Still remember back in 2008, the joy when we heard the news of Singapore winning team silver. Back then, Feng Tianwei was just a young paddler with not much experience. She lost out in the singles against China. Li Jiawei was still the top Singapore paddler back then but somehow, I became a fan of FTW. Not the crazy type but the perfectly normal type. The first thing I did when I got hold of a newspaper every day was to flip to the sports section and see if there were any news of her. I even kept newspaper clippings of articles featuring her.

One year later, Li Jiawei got married and afterwards, gave birth. She went on maternity leave so FTW became the top seed of Singapore Table Tennis. In 2009, FTW won the Straits Times Sportswoman of the Year award.

2010 was a year of remarkable achievement. Singapore upset China by winning the World Team Championships in Moscow. I had paid a lot of attention to their progress in that competition but I had to fly to China for an exchange programme. On the last day of the trip, when I boarded the plane back to Singapore, I caught a glimpse of the cover page of a Beijing newspaper in Tao Nan School’s principal (he’s really nice)’s hands. I almost let out a whoop of joy. On it was a photograph of Feng Tianwei celebrating the win. Below it was the forlorn faces of the Chinese team comprising of then World no. 1 Liu Shiwen, 19 years of age, Guo Yue etc, not to forget their coach Shi Zhihao. Singapore’s win was attributed to the fact that China had not sent its more experienced paddlers. All the same, it was still a massive feat. No country had won championship is this competition other than China for a very long time. Hmm but I reached Changi Airport after FTW and co. did. My mum and brother, who were at the airport to fetch me, saw her and her teammates i.e Li Jiawei (who had made a return), Wang Yuegu, Sun Beibei, Yu Mengyu. Of course China was utterly shocked but they never made the same mistake the following year.

In 2011, FTW and co. did not manage to repeat the feat. They took part in the Asian Games held in Guangzhou but yet did not manage to win China. Indeed, China is too strong to conquer. Their trainings are much tougher and requires lots more discipline than Singapore paddlers’. Moreover, China has plenty of young paddlers with lots of potential whereas Singapore’s paddlers are ageing.

In the early half of 2012, FTW and co. were not in good form, constantly missing out on wins. However, they recovered and Feng Tianwei managed to win a bronze medal in the singles for Singapore. Thank you FTW for putting us on the medal tally!

Hmm this post, including the facts, was written completely from memory. Hope I din make any mistakes. Yup.