SINGAPORE — He may have been the only Singaporean to reach the final on the second day of the South-east Asian (SEA) Games judo competition, but that was little consolation for Gabriel Yang.

Despite clinching the silver medal in the men’s 81-90kg category after losing to Indonesia’s Manurung Horas by ippon, the 28-year-old was extremely disappointed to have missed out on the top prize at the Singapore Expo on Sunday evening (June 7).

“I fought pretty well and I respect my opponent who put up a good fight in the last match. I can’t say I am proud of myself because I lost but I am still happy that I got a silver.” said the silver medal winner.

“Every defeat is always tough but I will definitely be back.”

It was Yang’s second successive defeat to Horas at the SEA Games, after losing in the 90kg category at the Myanmar Games two years ago en route to a bronze medal finish as the Indonesian took silver that year.

And this SEA Games, the Singaporean had defeated Kenji Yahata of Philippines in the quarter-finals and Malaysia’s Abdul Rashid Ahmad Zikri by one yuko. But overcoming Horas proved another matter altogether.

“I prepared for this Games thinking about him and we really surpassed our expectations,” said Yang.

“Another bar has been set for me to catch him. Singapore Judo is putting in a lot of effort to become better in the region and we are definitely pushing ourselves harder to be amongst the world players.”

Yang’s team-mate Timothy Loh won the bronze in the 90-100kg against Laos’ Vongphachanh Khamsay in a match that went all the way to golden score with Loh nicking it.

The last day of the SEA Games judo competition at the Singapore Expo on Monday (June 8) will see four medal events — men’s 100 kg bronze medal match, women’s +78kg bronze medal match, women’s +78kg gold medal match and men’s +100kg gold medal match.

Indonesia currently lead the judo medal tally (4-1-0), Thailand second (2-4-1) and Vietnam third (2-0-5). Singapore with Yang’s silver is now 0-2-3.

Singapore’s solitary gold medal in judo at the SEA Games came from Han Boon Ho in the men’s 100kg and anove category at the 2013 Myanmar Games.