Women’s table tennis team get coach in time

SINGAPORE — With barely a month to go to the World Team Table Tennis Championships in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore’s female paddlers can heave a sigh of relief as they head across the Causeway to defend their team bronze.

The Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA) has finally identified a new national women’s team head coach for the squad, which includes world No 8 Feng Tianwei, Yu Mengyu (32), and Isabelle Li.

Chen Zhibin, a former coach of the Netherlands women’s team from 2009 to 2012, is expected to take over the reins from interim coach Liu Jiayi. TODAY understands that the 61-year-old is already in Singapore as he awaits approval on his work permit. The former Chinese paddler, who won the men’s doubles gold at the 1990 Asian Games, had previously worked with Dutch paddlers Li Jie (19) and Li Jiao (21).

The development will come as welcome news for the national table tennis team, which has been hit by a number of issues in recent months.

Last November, the STTA announced that women’s team head coach Jing Junhong would be redeployed as chief coach (youth development) after an investigation into a dispute involving Jing and Yu at the Polish Open.

Feng and Yu had requested for a change of coach – from Jing to then men’s team head coach Yang Chuanning – a week before the tournament, but the spat that eventually erupted during Yu’s singles match saw Jing issued a verbal reprimand, while Yu was handed a warning letter.

Yang was fired after a review as players were reportedly unhappy with his coaching capabilities and perceived bias against local-born players — complaints that have since been refuted by the former coach.

The coaching revamp saw deputy head coach Liu put in charge of the women’s team, while men’s team assistant coaches Wang Xiang and Zhu Jiang took over while the STTA hunted for a replacement for Yang.

Currently ranked fifth in the world, the women’s team of Feng, Yu, Li, Zhang Wanling and Yee Herng Hwee will play Group C opponents the Netherlands, Poland, Ukraine, France and Belarus at next month’s world championships. The world No 29 Singapore men’s team will face Japan, Portugal, Poland, Belarus and Ukraine in Group C.

Aside from the world championships, Chen will also lead the women in their defence of the team and singles bronze medals at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in August.

While TODAY understands that the STTA will be announcing the appointments for the men’s and women’s team head coaches soon, the national sports association declined comment when contacted yesterday.