Singapore taekwondo exponent Darren Yap clinches historic Asian Games taekwondo bronze

Yap is the first Singaporean taekwondo exponent to win a Games medal.

Singapore's Darren Yap at the 20th Asian Games. (Photo: SNOC/Lim Weixiang)

Add CNA as a trusted source to help Google better understand and surface our content in search results.

NAGOYA: He may have bagged Singapore's first taekwondo Asian Games medal, but 22-year-old Darren Yap never wanted to compete internationally when he first started in the combat sport.

"I never wanted to compete at this level," he told reporters on Thursday (Oct 1) after clinching bronze in the men's individual poomsae.

"But once I went for my first competition, I kind of caught the bug and I've always wanted to keep going and going. That pushed me to work very hard, and eventually I got selected to represent Singapore."

At the Toyohashi Gymnasium, Yap (9.0400) made history as he finished behind South Korea's Yun Kyu-sung (9.3800), Thailand's Navin Pinthasute (9.2800) and Philippines' Derick Yape (9.0900). Both the third and fourth-placed finishers are awarded joint-bronze.

"I didn't really have any expectations because I always try to enter not expecting anything and trying to focus on the end result," said Yap, who was eliminated in the round of 16 at the last Games in Hangzhou.

Copyright for this text belongs to CNA.