Discover Yahoo! With Your Friends

Learn more
 

YOUR FRIENDS' ACTIVITY

    Send best athletes to SEA Games: Ang Peng Siong

    By Satish Cheney | Yahoo! Newsroom – Sun, Nov 6, 2011

    National swimming head coach Ang Peng Siong has weighed in on the recent debate on sending younger athletes to the SEA Games versus sending only potential medal winners.

    “Putting things in perspective, the SEA Games is about doing it for national pride. I think we always have to remember that and when we go out to compete we want to win,” said the former Olympian.

    Speaking to Yahoo! Singapore at the sidelines of a press conference on Sunday morning, Ang said the SEA Games plays a big part for sports in Singapore and while it is good to see younger athletes taking part, the situation has to be different when there is a large number of potential Olympians.

    With regard to swimming, he said there are other events where younger athletes can gain experience, and they do not have to rely on the SEA Games.

    “For the younger athletes, we can gear towards some of the age group programmes that are available around the region and in Australia. So, that would be a nurturing ground for the younger swimmers. At the SEA games level for swimming, we want to send our best representatives,” he added.

    The debate on sending younger players versus medal prospects came about after a spat between the Singapore Table Tennis Association president Lee Bee Wah and SEA Games Chef de Mission Tan Eng Liang last week.

    Lee had disagreed with Tan’s assertion that young athletes should not be sent to the SEA games for the purpose of exposure.

    Writing on her Facebook fan page on Thursday, Lee responded that the STTA has been grooming all of its athletes to meet qualifying standards and head to major Games. 



    Separately, she reiterated her stance on fielding young homegrown talent. In a post published on Wednesday afternoon, Lee voiced her encouragement to 16-year-old paddler Isabelle Li, writing, “I am sure Isabelle is keen to prove her critics wrong… (her not being ranked second or third) in Singapore does not mean that we should not give her a chance.”



    Lee’s and Tan’s comments also follow a separate controversy that ensued earlier this year between the STTA and the SNOC, after both were unable to agree on the lineup of table tennis players to field for this year’s SEA Games.

    Click here to get the latest news on your mobile!

    How do you feel about this article?

    Loading...
     

    96 comments

    • tan
      tan  •  6 months ago
      To be honest, I don't feel much national pride when I see a bunch of foreigners winning stuffs for Singapore. I also don't think the foreign athletes really care about the color of the flag they are playing for. Not to say they are heartless or anything, but to them this is just a job, nothing more, nothing less.

      In their heart, they will always remain a PRC or Indonesian or wherever they came from. It's sad that 'national pride' has been reduced to 'sports associations pride' or 'politician pride'.
      • Samurai
        Samurai 6 months ago
        Tan You are right I don't understand how can they be proud
      • E
        E 6 months ago
        cannot be helped since we pay million dollars to these greedy PRC China women they are actually our slaves and should be send to collect gold..
      • frank
        frank 6 months ago
        SHAME ON YOU......
    • Genius
      Genius  •  6 months ago
      LBW should be removed, why create so much problems. I personally do not know her but by so much hear says, reports, especially her look, make me upset.If anyone just drop in at STTA, they would realise that it's like a mini-china. Give more local born a chance to fulfill their dreams in Sports & the best should go for the competition. I love Singapore, all the way, Super Singapore Team. yahoo! hooray!
      • Xinkapor
        Xinkapor 6 months ago
        I wonder whether you are agreeable or disagreeable with LBW ??? She wants to send Isabelle Li for the SEA Games .... and I think Isabelle is a thorough-bred Singaporean ... so, LBW us doing exactly what you have just suggested.
      • Ice
        Ice 6 months ago
        And it seems it is ironically "born & bred Singaporeans" in SNOC, SSC or whatever other senior sports head honchos who are "preventing" local born athletes from furthering their dreams at events like SEA Games & beyond.

        Their minds are only full of their current KPIs & medal tallies, and not serious about long-term future of S'pore sports thru extensive youth development. With that kind of mentality, we can never ever achieve even 1% of the sporting success of relatively small nations, let alone sporting giants like Australia & China.

