Petty of STTA

Granted, the ex table tennis coach of Singapore, Liu Guodong was not well-liked by his team or so claimed by STTA's President, Lee Bee Wah. Granted, he was not present nor did he assign another coach for one of our male competitors during the last Olympics who eventually lost to someone ranked much lower than him. Had a coach assigned to him then, he could have won that round...or was it the case to be? Blame game then erupted and finally, Liu decided to leave our shore for Indonesia. Lee then immediately hit back at the coach, obviously fuming hot for the loss of our male competitor in the competition. Rightly so, she should have held back her cool during the competition proper, instead of rattling off to the media. Her own handling of this fracas was equally bad.

Hey, this man has helped Singapore secured the elusive silver medal for the women's table tennis team. Admittedly, I did not feel a sense of pride as Singaporean, given the entire women's team hailed not from our home soil. Notwithstanding, we have achieved our objective, didn't we? Give credit when it's due, the women's table tennis team won the 'Team of the Year' award in this year's Singapore Sports Awards but their coach did not win the 'Coach of the Year' award, damn it. Cited by Lee, it is more than winning, integrity of sorts and respect of sorts play important part too. This sounded more petty on the part of STTA than any noble claim so put by Lee and her committee not to nominate Liu for the coach award. He deserves to be recognised for his effort, his committment and it seems from the outside, personal dislike for someone has been displayed by someone with authority within the fratenity. Was it not obvious enough?

Liu Guodong, fret not...you surely have earned your status as the coach of the year in the public eye and not let petty claim by STTA to put you down. Hip hip hip hooray to you...!