AYG Table Tennis: Singapore paddlers secure back-to-back wins despite H1N1 scare

Story by Yvonne Yap/Red Sports. Photos by Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports.

Toa Payoh Sports Hall, Wednesday, 1 July 2009 – A dramatic H1N1 scare morning did not distract Singapore’s table tennis players, who kept their composure and chalked up back-to-back victories over Philippines and Nepal in the evening.

Athletics was not the only event that was marred by a H1N1 scare on the second day of the Asian Youth Games. Unlike athletics, however, the table tennis representatives were allowed to have their matches postponed for about 8 hours after due investigations were done.

Singapore was initially scheduled to play against Philippines at 10.15am but the scheduled time came and past, yet the Filipinos were still seated by the sidelines while the Singapore managers were seen frantically making phone calls.

It turned out that the boys of the AYG team, Clarence Chew and Tay Jit Kiat, had played with a another teammate last Friday, who was confirmed H1N1-positive on Sunday. Clarence only found out about his friend’s condition yesterday as contact tracing began only on Monday.

Clarence and Jit Kiat were sent out of the hall for further questioning to ascertain the situation as the match was postponed.

Investigations revealed that the boys were only in contact with the confirmed case for “about 5 minutes”, and hence they were not considered to have been in sustained exposure with the virus.

The two games were then rescheduled back-to-back, with the Philippines game at 4.45pm and Nepal game at 5.45pm.

Isabelle Li and Clarence Chew were Singapore’s representatives against both Philippines and Nepal on the opening day. The pair won all their matches in straight sets giving Singapore a clean sheet on the opening day of the Table Tennis competition.

In the girls’ singles game against Philippines, Isabelle was up against 14-year-old Ian Lariba. Isabelle got off to a shaky start, dropping the first point to Ian in the opening service, then pulling away from Ian to lead 3-1 for only a short while as Ian squared things up at 3-3.

Nonetheless, Isabelle managed to settle into the game from that point on as she started playing the right shots and quickly extended the lead to 10-3 with game point in hand.

Impatience and anxiety got the better of her as she lost 2 points to Ian before re-finding her composure to wrap up the first game 11-5 with Ian’s shot caught in the net.

Isabelle’s experience in major competitions paid off when she managed to overcome her shaky first game to take the next 2 games confidently in humbling scores of 11-2 and 11-1.

Clarence was up next against 14-year-old Val Stephen Kaca. Towering over his petite opponent, Clarence looked formidable and certainly proved the spectators right.

The boys were neck-and-neck in the early goings of the first game until Clarence broke away from 3-3 onwards and raced to a convincing 11-3 victory.

Unlike Isabelle, Clarence got panicky in the next two games as he lost a string of consecutive points in both sets. Eventually, he did managed to pull through with 2 games of 11-6 to seal the win for Singapore.

Clarence and Isabelle did not allow the victory to distract them. They kept their focus to ensure a clean sheet was kept as they stormed to a 11-3, 11-4, 11-3 victory in their mixed doubles match.

Philippine’s Ian commented on their performance, “We performed well against Nepal. Although we lost our games against Hong Kong and Singapore, we have learnt a lot of lessons and gained experience from them.”

The Filipino team has arrived 5 days prior to AYG and the camaraderie was obvious among the players as they joked with each other after the games.

“We speak the same language, so we get along easily,” said Ian.

In the game against Nepal, Isabelle took on 15-year-old Elina Maharjan. Taking the first 2 games at ease in scores of 11-3, 11-4. Isabelle the found herself challenged in the third game.

Elina caught up with Isabelle at 8-8, and the score was soon 10-10 and was taken into deuce. Cheers from the stands could be heard for Isabelle as the crowd grew nervous for their golden girl. This spurred Isabelle on as she got her play together and claimed the crucial 2 points to bag the first point for Singapore in a score of 12-10.

Pradip Roka, also 15, was a constant threat to Clarence throughout the match. Pradip led in most of the games as Clarence struggled to find his rhythm, but the Singaporean did well to gain control at the ending stages of the games to eventually win the match 11-9, 11-7, 11-7 and confirmed back-to-back victories for Singapore.

Isabelle and Clarence was unstoppable in their mixed doubles match as they took the first 2 games 11-5 and 11-4 without losing the lead. Though they trailed Nepal 3-1 in the third game but it proved to be just a slow start from the Singaporeans who eventually took the game 11-4.

“We did okay today, the H1N1 scare did not affect our training,” said Jit Kiat, when asked about his team mates’ performance and how they felt about the H1N1 commotion.

Isabelle likened the delay to “taking a rest” instead of adding to their nerves.

“Whatever the decision is, we will respect it,” Isabelle responded maturely when asked of her views on the H1N1 scare.

Singapore is in Group D with Kuwait, Philippines, Nepal and Hong Kong, who is currently tied with the host on top of the Group table.

In the other groups, table tennis powerhouse China topped Group A after blowing away DPR Korea and Vietnam without dropping a game.

In Group B, Japan and Chinese Taipei lead their group after chalking up clean sweeps too. Japan brushed aside Sri Lanka and Macau, while Chinese Taipei silenced Sri Lanka and Maldives.

Republic of Korea and India also tied on top of Group C for not dropping any games. Republic of Korea triumphed over Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, while India bested Turkmenistan and Mongolia.

Singapore will face co-leader Hong Kong at 10:15am and Kuwait at 12:45pm on Thursday.