Greg's Table Tennis Travels - The Singapore Table Tennis Association
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| Come and play at the STTA! Photo © 2008 Greg Letts, licensed to About.com, Inc. |
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I've finally embarked on my trip to the UK and Western Europe - but my first stop was actually at Singapore to break up the long flight to London and give my partner and I a chance to catch up with family and friends. While I was here, I naturally wanted to check out the Singapore Table Tennis Association, home of the 2008 Olympic silver medalists in the Table Tennis Women's Team events. Maybe some of their training magic will rub off!
It's been an interesting experience being in Australia then Singapore during the Beijing Olympics - and one that I will write more about in my table tennis blog tomorrow. But for now I'll just say that the media coverage of table tennis in Singapore has been at saturation point for the last 5 or 6 days - with table tennis literally front page news! And while much of the news has been focused on the Women's Team success, there has also been a cloud to this silver lining in the shape of the goings-on at the STTA, where one month old STTA President Lee Bee Wah has booted out the team manager, Antony Lee, and may also get rid of Singapore Head Coach, Liu Goudong. This all hit the news before the Olympians had even finished celebrating their medal. The public reaction to Lee Bee Wah's purge has been less than favorable. Here's a quick online sampling from The Singapore Sports Fan: |