Table tennis for first 2015 SEA Games gold?

SINGAPORE — Feng Tianwei and her team-mates could get the honour of delivering Singapore’s first gold medal of the 2015 SEA Games (from June 5 to 16) when the biennial event returns here after a 22-year hiatus.

TODAY understands that the table tennis mixed doubles competition will begin on June 1 — before the opening ceremony — with the first gold medal in the event to be awarded on June 2.

The competition schedule for the Games’ 36 sports is still subject to change by the Singapore SEA Games Organising Committee (SINGSOC), although football, fencing, netball and synchronised swimming are also expected to start ahead of the opening ceremony.

The Republic’s paddlers claimed a clean sweep of all four gold medals on offer at the 2013 Myanmar Games, and hopes will be high for the national men’s and women’s teams to repeat the feat across seven events (men’s and women’s teams, singles, doubles, mixed doubles) next year.

“Regardless of whether table tennis is the first gold medal, they have been working very hard over the past two years. They will continue to train hard and do their best not to disappoint Singaporean (fans),” said Alex Yam, deputy president of the Singapore Table Tennis Association.

Next year’s Games will feature about 4,900 athletes from 11 countries competing across 36 sports. Chefs de Mission from the South-east Asian countries are in town this week for a two-day seminar, where they were provided with an update on accreditation, transport, food and beverage, security, medical services, ticketing and competition venues.

The issue of doping is also front and centre with the recent positive result for Malaysia’s world No 1 shuttler Lee Chong Wei. Julian Camacho, Chef de Mission for the Philippines, stressed the need for more attention to be given to this issue.

“The SEA Games Federation countries, especially the medical commission, should pay more attention to this. They should look into that and be more vigilant on these drug issues,” said Camacho after a visit to the SEA Games merchandise store at Orchard Road yesterday.

While last year’s Myanmar SEA Games suffered from poor attendance for some sports, Singapore’s Chef de Mission Nicholas Fang is confident that local fans will turn out to support Team Singapore next year.

“It has been a long time since our previous SEA Games and there is a lot of pent-up demand to catch our homegrown athletes in action,” said Fang. “About 50 per cent of the venues will be non-ticketed and that is a huge incentive for them to come out and support our athletes.” Low Lin Fhoong