Ronald Susilo's girlfriend is leading 3-1 (best of 5 in 7) against her Japanese opponent in the Women's Singles Table Tennis quarterfinals. Thanks Ronald and Jia Wei... I've never been so patriotic since aged 8.
Okay, my bad... it was the 4th round she played, not the quarters. But she now advances to the quarters with a 4-2 win over the Japanese.
SHE BEAT FORMER OLYMPIC CHAMPION WANG NAN 4-1 TO MAKE IT TO THE SEMIS!!!!!!!!!! SINGAPORE HAS A SEMIFINALIST!!!!!!!!!! (Proclaims the commentator...) It's kinda sad that we're so deliriously happy, as though we've already won the Olympic Gold or sth. And there you have Michael Phelps who got his 4th gold medal of the game and just set the 3rd fastest time in the world, the first two already belonging to him. It just occurred to me that this dude won four golds in one Olympics when Singapore hasn't won one in forty-four yrs!
Phelps may not be able to reach Spitz' record of 7 gold but he definitely has performed tremendously... maybe a little too much. Two countries are dominating a sport that has several dozens of medals awarded.... And, Li Jiawei has done tremendously well too. She was never an A-string player in China and could not make the national team. Her move to Singapore and dedicated training have landed her this far in the Olympics. She deservers it. But her North Korean opponent is no easy meat either. I'm hoping for a Zhang Yining vs Li Jiawei battle in the finals!!! But I don't think the world #1 Zhang can be stopped at the moment as she crushed the top European player (world rank #7) Tamara Boros 4-0!! Of course, it's sad that Wang won't be able to defend her singles title from Sydney, but I think she will defend her doubles title successfully, with new partner Zhang. Overall though, it's a semi-flop for the Chinese table tennis team -- they can only come away with 6 medals maximum and I'm sure they were hoping for higher.
Ronald's GF Can Salvage Pride for Singapore I have high hopes that Li Jiawei can now win a table tennis medal for Singapore at last, having seen her destroying the ex-Olympic Champion and WR 2, Wang Nan, relatively easily - another shocking upset! I have also seen her semi final North Korean opponent, Kim Hyang Mi, in action against Li's compatriot, Zhang Xueling, and beating the latter in six sets. Kim also caused an upset by defeating WR 3, Niu Jianfeng of China earlier. But against Li, Kim will definitely have a harder task although Li is ranked only WR 8. If Li can beat Kim, she will be assured of an Olympic silver and S$500,000, which Singapore would gladly give her for the glory and publicity that she brings. Remember the Olympics is beamed all round the world and S$1/2 to 1 million is a relatively small price to pay! And Li can help raise the Singapore flag higher which boyfriend Ronald failed to do. But it will be such an ideal gift for this sporting couple who trained so hard and are professionally committed so that a tiny country like Singapore can at least secure a place in the sporting map! I hope they can motivate each other further. Good luck, Jiawei and all Singapore is behind you!
Wow, S$500, 000 for the silver??? That's ~$380, 000 in Canadian currency, which is a heck of a lot!!! If Canada even wins a gold, the only thing the gov may giv as a direct reward is "congratulations" or "great job" but they may increase some funding into the sport.
while I was searching for badminton this afternoon, I saw some of her semi-final against the north korean... Really unlucky, she lost 11-9 in the 7th set!!! She will be playing the south korean for the bronze...
Canada already has many Olympic champions, tiny Singapore, NONE, except a weightlifting silver at the Rome Olympics 44 years' ago! That's why the Singapore government is doing all it can to motivate the young to shine in international sports. I think swimming must have benefitted the most from public and private programmes and sponsorships so far, but they hardly brought back any medals, except in regional meets such as the Southeast Asian Games. The swimmers did very badly at this Olympics, none even did their personal best! Now with our shuttlers and table-tennis better showing, especially the latter, I'm hopeful more attention will be given to these two games, which currently have excellent facilities and support for their professional athletes. Jiawei might have even won herself a million bucks if she made it to the Final but alas, she really missed her golden opportunity in her SF match against the North Korean. She completely thrashed her opponent 11-0 in the third set and leading 3-1! But her mental toughness, just like Ronald Susilo's, seems to be lacking at the most critical time and she lost by only 2 points in the deciding 7th set. She may still be able to earn S$250,000 if she wins the bronze. So, for a 'drop-out' in the Chinese team, Jiawei received opportunities not given to some of her China contemporaries. She was groomed and exposed in foreign tournaments to enable her to become her present best. Being a discard from the home country and a foreign talent in another, has its advantages! To Jiawei personally and to Singapore as a nation!
she's much prettier than that!!! I saw another pix of her in the local papers all dressed up with Ronald. With her hair pins off and make up on, she is quite a little stunner. Actually I thought that she was quite a looker compared to all the other players... I agree with Adel, the sporty golden couple have really converted me, glueing to the tv just to watch them live at odd hours of the day. Definitely not a sportperson, I was not even that aware of the Olympics in the first place... I was so sad when she lost the game, was crossing my fingers, toes, hands, legs all the time, by the end of the game, nearly turned into a human pretzel. I hope she will win the bronze medal and get the $250k, she definitely deserve it for all the hard work and stresses. I nearly get a gastric ulcer just watching the Game, it was so tensed! Imaging playing it? They are still young and have a long way to go, here hoping that they will be performing even better at the Beijing Olympics 2008!
That's just so pretty of her.. Most of the picts shown on papers were shots of her match. One can hardly hv a good look of her. Other than they were on TV news few days ago,( when she's about the depart to Athens, her birthday)....Anyway, Thanks!
HK athelets also get a tidy sum of money for getting an Olympic medal. Last time, HK got a Gold in Windsurfing. This time a silver in men's doubles table tennis.
Any approximate figures you can give? Also, does anybody know the value that the Chinese government will award for golds, silvers, and bronzes? Or is that also dependent on the sport ie. the women's doubles tennis gold medallists will be rewarded more than the badminton WD gold medallists as it was a first in tennis???
