Friday, May 8, 2009

Liu Guodong not nominated for the year award for coach


National women’s table tennis team won the year’s Singapore Sports Award for their historical achievement in Beijing Olympics last year. In Beijing they won an invaluable silver medal, the first Olympic medal of Singapore since its independence. However, Mr. Liu Guodong, the coach of national table tennis team was denied the nomination by Singapore Table Tennis Association, or STTA for the year’s award for coach. The main reason, in the words of STTA, is that he is not well-respected by all his players. Mr. Liu allegedly paid most of his attention to the women’s team and relatively cared less about the men. As a result, Singapore best male player Gao Ning found himself with no coach in his Olympic third-round singles match and then crashed out to a low-ranked Croat. Most people felt disappointed and had considered Liu as a shoo-in. Many members of the selection panel urged that Mr. Liu should be put in the ballot even without precedence. However, the final result turned out disappointing that the decision of STTA was respected. That meant Mr. Liu was out of the ballot and had no chance to win the coach’s year award. The panel later announced there would be no coach winning the award for no candidates met the criteria. So for the first time since 2001, there is no winner in this category.

I consider it more of a consequence of conflicts between Coach Liu and STTA late last year. After the historical victory in Beijing, Mr. Liu expected more power in selecting players for national table tennis team. Unexpectedly the new guard which took over STTA soon after Beijing Olympics spurned the request of Mr. Liu. This episode ended up with the resignation of Mr. Liu. That thrust STTA under the spotlight and put it in a position to be blamed for letting such a prestigious coach go. So I am afraid STTA’s not nominating Mr. Liu is an action taken to get even with him. Despite Mr. Liu’s own fault, STTA is the head of the snake and should be blamed for its intolerance. It just wants to hurt Mr. Liu even at the cost of no winner of the year’s award. As a responsible association, STTA should behave tolerantly and apparently. Revenge is definitely not the right thing to do.

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