London 2012 Olympics: Singapore top sailor Colin Cheng is also Asia's best

By Tan Yo-Hinn, TODAY, 6 Aug 2012

LONDON: Colin Cheng not only posted the best finish ever by a Singapore sailor when he finished 15th out of 49 boats in the men's Laser Standard on August 4, he also registered the best result by an Asian sailor ever since the Laser was included at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.

The previous best Asian result was by Malaysia's Kevin Lim, who finished 22nd at the 2000 Sydney Games.

Cheng, 22, was unaware of his feat until he was told by MediaCorp. He acknowledged that it was "pretty cool" but preferred to put his achievement into perspective.

"It is nice to know and it feels fantastic to have done it," he said modestly by phone from Weymouth on Sunday. "But it is just another statistic and, when we are talking about challenging for medals and trying to win one, it is nothing to shout about."

Over 10 races, Cheng posted top-10 finishes of fourth, 10th and second in races 1, 7 and 8, respectively. His worst result was 34th in race 6.

The highlight of his Olympiad was Race 8, where he led five-time world champion Tom Slingsby for six legs before the Australian caught up to win that race.

His 15th-place result in the Laser regatta - the biggest fleet of all 10 classes contested in London - also saw him finish above 2003 world champion Gustavo Lima of Portugal (22nd) and 2004 silver medallist Andreas Geritzer of Austria (20th).

The next best finish by an Asian was South Korea's Ha Jee Min, who finished 24th.

"I made some mistakes in races 3, 4, 5 and 6, such as miscalculating when to tact and infringing on other boats and was forced to do a penalty turn," said Cheng. 

"It's little things like that really cost you at the Olympics."

Singapore Sailing high performance manager Chung Pei Ming said greater co-operation between regional and continental teams will help.

"The Europeans, North and South Americans often work together and exchange information, and we need to do more of this in the region and Asia," said the former national sailor.

Cheng, a nanotechnology undergraduate at the University of New South Wales in Australia, is keen to continue working with long-time coach Brett Beyer, whom he was been with since 2006.

"It has been an unbelievable first Olympics for me and I've learnt a lot," said Cheng, who also became the first Asian to win the world 4.7 Laser title with his 2006 triumph.

"It's made me even more motivated and, hopefully, this performance will set me up for a good run into the 2016 Olympics in Rio. It will be a long journey fraught with obstacles but I hope to be a medal contender by then."