Olympics: Singapore's top sailor is also Asia's best

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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."

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

SingaporeSailing 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."