Table tennis: S Koreans in the way as Feng eyes medal

SINGAPORE — Paddler Feng Tianwei wants a shiny new medal from the 2014 World Table Tennis Championships to add to her collection of three from the Olympics (women’s team silver and bronze, and women’s singles bronze), as well as the World Team Championships’ Corbillon Cup from 2010.

However, the odds will be stacked against the Singaporean at the April 28 to May 5 world championships in Tokyo, with world No 7 Feng helming a new-look quartet of Yu Mengyu (No 18), home-grown Isabelle Li (No 159) and Yee Herng Hwee.

The national women’s team — who saw their world ranking dip from third to fifth last month — will need to contend with South Korea (No 2), the Netherlands (8), Russia (14), France (22) and Luxembourg (25) in Group C for a place in the quarterfinals.

Their male counterparts, who are ranked 13th in the world, will play in Group B, against Germany (No 2), Hong Kong, Croatia, Denmark and Ukraine.

“Veteran players (Li) Jiawei and (Wang) Yuegu are no longer in the team and this is our first big competition without them. Mengyu and Isabelle have less big Games experience, but I hope they will grow and mature over the course of this competition,” said 27-year-old Feng after a visit to the Rainbow Centre Yishun Park School yesterday.

“I don’t know what position we will be in, but I have a lot of confidence in this team. My target is to lead the women’s team to win a medal. But first, we have to get out of the group stage and into the top eight.”

Korea’s defensive specialist Seo Hyowon (No 8) upset Feng enroute to winning the Korea Open title last year. Her teammates include China-born Seok Hajung (No 15) and 20-year-old Yang Haeun (No 21), a Youth Olympic Games bronze medallist who has tasted senior success in partnering Park Young-sook to the women’s doubles title at the same Korea Open.

National women’s head coach Jing Junhong admitted the Koreans will have an edge over the Singaporeans, as she added yesterday: “In terms of overall team strength, we are not as strong, but we have confidence to give them a good fight.

“This is the first time such a young team is playing such a big competition … so there are a lot of unknown, unpredictable factors.”

Isabelle, meanwhile, is looking forward to her world team championships debut, as she said: “There isn’t any pressure for us as we are making a fresh start. (Closing the gap with other players) takes not one week or one month, but years of training so the important thing is to remain focused and I’m going to go with a learning attitude.”

Back in town after a 44-day centralised training stint in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, the men’s and women’s teams took time out to visit the Rainbow Centre Yishun Park School yesterday morning. The two-hour visit saw the paddlers visiting the school’s mini-mart and kitchen, enjoying an iPad music performance by the students before a photo session with their young fans.