Feng, Yu fight to get fit for SEA Games

SINGAPORE — Since 2011, Singapore’s women’s table tennis team has captured every gold on offer at the SEA Games, but their complete dominance when the Republic hosts the biennial event from June 5 to 16 is not all assured with injuries sustained by key players.

World No 4 Feng Tianwei and Yu Mengyu(16) have been carrying knee and back injuries, respectively, since last year’s Asian Games and have yet to make a full recovery.

Although doctors and physiotherapists are working to get them fit on time, there is no guarantee that they will be in top condition by the time the women’s competition starts four days before the Games’ official opening on June 5.

With Thailand and Indonesia posing threats to Singapore’s dominance, women’s head coach Jing Junhong is concerned about the pair’s injuries so close to the Games.

“Of course, I am worried,” said Jing on the sidelines of the national paddlers’ visit to the Movement for the Intellectually Disabled (MINDS) at Woodlands Garden School yesterday.

“But what we can control, we will try to control, so we leave it to the doctors. The pair are also very experienced players and know how to manage and monitor the state of their injuries. These are long-standing injuries and are very hard to go away completely.”

Both are scheduled to play in the team and double events, but 28-year-old Feng, and Yu, 25, have also been entered for the singles and mixed doubles, respectively.

Feng, who fought through pain at the Asian Cup in Jaipur, India, and beat top seed Liu Shiwen to break China’s eight-year hold in the women’s singles, said she is “fighting a battle” against her injury.

“I need to take care of it and not let it create problems for me during competition days,” she said. “My knee keeps acting up during training and it is painful. So I will have to make sure it gets better before the SEA Games.”

High-performance manager Eddy Tay is also hoping the pair will feature in the team, but if they fail to make the cut, he said World No 49 Lin Ye, Zhou Yihan (No 65) and rising young star Isabelle Li would have to step up and take over their events.

Said Tay: “We are taking good care of them, including others with minor injuries, such as men paddlers Gao Ning (shoulder) and Yang Zi (back). We are confident they will be able to play in the Games.

“Tianwei, for example, is reducing her training load and doing more strength and conditioning training instead. Right now, we don’t want to think about these things as we gear up for the Games.”

Despite the injuries, it’s all systems go in the women’s preparations in their effort to dominate the sport on home soil. National paddler Li, 20, who competed at the inaugural Youth Olympic Games (YOG) here in 2010, said competing in front of Singaporeans had prepared her better for this SEA Games.

“At the YOG, I didn’t know what to expect,” she said. “What has changed for me since then is my ability to take failure better. I used to get frustrated with myself more easily. Now, I constantly look for ways to improve.”

Addded Feng: “The pressure is definitely there. People’s expectations of the Singapore national paddlers are high and the attention given to us may be higher than to other sports.

“For some of our younger players, they have also played at the SEA Games and, as long as we carry out our plans, we can get a good result.”

The nine-strong squad will travel to Suzhou, China, on Sunday to compete in the World Table Tennis Championships before June’s SEA Games.