HANGZHOU – It had been a rough 2023 for Teong Tzen Wei, who tore his elbow ligament at the short-course World Swimming Championships in December 2022.

His recovery involved platelet-rich plasma treatment and also patience as he worked hard to rediscover his form. At the Cambodia SEA Games in May, he was visibly upset after losing his sprint crowns.

The light at the end of the tunnel arrived on Thursday, the penultimate day of the Asian Games swim meet, as he helped Singapore break their medal duck at the pool with a silver in the 50m butterfly.

He clocked 23.34 seconds and was just out-touched by South Korean Baek In-chul (23.29sec for a new Games record), but ahead of Kazakhstan’s Adilbek Mussin (23.44sec). The second Singaporean Mikkel Lee was seventh in 23.60sec.

“I was crying a lot then, now it’s just smiles,” said a beaming Teong, 25.

After thanking his parents, who were with him, coaches, physiotherapist and gym coach, he added: “There’s always that half where you need to pat yourself on the back, but there’s also the voice inside telling you, you should be better. There are always more races to come.

“Tonight, I felt really good off the start. The last 10 metres is always my issue, and I kind of wish sometimes these were a short-course Asian Games.

“But it’s okay, I’ll play to my strength, which is my underwater kicks, and I’ve been working on my strokes, which I haven’t been able to because of my injury.”

It was an evening of fine margins again for Singapore’s swimmers. After missing out on a 100m breaststroke medal by 0.12sec on Wednesday, Letitia Sim endured another cruel finish. She swam 2min 26.43sec – 1.3sec faster than her national record – but was fourth in the 200m race, 0.02sec behind bronze medallist Runa Imai (2:26.41) of Japan.

China’s Ye Shiwen took gold in 2:23.84 followed by South Korean Kwon Seh-yun (2:26.31).

Sim, 20, has set national records in the 50m, 100m, and 200m breaststroke, as well as the mixed 4x100m medley at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Park Aquatics Centre but it was mixed emotions as she came so close to medals.

“Short limbs,” was her cheeky reply. She added: “Last night was so hard mentally, physically I was just drained. I was learning to move past it and I handled it as well as I could. I’m really excited with how I performed today... all little baby steps and moving in the right direction.”

Amanda Lim (25.07sec) and Quah Ting Wen (25.09sec) cut more emotional figures after finishing fourth and fifth respectively in the 50m freestyle, improving not just their times but also their ranking by one position each from the 2018 Asiad in Jakarta.

But they just could not get their hands on a medal as China’s Zhang Yufei won in a Games record of 24.26sec, followed by Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey (24.34sec) and China’s Cheng Yujie (24.60sec).

Lim said: “Being 0.01 from my best time is decent, but I’m just so sick and tired of doing decent times. I want a good time. Decent is not going to cut it. We know we can do it.”

Quah added: “It’s a pretty punishing sport, where we peak only once or twice during the season, so it has to be perfect or it might just be s**t.”

Another fourth-place finish came in the men’s 4x100m free relay, where anchor Lee, despite his exertions earlier in the 50m fly, produced an outstanding 47.25sec for the second-fastest split of the field to almost steal bronze from Japan.

Alas, he, Jonathan Tan, Quah Zheng Wen and Ardi Azman had to be content with a national record 3:14.77 which qualifies them for the World Championships and allows them to have a crack at qualifying for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

China won in an Asian record of 3:10.88, followed by South Korea (3:12.96) and Japan (3:14.26).

Tan, fourth in the men’s 50m free and 4x200m free relay and mixed 4x100m medley relay as well as sixth in the 100m free, said: “It definitely hurts.”

But Zheng Wen interjected: “He is still young. He will be 24 at the next Asian Games, that’s his peak. There’s nothing to worry about, getting fourth is impressive now. He has one or two more Asian Games and he will be doing good.”

In other finals, China’s breaststroke king Qin Haiyang won the 200m in a Games record 2:07.03 while Kim Woo-min took South Korea’s tally to five swim titles as he clinched the 800m free in a Games record of 7:46.03. The hosts rounded off the night with the women’s 4x200m free gold in 7:49.34, with Singapore seventh in 8:29.08.

China now have 24 golds, needing just two more on Friday to overhaul Japan’s record of 25 from Bangkok 1978.