The Singapore men's water polo team clinched the gold medal at the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games after beating Malaysia 17-4 on Sunday (Aug 20), according to Channel News Asia.
With the two medals, Singapore have won three golds, three silvers and three bronzes before the Games begin officially today.
Singapore have sent their largest away contingent of 568 athletes, who will seek to better the nation's best away haul of 43 gold medals at the 2007 Games in Korat, Thailand, according to the Strait Times.
Singapore needed just two goals to preserve their gold medal streak. But by the end of the game, they did more than that en route to the Republic's 27th gold medal in the sport, as per Yahoo News Singapore.
Singapore went on the offensive right from the start and despite facing early pressure from Malaysia, they managed to take the two goal lead they need in the first quarter through KohJian Ying and Bryan Ong.
Koh scored again early on in the second quarter to give Singapore a 3-0 lead, but Malaysia managed to pull one back through FamJia Yi while Singapore were a man down midway through the second quarter.
The defending champions hit back immediately, with a shot from LohZhiZhi proving unstoppable to restore their three-goal cushion, before Cham Kung Yang and Yip Yang scored two quick-fire goals to extend Singapore's lead.
The Singapore pressure did not relent in the second half. In the third quarter alone, they scored seven times, one more than they did in the entire first half, with goals from Koh (twice), Chiam Kun Yang (twice), Loh (twice) and Chow.
By then, with the score 13-1 in favour of Singapore, the fourth quarter was a mere formality.
Koh scored his fifth of the game, while Sean Ang, Yip and Yu JunJie got onto the scoresheet to give it an icing on the cake.
Coach Dejan Milakovic told Yahoo News Singapore, "These boys, all have great potential. Today they showed the potential. Nobody won one game in the tournament with such a big goal difference. As I said, defence is there. We need to work on our confidence and concentration in big pressure. That is the biggest lesson of this tournament."
