TODAY: When being content is not good

When being content is not good

TODAY Weekend • August 23, 2008

UNLIKE the imposing Bird’s Nest Stadium and the bubble-wrapped Water Cube, the home for table tennis here at the 2008 Olympic Games is an unremarkable concrete monolith dressed in grey.

But the Beijing University Gymnasium will forever hold special memories for Singapore. On Sunday, the country’s women took second spot in the table tennis team event to join Tan Howe Liang as Singapore’s only Olympic medallists, after a similar silver-medal finish by the weightlifter in Rome, 1960.

It has been a wonderful campaign for the Republic’s women in table tennis. Li Jiawei finished fourth in the singles and rising star Feng Tianwei reached the last eight, pushing China’s world No 1 Zhang Yining hard in their quarter-final clash on Thursday.

It would have been perfect if the women, and their coach Liu Guodong, had worn their game face in the team final on Sunday.

just happy to be there? There were all smiles just before, during and right after their final against China. It looked for all the world as if they had settled for silver ahead of the gold-medal clash. It was extraordinary to watch. A German reporter asked in the post-match press conference why the team seemed so happy, to lose gold. Li insisted they gave it their all and were just happy after their historic achievement.

Anyone watching her in Friday’s singles semi-final against Zhang would have noticed a completely different person. The world No 6 was focused, she seemed tuned in, she showed her frustration, she scolded herself, she never wore a smile right up to the last point in her 4-1 loss.

Li was the same in the playoff for bronze against Guo Yue.

Feng, the world No 9, was also “in the zone” in her singles battle with Zhang in the previous round. Both she and Li had their game faces on.

On Sunday, Li, Feng and Wang Yuegu — the other member of the team — clearly didn’t. Maybe to ask the trio to regain their focus 48 hours after ending 48 years of hurt was always going to be a an impossible task.

But the message must be driven home that there is no room for giving up in sport, if any athlete, team or country is serious about becoming a top player on the big stage. If Singapore’s goal is to be one of the top-10 sports nations in Asia by 2010, our athletes must learn to marry talent with nerve and a “never-say-die” attitude if they want to realise their fullest potential, and help the country achieve its target. Our coaches need to teach those values to our young hopefuls. not given much chance

Admittedly, few gave the Singapore women any chance before the final, up against a Chinese machine whose main parts were defending champion and world No 1 Zhang, Guo Yue the world No 2, and Wang Nan, the world No 4 and Olympic singles champion in 2000.

But the Singapore team are No 2 in the world, Li, Feng and Wang (No 7) are all in the top 10 in the individual rankings. Just as the home side would have been inspired playing in front of their own fans and Chinese Premier, Hu Jintao, Zhang, Guo Yue and Wang Nan were also under tremendous pressure to deliver gold.

Sadly, their nerve was never tested against a team that had quite clearly lost its edge once it had secured the silver medal in the epic semi-final against South Korea last Friday.

Maybe Li, Feng and Wang should try to have a word with Rafael Nadal in the Athletes Village here in Beijing, if the Mallorcan has not gone home already with gold medal tucked away in his bag.

Before the 2006 Wimbledon tournament few gave Nadal, then world No 2, a chance of reaching the final of the world’s most prestigious Grand Slam. They said his game was just not suited to grass, his least favourite surface. Even fewer believed he could reach the final and beat the world No 1, Roger Federer. He reached the final and took a set off the Swiss genius. Last year, he pushed Federer all the way in the final, losing an epic five-setter. This year, quite remarkably, the Spaniard accomplished what so many once thought was impossible, beating Federer in a Wimbledon final. There is no giving up in the make-up of Nadal, which is why he is now the No 1 player in the world.

The world of sports has given us so many improbable stories of David knocking down Goliath, from North Korea’s footballers beating Italy in the 1966 World Cup finals to the Americans’ stunning success over the Soviet Union in the 1980 Olympic ice hockey final. Singapore will not forget shuttler Ronald Susilo’s win over world No 1 Lin Dan in the Athens Games in 2004, the world will forever remember boxer Cassius Clay — now Muhammad Ali, of course — standing over Sonny Liston in one of the greatest upsets in sport in 1961.

All of them never went into their battles comfortable with losing. All athletes must know such an attitude is anathema in top-level sport.

Leonard Thomas Sports Editor in Beijing

leonard@mediacorp.com.sg