Sunday, August 17, 2008

Singapore claims silver medal in ladies' table tennis final

I usually do not watch table tennis, as I find soccer more attractive. However, for once, I have decided to do so. Primarily because Singapore managed to secure an Olympic medal after a barren spell that stretches over nearly half a century, and also due to my curiosity to see which color will that medal be. The matches commenced duly at approximately 7.45pm, and my, what an enthralling competition it was between Singapore and China. Here are the summary of the scores and the respective sets:

Wang Nan defeats Feng Tian Wei: 9-11, 11-3, 11-8, 11-6

Feng Tian Wei started the match-up with gusto, clinching the first match 11-9. However, as the match wore on, Wang Nan's experience began to show as she drew Feng Tian Wei into a series of mistakes, particularly a few wild, skied returns. Feng continued to fight valiantly, but the gulf in experience is too wide for a miracles to occur.

Zhang Yi Ning defeats Li Jiawei: 9-11, 11-3, 11-4, 11-7

In the past, Zhang Yi Ning have encountered Li Jiawei a total of 13 times and have lost none of them, hence it is up to Li to overturn the form books. Li started brightly to claim the first match 11-9, albeit with a bit of jitters. However, Zhang's class began to show from the second match onwards, her fast and ferocious strokes proving very tough for Li to deal with. A couple of her shots were perfectly measured, just clipping the edge of the table before bouncing out. Consequentially, Zhang's victory meant China were 2-0 ahead.

Zhang Yi Ning/Guo Yue defeated Li Jiawei/Wang Yue Gu: 11-8, 11-5, 11-6

In the final match-up, Li Jiawei and Wang Yue Gu faced up to the Chinese duo of Zhang Yi Ning and Guo Yue. The Singapore duo began well, racing into a 4-0 lead at one stage. However, their opponents were assured, clawing back point by point before clinching the first match. In the second and third matches, the China duo were visibly nippier than the Singapore duo, forcing Li and Wang to make a series of errors. It was inevitable that China would also eventually claim the set.

Hence, the final score is - China 3 Singapore 0.

The score looked overwhelming, but looking at the purely the score would be understating the effort of the Singapore team. It is always going to be difficult playing on foreign soil, especially up against some of the world's best table tennis players on their home soil. The kind of pressure these athletes were under are scarcely imaginable to us spectators.

From a personal point of view, the quality of the matches were one of the best I have ever seen. The pace of the game hardly allowed a reprieve and the techniques on display, breathtaking. Although Singapore had lost, I still applaud the athletes for the enthusiasm, fight, skill and dedication they have shown throughout the tournament to have landed the country, a long-awaited medal.

Well done, Singapore!


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, I was looking for results and accidently bumped into your blog. Yup well done, Singapore, but those players look as if they are from Mainland China. If that is so, the medal does not really count, yea? haha. They probably got paid to play for Singapore. LOL, so it is not COUNTED :P (Aussie Bloke)

MLMaestro said...

To anonymous:

Well...the phenomenon of players playing for other countries is a byproduct of globalization. It happens all over the world, not just in Singapore.

And there are a multitude of reasons why these happen...I am sure you know most of them, right? ;)

Anonymous said...

As much as you do not fancy table tennis but soccer more, I do too but only I do not fancy the whole load of the olympics but however, occasionally when there was nothing on except for that, I had to pretend that I liked it.

Oh. Also, replying to your post about the evolution between the male and the female species, I have much to say abt that.

We do too have our stereotyped labels that society gives us but there are always the minority.

Benefit of the doubt, benefit of the doubt. ;)

MLMaestro said...

To Natasha:

Similar sentiments here. :p

I did not talk about evolution, rather, the post was focused on that of relationships. I do not claim that I am an expert in this area, but as someone who has observed some trends and had some angst which I wanted to share. =p

Thanks for dropping by my blog, anyway ;)

Anonymous said...

Hi thanx for the comment, MLM.
But if you see that deleted, that's not because I am rude, but because it's a tradition that notices (post marked notices) will be deleted.

Thankx for the encouragement.

Rgds.

Scope.