National artistic gymnastics captain Rachel Yeoh Li Wen led her team to a strong performance at the Aichi-Nagoya Games, securing their place in today’s women’s team final after finishing fifth in the qualifiers. The competition took place yesterday at the Nagoya City General Gymnasium.

The 27-year-old Rachel made a notable impression by introducing a new routine on the uneven bars, where she surpassed her personal best with a score of 14.000, improving on her previous top mark of 13.800 set during the Commonwealth Games qualifiers in July. Her coach, Ng Shu Wai, praised her performance, highlighting the successful debut of the new routine and the achievement of a personal milestone.

Making their debut at the Asian Games, Rachel and her teammates Cadence Teh Zi Qi, Nicole Wong Ziyi, Yap Kang Xian, and Marissa Zaiful Azlan posted a combined score of 147.864 points during the team qualifiers, placing them among the top eight teams advancing to the final. Despite the encouraging result, Coach Ng remains cautious about the challenges ahead, especially given the strong competition from defending champions China, who finished the qualifiers in second place with 165.697 points.

Ng emphasized the importance of minimizing errors in the team final, noting that each mistake could cost the team valuable points. “Each mistake tomorrow will cost one point. So the girls need to be careful not to throw away any points,” he said, adding that the contest could be closely contested for a podium finish.

In addition to the team event, Rachel secured a spot in the individual uneven bars final by finishing fifth in the qualifiers. Her teammates Yap Kang Xian and Marissa Zaiful Azlan also qualified for the vault final, placing sixth and eighth respectively. Both individual finals are scheduled to take place tomorrow.