Fresh from the largely predictable table tennis women team match, Singapore came off with a nicely earned Silver medal in the Beijing Olympics 2008.
The match was shown live on Starhub's Ch 605 and I managed to tuned in on time to catch the match between China and Singapore. Both mum and dad also stayed to watch the match although the dad went out of the house during the middle of the match.
First up was Singapore's Feng Tianwei against China's Wang Nan. Feng fought bravely in the first round but subsequently lost at the end of the round. Wang Nan is simply too good with her long shots and Feng had no defence against that.
Second up was Singapore's Li Jiawei against China's Zhang Yining. This match is a no-brainer as it's clear who would be the winner. Zhang is way, way too strong for Jiawei to compete against her. She's the world number 1 in the table tennis rankings after all. Our Jiawei crashed out without posing a real threat to Zhang Yining at all. Just like that fateful match 4 years ago.
Third up was a group match. Singapore's pair was Li Jiawei and Wang Yuegu whereas China's pair was Zhang Yining and Guo Yue. Now, both Zhang and Guo are ranked world number 1 and 2 respectively in the rankings and it's clear who will win this round.
As expected, China took home the gold and you don't get prizes for guessing it right either. But it was a moment of pride that arose when the Singapore flag was raised above the podium. That was a moment for the whole nation to savour.
The last time the flag was raised during the Olympics was 48 years ago. It was to be a long wait before the next medal comes along. Boy, I'm glad that it happened in my lifetime. It was a joy to behold. That final moment of victory...
To be honest, Singapore could seriously get a shot at the gold but Li Jiawei threw a lot of precious points to China and there goes the gold. Perhaps it's really not meant for us now.
What we could do now is to celebrate the hard-earned silver. The rest can wait.
Cheers!
=)
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