Singapore is officially on the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games medal table, and it took a dramatic finish in wushu to make it happen.
Twenty-year-old Zeanne Law secured Singapore’s first medal of the 2026 Asian Games on Sunday, winning a joint bronze in the women’s taijiquan and taijijian combined event in Nagoya, Japan.
Law finished with 19.443 points, exactly the same score as Brunei’s Basma Lachkar. After the competition’s tie-breaking procedures were applied, the two remained level and were awarded bronze medals together.
For Law, it was her first Asian Games medal.
For Singapore, it was the country’s first medal of the Games — and the second consecutive Asian Games where a Singaporean wushu athlete has opened the nation’s medal account.
Law Had to Fight Back After the First Routine
The medal was far from guaranteed after the morning session.
Law scored 9.720 points in taijiquan, leaving her fourth after the first half of the competition.
Lachkar was ahead at that stage.
But Law responded in the afternoon taijijian segment, producing a stronger performance and scoring 9.723 points.
Her combined total of 19.443 moved her onto the podium.
It was a significant turnaround for a competitor who had finished ninth in the same event at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games.
This time, she had enough experience to trust the performance she had built over the previous three years.
A Bronze Medal Shared With a Friend and Rival
The most remarkable part of Law’s achievement was that she did not have to celebrate it alone.
Her bronze was shared with Lachkar, a 23-year-old Bruneian athlete whom Law knows both as a competitor and as a friend.
The pair finished with identical scores of 19.443 points.
According to The Straits Times, the competition’s rules first use degree-of-difficulty scores and then overall performance when breaking ties in taolu events. Even after those procedures, Law and Lachkar remained level and were both awarded bronze.
That produced one of the most memorable moments of the opening days of the Games.
Law described Lachkar as a senior she looks up to, while Lachkar said she was honoured to share the medal with her Singaporean rival.
China Retains the Gold
China’s Tong Xin successfully defended her title, scoring 19.553 points to take gold.
Japan’s Shiho Saito finished second with 19.473, earning silver.
Law and Lachkar followed with their identical 19.443 scores for joint bronze.
The margins were extremely small.
Law finished only 0.110 points behind the gold-medal score.
That makes her podium finish even more significant given how tightly packed the leading athletes were.
Training Together Made the Competition Different
There was another unusual element to the final.
Law, Lachkar, Tong and Saito had all trained at the same base in Fujian, China, in August as they prepared for the Asian Games.
For Law, who had been training there alone from Singapore, that familiarity changed the atmosphere when competition finally arrived.
Instead of seeing the other athletes only as rivals, she had already developed relationships with them away from the competition floor.
The result was a more relaxed environment heading into the final.
That camaraderie was visible after the event as well, when Law helped translate Tong’s answers during the post-competition press conference.
From Asian Games Rookie to World Champion
Law’s bronze is also the latest chapter in a rapid rise.
When she made her Asian Games debut at Hangzhou in 2023, she finished ninth in the same event.
Since then, her international résumé has changed dramatically.
At the 2023 World Wushu Championships, Law won gold in women’s taijiquan and silver in women’s duilian.
The following year, she captured the women’s taijiquan and optional taijishan titles at the World Taijiquan Championships in Singapore.
She was also named Sportswoman of the Year at the Singapore Sports Awards.
That progression helped change her mindset heading into Aichi-Nagoya.
After her ninth-place finish in Hangzhou, Law said she did not feel she had enough experience to fully trust herself.
Three years later, she arrived in Japan as a world champion with considerably more international experience.
Singapore’s Wushu Tradition Continues
Law’s medal also adds to a long history of Singaporean success in wushu at the Asian Games.
Wushu has been part of the Asian Games programme since the 1990 Beijing edition.
Law is now the ninth Singaporean wushu exponent to win an Asian Games medal.
The sport has also played a particularly important role in Singapore’s medal campaigns.
At the 2023 Hangzhou Games, Singapore won two wushu medals: Jowen Lim took silver in the men’s daoshu and gunshu event, while Kimberly Ong won bronze in women’s changquan.
And at the previous Games, it was another wushu athlete who delivered Singapore’s first medal.
Kimberly Ong won bronze in women’s changquan in Hangzhou.
Law has now repeated that pattern in Aichi-Nagoya.
A Special Milestone for the Combined Event
Law’s bronze also has historical significance within her particular discipline.
Singapore had not won a medal in the taijijian-taijiquan combined event since Liew Yin Yin took bronze at the 2002 Asian Games in Seoul.
Law has therefore ended a 24-year wait for Singapore to return to the podium in this specific event.
That makes the medal more than simply Singapore’s first of the 2026 Games.
It also represents a return to the podium in an event where the country had been waiting more than two decades for another medal.
Another Singaporean Finishes Seventh
Law was not the only Singaporean competing in the event.
Her teammate Vera Tan finished seventh with a combined score of 19.382.
Tan scored 9.701 in taijiquan and 9.681 in taijijian, according to competition reporting.
She also competed despite dealing with injuries during the preceding week.
For Tan, the result was reportedly bittersweet because she expects this to be her final Asian Games appearance.
Singapore Arrived With a 304-Athlete Team
Law’s medal comes at the beginning of a major campaign for Singapore.
The country sent a contingent of 304 athletes across 27 sports to the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.
The Games run from Sept. 19 to Oct. 4, with events taking place primarily in Aichi Prefecture as well as other locations including Tokyo.
At the previous Asian Games in Hangzhou, Singapore won 16 medals, including three golds from Shanti Pereira, Maximilian Maeder and Ryan Lo.
Law was among the athletes identified before the Games as one of Singapore’s potential medal contenders after establishing herself as a world champion.
Now she has delivered the first medal of the campaign.
The Medal Opens the Door for More
Singapore’s medal account is now officially open.
But Law’s performance may prove significant beyond the single bronze.
Her result shows how quickly she has progressed since her first Asian Games appearance in 2023.
She arrived in Hangzhou as a relative newcomer.
She arrived in Nagoya as a world champion.
And when the pressure increased after her fourth-place finish in the morning taijiquan routine, she responded with the performance she needed in the afternoon.
The final score was identical to Lachkar’s.
The colour of the medal was bronze.
But for Law, the meaning goes much further.
She has finally won an Asian Games medal — and she did it by fighting back, surviving a tie and sharing the podium with someone she knows well.
For Singapore, the wait is over.
The Aichi-Nagoya medal chase has officially begun.