        And we end up blasting a foreign born MP for wanting to give chances to our local born paddlers, aren't we cutting off our own nose to spite our face? APS, Tan Eng Liang etc have all brought glory to S'pore in their day & are prob good people at heart, but I think they are too set in their own ways & ancient thinking. With their approach maybe can hopefully get results today, but for sure no chance of further results tomorrow when current crop of medal winning athletes retire with no successors good enough.
      • Mike Thursday
        Mike Thursday 6 months ago
        @Genius.....let's not make adverse comment on any issue based on hearsay and a person's looks. The issue here is about whether to choose locals or foreign talent to represent Singapore in the SEA Games. No need to be a genius to understand the issue.
    • LuaCK
      LuaCK  •  6 months ago
      Call me square or anything you want. I only support home grown atheletes, win or lose or even if they represent any other country or any other clubs... that dont matter... the very fact is, they are our home grown Singaporean atheletics and not some sports talents bought with money to make some immature government feel proud.

      SIGH .... Singapore....
      • cleverboy
        cleverboy 6 months ago
        Sori for ur naivety. Even countries like US hve brought in kenyan runners, so r most european countries. Sports talent pilfering is common. In Japan, Spain,.Germany, jus to name a few, hv ex chinese players in their table tennis teams. Try to be more informed before making comments which are naive and simplistic. Wat r their objectives for bringing in talents for these countries which hv huge populations. Because sports talent is a gift and not something that can be acquired. And these countries know that getting fame and attention for their sportsmen is tantamount to advertising or marketing a country for tangible as well as intangible benefits. Just like why companies spent so much on putting up advertisements and sponsoring sportsmen. Sponsors paid more than US500 million this year to tiger woods even though he is no longer the no.1 seed and his best showing is jus a no. 3 finish last week and he is now ranked below 20th in the world ranking in golf.........
      • cleverboy
        cleverboy 6 months ago
        actually no point telling u all these. U r one of those pretending to be singaporeans. Maybe good to jus let u know how much an average singaporean knows. Dun waste time on playing these kinda games. U can use ur time to do some reading to enrich urself. Aiyah 4got, it's like playing music in front of a cow.
    • Jul
      Jul  •  6 months ago
      what is the point of sending the best when the best is not a Singaporean
      • Don'tBeStupid
        Don'tBeStupid 6 months ago
        Soon there won't be many Singaporeans left because no one wants to give birth.
      • TIM
        TIM 6 months ago
        your grandparents Singaporeans?
      • E
        E 6 months ago
        TIM we all know by now your grandparents came to singapore and worked in geylang...
    • TGH
      TGH  •  6 months ago
      Much as I believe the overall direction of local sports here is incorrect by importing foreign sports men and women, but once they are converted to Singaporeans, they should be treated equal. SO, is it true that there are actually 2 different types of Singaporeans - the converted ones and those born on this island? Is this the official stand of the government?

      If not, then we should send a team whereby the experienced leads the green. Yes, we should definitely send the best - this is a basic respect for the event, the sports and the sports men and women!
      • Greaser
        Greaser 6 months ago
        You mean muslim converts are not muslims? You mean there are 2 different versions of the Korans? One Korans for muslim converts and another Korans for true blue muslims.
    • Fair Comments
      Fair Comments  •  6 months ago
      To: esteemed Ang Peng Siong

