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Upheaval in women's table tennis team?

SINGAPORE — After a turbulent 10 months of conflict and coaching shake-ups that culminated in a poor showing at the Rio Olympic Games, the national women’s table tennis team could decide to take matters into their own hands.

The Singapore women's table tennis team - (from left) Zhou Yihan, Feng Tianwei and Yu Mengyu - have been plagued by conflict and coaching shake-ups for the past 10 months. Photo: Reuters

The Singapore women's table tennis team - (from left) Zhou Yihan, Feng Tianwei and Yu Mengyu - have been plagued by conflict and coaching shake-ups for the past 10 months. Photo: Reuters

SINGAPORE — After a turbulent 10 months of conflict and coaching shake-ups that culminated in a poor showing at the Rio Olympic Games, the national women’s table tennis team could decide to take matters into their own hands.

Observers and sources within the fraternity have told TODAY that some members of the women’s team – including veteran Feng Tianwei and Yu Mengyu - are unhappy with their current set-up at the Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA), and could opt to be managed independently from the association.

A possible alternative could be for Sport Singapore (SportSG) or the Singapore Sports Institute (SSI) to step in and manage the paddlers.

While the players declined comment when contacted by TODAY, the STTA said that any issues would be addressed in its post-Olympics post-mortem that is currently underway.

“At the moment, we are undergoing a post-mortem but it has not been completed as some of the players are on holiday,” said STTA president Ellen Lee.

“This post-mortem will be as objective as possible as this is about sports in Singapore, and the future of sports here. If there is any unhappiness, it will have to be addressed during the post-mortem.”

The paddlers’ move to be managed independently from their association – if it materialises – will be unprecedented for the sport.

While this is not the case with the STTA, SportSG had previously stepped in on occasions when a National Sports Association (NSA) lost its funding or was delisted by the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) due to internal problems.

For example, when the Singapore Amateur Gymnastics Association was delisted in 2001, the national sports governing body assisted by setting up a SEA Games Preparation Committee to help athletes with funding for coaching, training and competitions.

A SportSG spokesperson told TODAY that they have not been informed of this matter.

“After every major Games, we conduct a review together with the NSAs to look at what went right and what needs improvement," the spokesman said. "We will be meeting STTA and other NSAs for a comprehensive review of lessons learned from Rio 2016, and to chart the way forward together.”

The players’ unhappiness with the STTA had begun in October last year, when Yu was involved in a on-court spat with then-head coach Jing Junhong during the Polish Open.

A week before the tournament, Feng and Yu were understood to have requested a change of coach from Jing to then-men’s team head coach Yang Chuanning. At the time, while the STTA said it would evaluate the request, changes could not be made in time for the tournament. 

The STTA’s investigation panel eventually handed Jing a verbal reprimand, while Yu was issued a warning letter. As a result, Jing was redeployed as chief coach (youth development), while Yang was fired.

With new head coach Chen Zhibin at the helm, the women’s team headed into March’s World Team Table Tennis Championships in Kuala Lumpur with the goal of defending their bronze medal from the 2014 edition. But the team returned empty-handed after a shock defeat by North Korea in the quarterfinals.

Team Singapore’s woes continued into the Rio Olympic Games last month, where defending bronze medallist Feng and Yu were unceremoniously dumped from the women’s singles last-eight after losses to Japan’s Ai Fukuhara and Kim Song I of North Korea respectively.

They also struggled in the team event, missing out on an Olympic bronze after a 3-1 loss to Japan.

Veteran sports administrator Ng Ser Miang – who was elected to the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) executive board last month – believes that all parties need to evaluate the lessons from Rio as Team Singapore looks ahead to the 2020 Tokyo Games.

“This is a lesson learnt that we cannot afford to have this (kind of) dispute during a critical period in the preparation for the 2016 Games as the morale and standard of the team were probably at an all-time low,” said Singapore’s IOC member.

“Moving forward, there must be a more efficient way to resolve disputes. Over the next few months, there should be an open discussion on how to best manage the athletes.”

Ng also said the SSI and SNOC could play a more active role in managing the athletes.

He added: “These are our national athletes who should be looked after in a collective effort...by the NSA and now with the investment by the Ministry (Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth) in the SSI, they should have a big role, along with the experience and technical expertise of the SNOC.”

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