Swimmer Gan Ching Hwee wins Asian Games silver in 800m — Channel NewsAsia

Singaporean swimmer Gan Ching Hwee won a silver medal in the women’s 800m freestyle at the 2026 Asian Games in Tokyo, Japan. In the final, she clocked 8 minutes 26.25 seconds and broke her own national record.

Final medallists

China’s Li Bingjie won gold with a time of 8 minutes 24.02 seconds. Bronze went to Japanese athlete Ichika Kajimoto, who finished in 8 minutes 27.37 seconds. As Channel NewsAsia reports, this is Gan Ching Hwee’s third medal at these Asian Games.

More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.

Three silver medals

The 23-year-old swimmer won her first medal of the tournament in the 1,500m freestyle. She finished second with a new national record of 16 minutes 0.45 seconds. Her time of 8 minutes 29.56 seconds over the first 800 metres of that race also became a national record for the 800m.

Two days later, Gan Ching Hwee won silver in the 400m freestyle, covering the distance in 4 minutes 6.81 seconds. She bettered the previous national record of 4 minutes 9.34 seconds, set at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow earlier this year. The swimmer holds five individual Singapore records: in the 200m, 400m, 800m and 1,500m freestyle, as well as the 400m individual medley.