Wang Yuegu is now Singapore’s No. 1 paddler – and deservedly so

The report:

This report appeared in today’s edition of The Straits Times:

Feng’s ranking drops; Wang now tops here

(The Straits Times, 06 April 2012)

SINGAPORE suffered a blow when the latest table tennis world rankings were released yesterday.

Feng Tianwei, 25, has slipped from being the fifth-ranked woman player in the world to No. 9, a result that almost certainly means that the Republic is no longer the No. 2 team in the world.

‘I was expecting my ranking to drop because of my losses at the World Team Championships, but I didn’t think it would be this much,’ she said yesterday.

She suffered four losses in Dortmund, Germany, late last month.

Wang Yuegu, now the highest-ranked Singaporean at No. 7, and Li Jiawei (No. 14) both rose a rung each, but Feng’s slip could have greater repercussions.

Singapore is likely to be overtaken by Japan for the No. 2 spot. This, despite the team clawing their way to a silver in Dortmund. Japan, the third seeds there, finished fifth.

A country’s team ranking is a good indicator of its Olympic seeding, which is based on the rankings of the three players who qualified for the Games, and their head-to-head records with the other qualifiers.

It is important for Singapore to be seeded second at the Olympics because it would mean avoiding favourites China until the team final.

But with just three months to go before the draw for the London Games is expected, a rankings slip could hit Singapore’s chances of retaining its women’s team silver.

The world team rankings were been released yesterday.

Feng and Co are now in a race to chalk up ranking points over the six International Table Tennis Federation Pro Tour events before the Olympics.

But the national captain remains confident of climbing back up the rungs, saying: ‘Rankings go up and down all the time. There is still time between now and the Olympics, and I will do everything I can to climb back up.

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My thoughts:

Although Feng Tianwei’s drop in the world rankings means possible trouble for Singapore as they seek to cling on to their silver medal at this July’s London Olympics, I can’t help but feel that Wang Yuegu’s elevation to to the status of top Singapore player is well-deserved.

Wang was undoubtedly Singapore’s top performer at the recent World Table Tennis Team Championships. After all, she was the one who saved the Republic twice from near-certain defeat by winning the all-important rubber matches against Germany in the quarter-finals, and against South Korea in the semis.

I also couldn’t help feeling a little proud as I read about how she, enraged by some of the officials’ decisions against her in the early stages of the tournament,  decided to let fly at them, and question their competence and professionalism.

Here’s one of her best quotes after one such incident:

“I don’t need to respect officials who have these kinds of standards. I want to tell European umpires: I’m not afraid of offending you – worse come to worst, I just won’t play.  I just hope that they improve their standards, and don’t keep thinking that they are superior.”

You see what I mean? It was really jaw-dropping stuff from Wang.

I remember subsequently reading with relish the daily reports of her verbal spats with the ITTF’s European  officials and umpires, and thinking that this was such a refreshing change from the vanilla image that the women’s table tennis team has always projected – one that, perhaps, is due to the tightly-controlled, well-crafted, well-rehearsed, and ultimately very ‘unhappening’  responses that they always seem to have for the media.

I don’t know why Wang is suddenly appearing to be so feisty. Maybe she has always been so, but we have not been made aware of it.

Or maybe it is because she is now happily married, is well aware that she is entering the twilight of her playing career, and as such, does not feel the need to show the same sort of restraint as her younger teammates.

Whatever the reason, she was a joy to watch, and read about at the World Championships.

Truly, she was the epitome of fighting spirit in the Singapore team, and this was one of the very few times that I actually felt a sense of pride as I watched a naturalised citizen in national colours.

And it is about time Wang became Singapore’s No. 1 too.

After all, she has always been playing the supporting role of the lowly bridesmaid to Li Jiawei and then to Feng, who have always been portrayed as the stars of the women’s squad.

I am sure Wang’s new ranking will not change things in the team. She is unlikely to be regarded as the team’s new leader. But at least she can still quietly savour her achievement.  And at least, her long-time, as well as new-found, supporters (like me) can also rejoice with her from afar.

Yours in sport

Singapore Sports Fan

P/S: By the way, Wang has a fanpage on Facebook. You can check it out at  https://www.facebook.com/wangygfc

Were the Lions a better team when there wasn’t an S-League? An observer of local sports seems to think so

The Letter:

This letter appeared in today’s edition of The Straits Times:

Frankly, national teams bred on Malaysia Cup were the real deal

I DISAGREE with Mr Liew Eng Leng (‘Frankly, S-League football bred better players for international glory’; last Saturday). Although Singapore did not win any reputable international titles before the S-League kicked off in 1996, the national teams bred on Malaysia Cup football lifted the country to

Asia’s elite rankings on four major occasions, with sterling performances in the 1966 Asian Games (top four), 1977 World Cup qualifiers (Asian top eight and first in South-east Asia), 1980 Olympic Games qualifiers (Asian top six) and 1984 Asian Cup finals (top seven).

The national teams of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s clearly possessed a lethal bite despite facing bigger and more ferocious foes, whereas those bred on S-League football are often left biting the dust when the going gets tough.

Although the modern-era Lions were among the top 15 performers in Asia’s 20-team World Cup third-round qualifiers in 2008, they fell to second-last in the 2011-12 edition, losing all six matches. Tajikistan and Lebanon lost to Singapore in 2008, but the 18th-placed Tajiks and ninth-placed Lebanese have improved while the Lions regressed.

Evidently, the S-League (under its current format) is not very beneficial to Singapore’s quest for international football excellence and glory.

It is true that Singapore won consecutive Asean championships in 2004 and 2007, but with the Lions supported by naturalised players, those were expected victories.

