National table tennis coach Zhou Shusen (R) with STTA president Lee Bee Wah. (TODAY File Photo)
ROTTERDAM: Over 20,000 fans turned out at the Ahoy Arena in Rotterdam over the weekend to catch table tennis stars like newly—crowned men’s and women’s champions Zhang Jike and Ding Ning of China in action at the World Table Tennis Championships, which ended on Sunday.
Team Singapore’s paddlers played no part in the business end of the tournament, failing to meet the target of a medal.
With the Olympic Games in London looming next year (July 27 to Aug 12), the performances of the 11—member Singapore table tennis team at the world championships raise some concern over their ability to win a medal next year.
But national women’s head coach Zhou Shusen continues to believe the players will be able to deliver at the London Games.
Speaking to MediaCorp on Monday, he said: " I have every confidence in them for the Olympic Games. The target is for one or two medals in the team and individual events. There is a good chance in the singles event because China is only allowed to send two players."
Not restricted by such rules, China’s women occupied seven of the eight spots in the
quarter—finals in the singles event, with Feng Tianwei the only other nationality standing in the way of a clean sweep.
Feng, the world No 6, was powerless against a rampant Ding Ning, going down 4—0 on Friday.
The Singapore women, who won world team gold in a stunning upset over China last year, failed to hit the heights here.
At last year’s team championships final in
Moscow,
Feng beat Ding Ning and Liu Shiwen to propel the upset win, but the Singaporean looked a pale shadow of herself here.
Wang Yuegu, the
world No 12, Li Jiawei, Sun Beibei and Yu Mengyu all failed to advance to the round of 16 in the singles event.
One would think any medal success next year will come from the women, who will look to at least defend their team silver from the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
But their current form hardly breeds confidence.
Undaunted, Zhou said: " I think our performances here met the players’ normal standard. Tianwei reached the top eight in the singles, and our mixed doubles and women’s doubles also went quite far. Tianwei also managed to beat Hong Kong’s Tie Yana (in the round of 16) after losing to her the last time."
Led by a new generation of stars like Ding Ning, 20, 19—year—old Liu Shiwen, and men’s champion Zhang, 23,
China bagged all five gold medals on offer here and took home 14 of the 20 on offer in total.
The
world’s top 28 eligible players on the ITTF’s world rankings after the world championships will qualify for the 2012 Olympics, with each country only allowed two paddlers each for the men’s singles and women’s singles. Other qualification spots must be earned through the continental qualification events scheduled from June 1 to April 22 next year.
Feng and Wang look set to represent the Republic in the women’s singles event in London next year, with veteran Li (
world No 23) likely to take the remaining spot on the three—member team event.
Male paddler Gao Ning, currently ranked
world No 16, will also represent Singapore in the men’s singles.
" We still have some time to work on them. Before the last world championships, Tianwei had never beaten Ding Ning. Liu Shiwen looked unbeatable, and Yuegu had never beaten her before. But they did it, and they beat them in a big competition," Zhou pointed out.
" We still have a chance, but we must have confidence ... I believe these players still have a lot of unfulfilled potential, and have the ability to win." —
TODAY
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