Cheers Youth International Badminton Championships 2007 (Singapore)

Loh said:
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It's a pity that even some locals feel 'ashamed' of having foreign talent in our midst. When non-locals from other countries criticize or become sarcastic with our policy, we can understand why, especially when their own players were defeated by our foreign talents.

Even those who demean us should ask themselves where they originally came from, their fathers and their forefathers. Can they claim that they were the original "sons of the soil", from time memorial?

Our Singapore foreign talents are like our forefathers who fled from different parts of Asia, especially Southeast Asia, for various reasons, but mainly to seek a better life. They became local citizens eventually and contribute to the well being of their adopted country, helping in its economic, social, educational and cultural development.

Can we denounce these foreign talents as fortune seekers, traitors, etc for abandoning their own countries? If we do so, then we are not true to ourselves, for most of us are their descendants.

So I hope that those who look down on foreign talents and their adopted countries should change their view. Now that the world has become global, one day you may be a foreign talent yourself! :D
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Haha, I was quite shocked when I read "look down on foreign talents". I'm really sorry if my post sent that kind of message to people because I really didn't mean it. While it's true that almost all our ancestors were from other countries and came here to seek a better life, that was their sole purpose. I guess it goes both ways because the foreign talent are also here for a better life with better education in Singapore. But as a young shuttler myself, it's quite frustrating and demoralizing to see how sports in Singapore is dominated by foreigners and not true-blue Singaporeans. It kind of gives you the impression that it's all that much harder to make it big in sports in Singapore with so much foreign talent around. I guess it boils down to how you define Singaporean.

Li Jia Wei (CHN) for table tennis
Ronald Susilo (INA) for badminton
Tao Li (CHN) for swimming

And I think our national billiard player is an American or something along those lines, I may be mistaken. While these foreigners provide good sparring and valuable experience to the local players, it's really just THAT hard to surpass them. Only one in one or two generations can make it big like Wong Peng Soon or Wong Shoon Keat. Not to mention our up and coming Kendrick Lee who managed to outplay first singles Ronald Susilo in the SEA Games trial or Ashton Chen who fought to the finals of the Youth International. Or even Ang Peng Siong for swimming. Once again I'm really sorry if I came across as putting down foreign talent. I have all the respect in the world for their superb skill.
 
But as a young shuttler myself, it's quite frustrating and demoralizing to see how sports in Singapore is dominated by foreigners and not true-blue Singaporeans. It kind of gives you the impression that it's all that much harder to make it big in sports in Singapore with so much foreign talent around. I guess it boils down to how you define Singaporean.

Of course it is hard to make it BIG in sports, not only in Singapore but in many other parts of the world. Even in China, with so many talents queuing up for a chance to join the national team, even the established athlete has to be on his toes all the time. There is no guarantee that his place will not be taken up by someone willing to train harder, make more sacrifices and is more committed to performing better.

Even foreign talents in Singapore find it hard to do battle with top athletes of other nations. It simply means that they are still not good enough! The forthcoming Beijing Olympics will give an indication of which country has the best athletes and in which sports, whether for individual or team events. Singapore would be very happy to win an Olympic gold medal and that's why a million dollars have been offered as the carrot.

The Thomas and Uber Cup competitions this year will put a ranking on all participating teams and Singapore would hve considered to have done well if she could enter the final rounds for both team events.

The foreign talents in Singapore provide a yardstick for local athletes to aspire to their standards and to surpass them one day. Only then will local athletes have a chance at the gold medal in any international competitions. If you find them difficult to beat, it is not surprising for you have not reached their standards unless you are talented and committed enough to turn professional.

But as in the other spheres of Singapore's endeavours, foreign talents have helped us move forward to align ourselves to the world market place and at world standards. Otherwise, Singapore would not have made it to the first-world league in a relatively short time.

So, brace yourself that foreign talents is here to stay and take it as a positive motivation for you to move forward with them.
 
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Foreign Talents in S'pore Sport

Dear members,

To have foreign talents in the sports is not wrong but it should have a balance between local and foreign. For example, if you send foreign talents to this competition,you also needs to send local too. Thus, it will help them to be more confident and gain experiences. It could not get through books or lecture but it is through the feeling of competing and learning to adapt pressure of various tournaments. Let's monitor whether with the Singapore Sport School in place, S'pore can produce more local talents that can represent the country in the games.

Foreigns talents are good to be the sparring partner of the local instead of overtaking them.Recently, the government encourage Singaporean to take up sports but with no assurance of their future as a sport man or woman, most parents were reluctant to let the children to participate in sports.This mindset must be changed and make Sport as one of the career to choose. Beside that, how many numbers of Singaporeans are coming to the stadium to support the players during various tournament? Based on my observation, purchasing Singapore Super Series tickets is much more easier as there will always be sufficient tickets because not many locals will buy it. Compare when i want to support badminton in Malaysia, I will get it first because the stadium will be full if Malaysian players are playing in the quarter, semis and final. Sports culture must be cultivate in the Singaporeans since they are young otherwise we are likely to depend on foreign talents forever. Please take note that I am Malaysian die-hard fan for badminton even when i at the stadium, I will only support my Malaysian players but not in other sports.

