SINGAPORE — She spent several months training hard and preparing for this day. And just before Singapore para swimmer Theresa Goh was about to take the plunge for her women’s 100m freestyle S5 event at the ASEAN Para Games (APG) this morning (Dec 4), she was consumed by a serious bout of stage-fright.

The 28-year-old did the only thing she knew — seek comfort from her best pal, teammate Yip Pin Xiu.

“It is quite usual for me to be really nervous before a race,” said Goh. “I always try to get encouragement from Pin Xiu because she is with me pretty much 24/7. So I was trying to get assurance from her, and she told me I would be fine.”

Those words of encouragement worked a treat and Goh delivered, much to the delight of the OCBC Aquatic Centre crowd today. She touched home first in 1min 45.51secs, ahead of Yip (2:11.86), to win Singapore’s first gold of the Games. Vietnam’s Danh Thi My Thanh rounded up the top three (2:18.50).

“I didn’t really know where I finished until the end,” Goh said. “When I touched the wall, my next thought was ‘who came second?’ and it was Pin Xiu. I am really happy, because these times are the fastest I have clocked since 2008 (Paralympics).”

Goh would take another gold in the evening in her pet event in the 100m backstroke, SB4 — again with a domineering swim. She said the APG has rekindled the competitive fire in her — something she admitted had been missing in the past couple of years.

“But now I have really rediscovered it,” she said. “That’s why everything is looking really good, positive, and I am excited about the future.

“Taking part in this home Games helped a lot. We were all training hard for it. We’re competing at home, so we can’t possibly embarrass ourselves right?”

In fact, the swimmers did the nation very proud, said Minister for Culture, Community and Youth, Grace Fu, who was at the OCBC Aquatic Centre today.

“It is really for Singaporeans now to come and support them, because these athletes have worked very hard and like to show Singaporeans what they can do,” Minister Fu said.

With Goh discovering her form at the APG, her coach Mick Massey said it augurs well for next year’s Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro. 

“Her career has been re-launched,” he said. “The way she prepares herself, she has a great chance at next year’s Rio Paralympics.” 

The coach was also pleased with the progress his other protege, Yip, was making. Although Yip — Singapore’s only Paralympics gold medallist — is classified as S2, she had to swim against higher-class opponents in S5 as there were insufficient competitors in the S2 class. 

Meanwhile, teenager Toh Wei Soong set a new Games record en route to winning the men’s 100m freestyle S8. The 17-year-old Singaporean’s time of  1:05.46 made up for the disappointment he felt at finishing eighth in the 100m breaststroke SB7 event in the morning. 

“I can’t describe the feeling (of coming in first) — the elation, the surge of energy ... That was when I knew all my hard work paid off,” said Wei Soong, who contracted Transverse Myelitis when he was two, which affects the muscle nerves of his lower legs and restricts their use, in an interview with Channel News Asia. “That feeling of hearing the crowd shout your name, you can’t replicate that.”