OLYMPIC-BEJING-08.08.2008
8.00PM-Opening Ceremony
SO PROUD OF TEAM SINGAPORE!!
SILVER FOR SINGAPORE
(Women's Paddlers Lose 0-3 To China To Finish Second In Beijing Olympics)
Team Singapore won a silver at the Beijing Olympics yesterday (August 17), courtesy of paddlers Li Jiawei, Wang Yuegu and Feng Tianwei who lost to China, the world's No 1 team.
Too Strong
Ranked world No 2, the Singapore girls gave everything they had at the Peking University Gymnasium but found the Chinese just way too strong. They lost 0-3 eventually. In the first singles, Feng Tianwei, the team's rising star who was the heroine in the semi-finals against South Korea, faced China's former world No 1, Wang Nan. The Singaporean started well by winning the first game, 11-9. But the Chinese took the next three games, 11-3, 11-8 and 11-6 to win the match.
Uphill Task
Li Jiawei, ranked No 6 in the world, then had to take on world No 1, Zhang Yining in the second singles. Again, Singapore started nicely, with Li winning the first game 11-9. Her Chinese opponent, however, won the next three games, 11-3, 11-4, 11-7 to put China 2-0 up as a team. Then came the doubles. It was an uphill task for Li and Wang Yuegu as they were up against world No. 1, Zhang and world No. 2, Guo Yue. The Chinese team combined well to win with ease, 11-8, 11-5,11-6. With this win, China won the tie, 3-0 and the Olympic gold medal
First Medal
Though Team Singapore lost, the girls already had much to be proud of. Going into the final, they were already assured of at least a silver - our first medal since the silver by weightlifter Tan Howe Liang at the 1960 Rome Olympics. No wonder in Singapore, fans across the country followed the final closely. Through television, internet and handphones, they joined the officials and fans who were in Beijing to follow our paddlers' progress match-by-match, game-by-game, point-by-point. At the Singapore Table Tennis Association, for example, a live screening of the final enabled fans to cheer and bond together.
Table Tennis Finale-Single (female)
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Tonight , 22.08.2008 , 7.30pm , Li JiaWei needed to defeat GuoYue in order to get a bronze
Guo Yue beat Singapore's Li Jia Wei 11-6, 14-12, 9-11, 7-11, 11-3, 11-4 to take the bronze and seal the sweep.However i think that Li JiaWei had put in a lots of effort. GOOD JOB JIAWEI!!!
China's Zhang Yining and Wang Nan were playing for the gold later Friday night.
China has always been dominant in its national sport of table tennis. But it has swept all three medals only once before, in the women's singles event at the 1988 Seoul Games.
A medals sweep was also possible in the men's singles event, after the hosts rolled over their competition Friday to set up a semifinal round with only one non-Chinese athlete.
Guo, ranked No. 2 in the world, struggled at times against Li, the world's sixth-ranked player. The match featured many fast rallies, with Guo overpowering her opponent with blistering topspin shots to the corners.
TAO LI
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