      Unfortunately, your call does not hold much in TABLE-TENNIS. As long as that Malaysian FT is in-charge, we will always see the SAME OLD THING - imported China-born players - instead of Sporeans !
    • Al-Fiz
      Al-Fiz  •  6 months ago
      Locals for medal only please.. I don't care if we dont win as long its locals that being out in the games.. If they keep sending veterans player consisting of FTs, then our locals will nvr outshine them. The greatest players need games exposure and plenty of xperience to be a greater player.
    • Xes
      Xes  •  6 months ago
      The best athletes is the one that born in Singapore, our local born Native Singaporean(Chinese, Malay, Indian and Eurasian) Bros and Sis. not the Chinese PRC that pretend to be Singaporean not for patriotism but our money.
    • KO
      KO  •  6 months ago
      Government spend so much of our tax money to feed and train those China athletes is not for the SEA game.They should aim for World or Olympic games for medals.Don't waste our money just for the Asia game!
    • Hope
      Hope  •  6 months ago
      Wake up all fellow Singapore Sport Official. Using FT sportmen and sportwomen to represent our country to win Gold Medals. What does our country gets when thay win Gold Medals ? Billion of Dollars ? As an old saying states "Using other peoples arses(backside) skin to use as ours on the face " Let's us all do not daydream .I beleive that by employing all the FT, there are lots of people getting free trips....etc etc using taxpayers money. Use the money wisely , cultivate local talents. Why makes the sport official thinks that Local born and breed Singaporean are useless ? I think the sports official in Singapore is a bunch of F##@! rubbish and wondering whether our sports official are also FT .
    • Roy
      Roy  •  6 months ago
      Please bear in mind that we are fighting for medals. Giving exposure to the younger ones is a different matter. If LBW think that the younger ones deserve to go, they should fight for the place with the best ones.
    • goh
      goh  •  6 months ago
      SPORE STOP SPORTS....N WAT EVER...JUST THE BEST MAKE MONEY...WE CANT DO ANYTHING BESIDES MAKIN MONEY...WHY BOTHER
    • Reichsfuhrer
      Reichsfuhrer  •  6 months ago
      The SEA Game sites located in lowly cultured species' territories are not fit for human habitat. Not to mention about clean water and sanitation. Why do you want to risk your lives there.
    • Tan Choon Hong
      Tan Choon Hong  •  6 months ago
      For non-professional sports, there is no glory in employing mercenaries to win medals for us.
    • a2d2c3po
      a2d2c3po  •  6 months ago
      The public tend to forget that our local talents have done well in sports such as sailing and bowling but unfortunately not enough publicity and recognition have been given to these sportsmen and sportwomen as compared to those in table tennis and swimming. By the way what has happened to the so called foreign talents in badminton? I don't think they have done well at all. Hence I would encourage all our local talents to concentrate in sports like bowling, sailing, water polo, shooting, archery, etc and the government could do something more for these local talents by making them sportsman and sportwoman of the year and not let foreigners win the titles year in and year out. Perhaps it's time to select our local bowlers, sailors, shooters etc to be the sportsman and sportswoman of the year. I think they deserve it as much as the swimmers and ping pong players.
    • curio6
      curio6  •  6 months ago
      nothing intelligent comes out of LBW's mouth. !!! If I was Tan Eng Liang I would ignore her.
    • SoGoodMeh
      SoGoodMeh  •  6 months ago
      Give everybody a fair chance, give time to groom young local talents. That's what we want.
      Winning is not everything. Don't pay to win, no pride in that.
    • TGH
      TGH  •  6 months ago
      Quote:"“Putting things in perspective, the SEA Games is about doing it for national pride. I think we always have to remember that and when we go out to compete we want to win,” said the former Olympian."

      It is also about respect for the event. I agree sending the youngs for the exoeriences, BUT it can't just be a team of young athletes. If this is sooooo obvious to someone earning only a few thousands, I can't comprehend why someone like Lee Bee Wah who's earning more than 10 times my salary can't see it.

      HOW on earth did she manage to get the position? Is this "corruption" in another form where PAP people will be stuffed to major positions in various government-funded organisations regardless of their competencies????????
    • Jim
      Jim  •  6 months ago
      When you look at the standard of our Young Lions, you realize why you need FTs as a back up in the medals department. And if the Young Lions are our best, man, are we really scrapping the bottom of the barrel!
    • MengJiangNv
      MengJiangNv  •  6 months ago
      Scenario 1: China 1st, Singapore 2nd, Flag raising ceremony, our imported sport FT follows to sing China national anthem.

      Scenario 2: Singapore 1st, China 2nd, Flag raising ceremony, our imported sport FT don’t know how to sing Singapore national anthem.

      Sport FT is not about national pride here, it is just ORGANIZATION TARGET to achieve to beg for fund, it is using foreign buttock skin as our face in those flag raising ceremony.
     Post a comment

    Featured Blog Posts

    Show More
    More from Yahoo! Singapore