hi.

Thursday, September 07, 2006 8:56 AM

Training religiously on an average of 5 times a week while pursuing a successful academic career aptly describes a National table tennis youth player’s schedule. Every day of the week, Pang Xue Jie, Wong Hong Wei, Lee Tien Hoe, Goh Yi Long, Lim Pei Xin, Sim Kai Xin, Tan Yan Zhen and Heng Wei Chen enthusiastically head down to STTA from school to hone their table tennis skills. The commendable effort and perseverance of these 8 youths have indeed paid off as they will be part of the team that represents Singapore in the coming Volkswagen Open. Besides the obvious goal of outshining and outplaying their rivals, it is their aspiration to gain more experience through competing with world-class players. Here’s a quick introduction of our budding boys and their achievements so far.At a tender age of 13, Pang Xue Jie is the youngest Singaporean to take part in the Singapore Volkswagen Open. He comes from a family of table tennis fanatics where his father is an active participant in the local scene whilst his brothers, Pang Xue Hao & Pang Xue Bin, were participants of the 2004 Singapore Volkswagen Open. Despite his age and his lack of experience in tournaments, he has several titles under his belt. In 2005, he came in 3rd in the National Schools Individual Championships Senior’s Division. He went on to take 2006 by storm as he scooped up 2 Silver and 1 Bronze medal in the SEA junior Table Tennis Championships. He then bagged 2 Gold medals for Boys Under 15 and Men’s Singles category at the CSC/STTA National Championships. With his steely left-hand defence, he continued his whirlwind of triumph by attaining 3 Gold medals in the Thailand Sports Schools Games Chonburi 2006 for Boys Under 14 Team, Singles and Doubles categories. More recently, he was chosen to represent Singapore in the International Children’s Games (The world’s largest international multi-sport youth games). Out of the 40 boys, who came from countries such as China and Indonesia, he emerged as champion after defeating home favorite Anupong Wannakrairot. He is currently ranked 1st in the Singapore’s Boys Under 15 category.Despite sitting for his GCE O’ Levels this year, Goh Yi Long has been training hard to do his country proud. A young stallion, he participated and bagged wins in a variety of tournaments in 2005 and 2006. In the National B’ Division Championships 2005, he won the Silver medal for his doubles event and took home the Gold for the Davinder Singh Cup 2005. In 2006, he won a Bronze medal for his effort in the SEA junior Table Tennis Championships and the CSC/STTA Table Tennis Championships. Ranked 1st in the Singapore Boys Under 18 category, he might be the man who will surprise us all.Wong Hongwei and Lee Tien Hoe, ranked 3rd and 5th respectively, have high ambitions for this Open as well. Hongwei has been a high achiever these past 2 years with his golden triumph in the 2005 National B Divisions Singles Championships and silver medal at the CSC/STTA Table Tennis Championships. This year, he has already bagged the bronze medal in the SEA junior Table Tennis Championships doubles event and was the champion of the CSC/STTA championships that eluded him the year before. In 2005, Lee Tien Hoe came in 3rd in the Boys Under 19 Lianhe Zaobao Cup. From then one, he was unstoppable. He has done Singapore proud as well by grabbing the Under 18 Doubles Bronze medal away from his opponents in the 2006 SEA junior Table Tennis Championships. Despite having little experience in big-scale tournaments, he bravely participated in the Commonwealth Games this year and this in itself, was an achievement. The 2nd Singapore Volkswagen Open will be commencing in 6 more days. Don’t miss this opportunity to watch these Youths in action because you will never know, they could be tomorrow’s biggest stars.

lol
read this at stta website
hahaha