Loh
Regular Member
Loh, I understand that the coach who was key to Singapore winning an Olympics silver in table tennis was treated shabilly. Understandbly he left. Do you think this will adversely impact on Singapore's chances of repeating such achievements?
Yes it was an unfortunate that the matter was blown up in the press.
As I recall, it started with the Chinese 'chief' coach, Liu Guodong, not being present to attend to Singapore's No.1, Gao Ning, in the men's singles third-round match at the Beijing Olympics and he lost to a lower-ranked Croat. The 'chief' coach thought that another coach would be in attendance to provide guidance but somehow the second coach got sick, I think, and was not there. So Gao played without a coach and he attributed much of his loss to this absence.

The 'chief' coach got reprimanded but he defended himself by concentrating his resources on and making sure our women's team achieved the historic Olympic Games silver medal which made Singapore proud. Our only silver medal came from Tan Howe Liang in weightlifting some 40 years ago.

At the recent awards nomination, this women's table tennis team, comprising Li Jiawei, Wang Yuegu, Feng Tianwei and Sun Beibei was awarded the "Senior Team of the Year (Event)". However their coach Liu, whom many considered as deserving to be nominated as "Coach of the Year" was not nominated by the Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA) and the reason given by STTA's president Lee Bee Wah was (as quoted in The Straits Times, May 6 2009):
"Results are not the only criterion to the STTA. A Coach of the Year has to be professional, have integrity, be able to gel the team, and is well-respected by all his players."
In any case, nominated coaches from other sports did not win this award. Neither was there a winner for the Sportsman of the Year.
Even past winners, Li Jiawei and swimmer Tao Li lost to Jasmine Yeong-Nathan (bowling) for the Sportswoman of the Year title.
Perhaps coach Liu's decision not to continue coaching Singapore's women's table team might have sealed STTA's decision not to nominate him.

Another coach from China who last coached in Europe, France, I think is now in charge of the women's table tennis team. He came with impressive credentials and his familiarity with the Western play style seems to have helped our women players.
But many other countries are improving and they are engaging good coaches, so competition remains very tough. But our girls have experienced success before and know that they will continue to have a chance as long as they remain committed to their goal.
