Wednesday 25 February 2015

[Straits Times] Nurturing Singapore's sports talents: STTA replies

THE Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA) values its local sports talents and is committed to helping them achieve more sporting glory for Singapore ("Don't let red tape hold back sports talent" by Madam Chua Chuu Suh; last Thursday).

The STTA is proud of Yin Jing Yuan's world junior ranking of No. 23. It is a testament of the STTA's training and competition programme that so long as our young athletes are willing to commit and train at the highest level, they are capable of competing with the best in the world.

The STTA has invested heavily in its training and competition programme for local youth talents. For instance, the STTA has supported Jing Yuan in many international competitions and training stints, including the Egypt Junior Open 2013, South-east Asian Junior Championships 2013 in Manila, Chinese Taipei Junior Open 2013, Korea Junior Open 2013, Canadian Junior Open 2013, Asian Youth Games 2013 in Nanjing, Brazil Junior Open 2013, and Hungarian Junior Open 2013.

Last year, the STTA also fielded him at the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) World Qualification in Portugal, the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) French Junior & Cadet Open, YOG Continental Qualification in Bangkok, ITTF Chengdu Junior & Cadet Open, ITTF Nigeria Open and ITTF Hong Kong Junior & Cadet Open.

After Jing Yuan's stint at the YOG, the STTA continued to support him at the Wisdom 2014 World Junior Table Tennis Championships in Shanghai and the recently concluded Global Junior Circuit Finals in Asuncion, Paraguay.

The STTA is committed to its mission of developing world-class table tennis players by identifying, nurturing and motivating aspiring table tennis talents to become the best they can be. This is why the STTA does selection trials in choosing the best young talents for international competitions. For instance, the STTA organises annual selection trials to find the best talents to represent Singapore at the South-east Asian Junior Table Tennis Championships.

The STTA recognises the need to take a holistic view of athlete development.

For talented national athletes, we will continue to track them closely and support them. We remain committed to developing all our talents with the limited resources we have.

It is in our interest that we help as many talents as possible through creative solutions, but we will not be able to achieve success alone and will require the support of as many stakeholders as possible. Ultimately, all of us share the same vision - to see Singapore represented on the winners' podium.

Wong Hui Leng (Ms)

Chief Executive Officer

Singapore Table Tennis Association