From:
Ayu
 
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The results are so disappointing for Singaporeans !!!!
It only goes to show that our young players need more time to
train and develop into better players. I do agree foreign talents are
good for Singapore sports, but maybe a bit too much ?

See the badminton teams and table-tennis teams.

The recent results in the Sea games show that even with foreign sports talents, we have not reached the world stage yet.
 
It will be too much to ask for a world badminton champion from Singapore at this stage of her development. But the process is now in place to encourage those talented to take up sports more seriously and parents are beginning to look up to support their children. Therefore mindset is changing.

We do have local talents who are world champions in other sports like bowling, sailing and even bodybuilding. But as of now, the foreign talents are required to lead the way in especially the racket sports until our own talents are good enough to take over. But I think our local shuttlers are given adequate opportunity to participate in tournaments, both at home and abroad, for the exposure.

The fact that the government is vying to host the inaugural Youth Olympics is a case in point that sports in Singapore is on its way up. There are other evidence that we are moving in the right direction.

The Singapore Open SS has always been well supported especially in the final stages like the semis and finals. Do bear in mind that our Singapore Indoor Stadium is relatively huge and it is not possible to fill up the entire stadium which I believe can hold 15,000.

Ayu's cause not to support even her own Singaporean team is to say the least, very disappointing. Therefore to see parents coming to support their children in recent local badminton tournaments during the June/November/December school holidays is at least more reassuring! :rolleyes:

Now is the time that the Singapore Badminton Association will be selecting talented school boys and girls for serious training. Though the numbers are small, it seems there are more choices from a wider source as more badminton training centres are now in place helping to develop the badminton pool.

This is yet another indication that Singapore badminton is still on the move, hopefully on a higher plane! :)
 
jimbo said:
If you live in SG and watch the local tourneys (esp the school tourneys), it's not hard to see why they are "FTs" coz they dominate the local school tourneys. I've seen few very talented INA young and senior players playing in local leagues/tourneys and they are simply superb.
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its true that FTs help locals to improve, and with their presence, locals may improve faster within a shorter period of time and eventually, overtaking them.

however, when you see a whole bunch of FTs here to stay in school tourneys (and eventually entering the national team), the FTs serve no purpose except to dominate the whole of the tourneys.

locals, especially those who train extremely hard, will just be blown away and be forgotten.
 
Loh said:
Ayu's cause not to support even her own Singaporean team is to say the least, very disappointing...... :rolleyes:

:)
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Errrr, I thought Noriayu is Msian. She definitely sounds like one. There're a lot of Msians working in Spore. + she could be related to one of the players, since she knows them so well
 
MSHSBadmPlayer said:
its true that FTs help locals to improve, and with their presence, locals may improve faster within a shorter period of time and eventually, overtaking them.

however, when you see a whole bunch of FTs here to stay in school tourneys (and eventually entering the national team), the FTs serve no purpose except to dominate the whole of the tourneys.

locals, especially those who train extremely hard, will just be blown away and be forgotten.
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If our locals can't even beat the FTs, how can they face the competition at the world stage? Even our FTs find it difficult to win international titles like the SS. Only Ronald Susilo managed to win the Japan Open once. Kendrick Lee, our only local who could measure up to the FTs, has won lesser titles and this goes to show that it can be done if Kendrick continues to improve.

The FTs do serve a purpose as targets for the locals to emulate and eventually eliminate them. Again Kendrick is a case in point. Imagine if Kendrick does not have Ronald and other FTs to spar with, will he have made such good progress. Remember in the last Singapore Open, he beat world no.3, Chen Jin and more recently in the Korat SEA Games, he shocked many with his display and took the MS individual silver medal, losing only to Taufik Hidayat. Although Malaysia's first team was not present, Kendrick did beat very strong rivals in the persons of Boonsak of Thailand and Sony of Indonesia.

If FTs dominate local tourneys, it will only mean that the local standards are just not good enough and they must work even harder if they really want to make an impact! Saying that it is no use because you can't beat the FTs is like the rest of the world saying that it is no use competing against formidable China, because they can't win. But this is not true. Yes it is very tough trying to beat the Chinese but inroads by non-Chinese have been made which means that their standards have improved and they are closing in on the Chinese.

So we should thank the FTs for showing us the way and giving us a chance to beat them eventually!
 
To Eaglehelang

eaglehelang said:
Errrr, I thought Noriayu is Msian. She definitely sounds like one. There're a lot of Msians working in Spore. + she could be related to one of the players, since she knows them so well
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Dear Eaglehelang,

I am Singaporean but I am Malaysian supporter for badminton. I have no relationship with any players but I did my homework by getting involve in the competition that they participated and have a great conversation with them. I build the relationship with the players since they were young or teenage years.
From:
Ayu
 
hey noridayu, i though u go to the stadium to cheer for malaysia player??
any pics to shre with us?
 
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