Contrary to Mr Liew’s claims, Singapore did come close to winning top regional titles before 1996, having qualified thrice for the South-east Asian Games final in the 1980s. During the S-League era, Singapore has never progressed beyond the semi-finals.

Arguably, Singapore’s 1977 and 1980 Malaysia Cup victories were akin to modern-day South Korean or Japanese league title triumphs.

South Korea and Japan are current Asian giants, while Malaysia was similarly dominant between 1970 and 1980. The Malaysians qualified for the 1972 and 1980 Olympics, confirming Malaysia as one of Asia’s top three at that time, and the standard of Malaysian domestic football was conceivably among Asia’s most robust.

Perhaps the 1977 and 1980 Lions should be bestowed a special national honour for their invaluable contributions to creating a sporting nation.

The Lions of old were roaring champions, but the S-League-bred Lions have yet to roar.

Michael Ang

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My thoughts:

I have always enjoyed reading Michael Ang’s letters on the local sporting scene which regularly appear in the newspapers.

Ang, in  case you’re wondering, is a former sports journalist with Mediacorp before he uprooted and moved to Canada several years back. In that sense, I feel that he knows his stuff, and that is why some of his observations are usually quite spot on.

The fact that he is bothering to write about local sport despite having migrated to another country shows how passionate he is about the local sporting scene. And it’s great to have such a voice because honestly, you don’t get to read  many comment pieces on local sport in the papers these days.

Ang’s latest letter appeared in The Straits Times today (31 March 2012), and once again, he makes a compelling argument, refuting another letter-writer’s theory that the S-League produces much better international players for the Lions .

Certainly, there is merit in his argument that the S-League in its present format, has not been producing quality players for the national team.

Since 2008, Singapore’s standing on the international stage has been falling. After winning our third Tiger/Suzuki Cup/Asean Football Championship in 2007, we’ve gone backwards.

To be fair, 2008 was an exciting year for the Lions. I remember being quite excited by their progress into the third round of the Asian World Cup qualifiers, and even though they did not make it to the final qualifying stage in the end, that campaign was marked by some promising displays and performances. But since then, it’s been going downhill.

We were knocked out of the semi-finals of the Suzuki Cup in 2008, and then, horror of horrors,  failed to even qualify from the  group stages at the 2010 edition, finishing third behind Vietnam and the Philippines in Group B. Taking a leaf from their seniors, our U-23 team – who had won bronze medals at the 2007 and 2009 SEA Games – did not qualify from the group stage of last year’s SEA Games football competition.

Then came the Lions’ very poor and embarrassing campaign in the third round of the World Cup qualifiers, one marked by thrashings, abject and dispirited performances, and games in which we were completely outplayed, which made every one realise how much the Lions have declined since their 2005 and 2007 heydays.

The S-League may have widened the pool for potential talent for the national team but clearly, the recent talents that are being produced are not good enough to compete at Asean level, much less Asian level.  But, to be fair to the clubs, I feel that has much to do with the kind of budgets that they are forced to operate on. When you think about it, the recent glory days of Singapore football coincided with the golden period of the S-League, from 1999 to 2003/4, when clubs had more resources to hunt down and sign good foreign players.

In the past two years, I get the sense that things have started looking a little (BIG STRESS ON ‘a little’) promising again in the S-League, although you wouldn’t have known it, given the scarce coverage given to the league by the local media. But hopefully, this will gradually build up into another golden period for the S-League, and then by extension, for the Lions.

Yours in sport

Singapore Sports Fan

Breaking news: Derek Wong gives Singapore sport a belated National Day present with Taufik triumph

This appeared in today’s Breaking News section of The Straits Times’ website:

Singapore shuttler Derek Wong upsets former world champ

(The Straits Times Online, 11 Aug 2011)

SINGAPORE shuttler Derek Wong created one of the biggest shocks at the World Badminton Championships on Wednesday, when he defeated former Olympic and world champion Taufik Hidayat in the second round.

The unheralded Wong, 22, beat the Indonesian star 21-17, 21-14 to earn a place in the third round on Thursday against Hans-Kristian Vittinghaus of Denmark.

The upset was an unwelcome 30th birthday present for the fourth-seeded Taufik, who fell to an opponent ranked only 49th in the world.

When asked about the defeat, he kept repeating: ‘I don’t know why, I don’t know why.’

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I just want to extend my heartiest congratulations to Derek Wong for his milestone win. Considering that Taufik is still in the top 10 of the world rankings (No. 4 for now)  and a losing finalist in last year’s World Championships, this is a terribly impressive and massive scalp.

It also brings back memories of Derek’s father’s famous scalps in the 1983 South-east Asia Games in Singapore. Wong Shoon Keat stunned Indonesia’s Icuk ‘The Iceman’ Sugiarto’ – the 1983 world champion – in the semi-finals of the men’s team competition. He also defeated another Indonesian Hastomo Arbi in the men’s singles final to win Singapre’s first-ever badminton gold at the biennial multi-sports regional Games.

Can 22-year-old Derek, who is ranked 49th in the world,  go on to do the same in this tournament? I don’t think so but it would be nice to think that he would be capable of following his father’s footsteps at the SEA Games one day.

For now, I am just going to savour a momentous achievement by a local sporting talent.

Singapore badminton – bursting at the seams with foreign recruits, no thanks to the Singapore Badminton Association’s lack of faith in local talents – has been really needing a result like this, by a local-born shuttler, for a long, long time. Far too long.

Well done, Derek!  (You can read another report of Derek’s scalp here)

Thank you for your wonderful birthday gift to the country. Majullah Singapura!

Yours in sport

Singapore Sports Fan

P/S: I’d taken a long break from blogging to re-evaluate some priorities in my life, and because my interest in Singapore sport was starting to wane. And actually, I am still on my break. But I just had to post this up after seeing it. Shows what Singapore sport can still stir up in me.