Singapore wins table tennis semi-final to guarantee first Olympic medal in 48 years

By Dawn Yip

Beijing, Friday, August 15, 2008 – In a nail-biting semi-final, the Singapore women's table tennis team edged out South Korea in a best-of-five match this afternoon, assuring Singapore of at least a gold or silver medal, and ending Singapore’s 48-year wait for an Olympic medal drought. Tan Howe Liang won a weightlifting silver in 1960 at the Rome Olympic Games.

Watched by an audience that included some of Singapore’s top sports honchos such as Senior Parliamentary Secretary Teo Ser Luck, Sports Council Chairman Alex Chan and CEO Oon Jin Teik, the match was an exhibition of breathless, high-speed table tennis in which the Singapore team eventually outclassed its opponent.

In the first match, Singapore’s Feng Tian Wei made easy work of Korea’s Dang Ye Seo 11-5, 11-5, 11-2. But the second match was a different story – a hard-fought five-game affair with Kim Kyung Ah eventually overcoming Singapore’s Li Jiawei 5-11, 11-8, 9-11, 11-6, 11-9.

The third match saw Li Jia Wei and Wang Yue Gu pitted against Park Mi Young and Kim Kyung Ah. The Singapore pair won three straight games 11-7, 11-6, 11-9.

The fourth match was a fast, tense battle between Wang Yue Gu and Dang Ye Seo, with Dang beating Wang 11-8, 14-12, 11-9.

With two matches in hand for both Singapore and Korea, it was all down to Feng Tian Wei and Park Mi Young for the deciding match. The first game was won by Feng 11-7. The second game was a tighter affair, characterised by several long patient rallies punctuated by sudden powerful attacks. Feng emerged the winner at 12-10. The third game featured what must surely be the rally of the match, with Park executing some impossible defensive manoeuvres against Feng’s attacks. Appearing calm and determined despite what must have been tremendously stressful circumstances, Park took the third game 11-3.

As an indication of the tension in the Beijing University Gymnasium, two players, one each from Singapore and Korea, had been red-carded and evicted by the time the fourth game reached the halfway mark. Feng, who held a comfortable lead at the start, allowed Park to draw at 7-7. Feng finally won the game 11-9, to ecstatic cheers from the Singapore supporters gathered, and secured the team’s place in Singapore’s history books.

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