It’s all systems go for S’pore’s paddlers

SINGAPORE — The heat is on as the Republic’s men’s and women’s table tennis teams prepare for their seven-gold assault at the 28th South-east Asian Games.

The first day of the table tennis competition starts at the Singapore Indoor Stadium today, with paddlers from nine nations to compete in four events: Men’s doubles, women’s doubles, mixed doubles, and men’s singles.

The draw for all seven events was conducted at the competition venue yesterday, with Singapore’s top women’s doubles pair, Feng Tianwei and Yu Mengyu, the first among the 10-strong national team to take to the indoor stadium courts against Vietnam’s Hoang My Trang Mai and Hoang Tuong Giang Phan or Thai pair Orawan Paranang and Tamolwan Khetkhuan after earning a bye into the quarterfinals.

Seven other Singaporean paddlers — Lin Ye, Zhou Yihan, Gao Ning, Li Hu, Yang Zi, Clarence Chew, and Chen Feng — are also set to feature today, with only Isabelle Li, who has been entered in the women’s singles and women’s team events, not scheduled for a match.

Having won all four gold medals on offer at the previous SEA Games in Myanmar, Singapore are expected to dominate the competition this year, but head coach Jing Junhong believes her players should not take anything for granted.

“The SEA Games is an important competition so the athletes do feel the pressure, especially given that they are considered the favourites,” said Jing, a former national player. “Our rivals have nothing to lose and will give their all to try and beat us, so my players are all prepared for the possibility of being pushed all the way to five sets in each match.

“I’m not overly concerned with the draw because our preparations, both physical and mental, are complete and we just need to focus on how we play in each game instead of worrying too much about the opponent. After all, we will have to eventually face the best players from the rest of the South-east Asian countries in order to win the gold.”

They may be the top seeds in each of the seven events, but team manager Eddy Tay has warned his charges against complacency, particularly when taking on the “much-improved” Thai players. “Thailand performed really well in the recent world championships so we’ll be keeping an eye out for them and in particular, Padasak (Tanviriyavechakul) and Suthasini (Sawettabut). We will have to be very careful and make sure we prepare well for each match.

“People will have high expectations of us and our ranking may be much higher than the rest, but it still isn’t going to be easy. But I think we are good to go, and the players are all looking forward to the competition.”

Jing admitted that the younger players in the team, 20-year-old Li and Chew, 19 — who won silver and bronze in the women’s and men’s singles respectively at the previous Games — were feeling “nervous”, but backed them to do well when it mattered.

“It’s natural that the less-experienced players will feel the pressure before the start of each tournament, especially when it’s on home ground,” said Jing. “But that pressure is not a bad thing, in fact, it can help them get into form for their matches because it will be a very intense atmosphere when they step onto the court.”

NOAH TAN