Brave_Turtle said:
So Happy for Susilo. He's goign to make the MS more interesting now
its amazing seeing how its the first singapore person to do beat the first seet in the olympics n win a japan open i think
I can tell you it is not easy for Ronald to defeat any China player because China has all the resources and experience to produce world class players by the dozens.
Beating Bao in the Japan Open is historic for a Singapore player and in Ronald's own words he was so thrilled that he could hardly sleep for almost a week! Now beating another China shuttler at the Olympics who is No. 1 in the world is almost unthinkable, especially for such a small country like Singapore, which some politicians dismissed as just a "little red dot" in the world map.
How is this possible? Denmark has shown the badminton world how they managed to produce champions after champions despite China's imposing presence and also that of Indonesia's. It is the will, the determination, the commitment, the supporting infrastructure, ever conscious of the goal in sight and working hard towards achieving it.
Now it means that the PLAYER HIMSELF must be able to visualize all these and believe in himself and the people around him who are there to provide, assist, nurture and motivate him.
It just happens that Ronald came to Singapore at the right time when the country wants to do more for sports and considers badminton as a game which it can excel at the world stage. And Ronald is found to be suitable because of his talent. More importantly, Ronald wants to be a professional athlete and he has said that studies, one can do at an older age, not sports!
Now, I think Singapore has already started in motion the production of as many Ronalds as possible with the inauguration of the Sports Sport early this year. Of course, a sports school is nothing new in neighbouring countries and in badminton strong countries like China, Indonesia and Malaysia, so what is it so different? Well, Singapore tries to get the best out of others' positive experiences and adapt them here. As with many institutions, it is not so much the hardware like the buildings and the facilities, but more importantly the software, the people managing, coaching, supporting, etc, that counts. Therein lies the difference.
Ronald has proven that somebody from tiny Singapore can capture the Japan Open crown from the badminton giants. And IF he can capture the Olympic gold, (all pandemonium will break loose here) then there is no more excuses for small countries not to be able to shine in international arena! I'm more than convinced of this phenomenon!
Small countries still have realistic hopes of being giant-killers!