Gan Ching Hwee claims Asian Games silver in 800m freestyle for third medal in Japan

SINGAPORE: Swimmer Gan Ching Hwee clinched a silver medal in the women’s 800m freestyle final on Friday (Sep 25), winning her third medal for Singapore at the 2026 Asian Games in Japan.

She clocked a time of 8min 26.25sec, smashing her own national record by more than three seconds.

China's Li Bingjie won gold in 8min 24.02sec, while Japan's Ichika Kajimoto took bronze in 8min 27.37sec.

The 23-year-old stunned the field by seizing the lead from the start, and maintaining an advantage over favourite Li for much of the race.

It was not until after the 700m mark of the race that Li went into the lead and widened the gap over Gan.   

Gan's first medal at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre came in the 1,500m freestyle on Sunday. She won silver - her first Asiad medal - in a new national record time of 16:00.45.

Her time of 8:29.56 for the first 800m of the race was a national record for the 800m freestyle at the time.

Two days later, she won a silver medal again, in the 400m freestyle. She clocked a time of 4:06.81 to smash her national mark of 4:09.34 set at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games earlier this year.

Gan holds five individual national records (200m, 400m, 800m and 1,500m freestyle, as well as 400m individual medley). 

Before Gan, the last Singaporean woman to claim an individual Games medal in swimming was Roanne Ho, who took silver in the 50m breaststroke in 2018.