapore at the 2026 Asian Games in Japan.<\/p>\n
She clocked a time of 8min 26.25sec, smashing her own national record by more than three seconds.<\/p>\n
China’s Li Bingjie won gold in 8min 24.02sec, while Japan’s Ichika Kajimoto took bronze in 8min 27.37sec.<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old stunned the field by seizing the lead from the start, and maintaining an advantage over favourite Li for much of the race.<\/p>\n
It was not until after the 700m mark of the race that Li went into the lead and widened the gap over Gan. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gan’s first medal at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre came in the 1,500m freestyle on Sunday. She won silver – her first Asiad medal – in a new national record time of 16:00.45.<\/p>\n
Her time of 8:29.56 for the first 800m of the race was a national record for the 800m freestyle at the time.<\/p>\n
Two days later, she won a silver medal again, in the 400m freestyle. She clocked a time of 4:06.81 to smash her national mark of 4:09.34 set at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games earlier this year.<\/p>\n
Gan holds five individual national records (200m, 400m, 800m and 1,500m freestyle, as well as 400m individual medley).\u00a0<\/p>\n