STTA CEO bat around the bush about buying medals...

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

Facing fierce and unrelenting criticism from members of the public that the Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA) has shamelessly resorted to buying “hired guns” aka “sports mercenaries” from China in a desperate bid for sporting glory, STTA CEO Wong Hui Leng has written a letter in defence of the association which appeared in the Straits Times Forum page today (20 Jun).

Ms Wong begins by claiming that STTA is “committed to our mission of developing world-class table-tennis players by identifying, nurturing and motivating aspiring table-tennis talents to become the best that they can be”.

But notice, in her opening statement, that although she talks about “identifying, nurturing and motivating aspiring table-tennis talents”, she doesn’t say if they are local-born or “foreign talents” to be imported for the sole purpose of winning medals.

She then goes on to talk about how our locals Isabelle Li, Clarence Chew and Pang Xuejie have featured and won medals in past SEA Games. She doesn’t say anything, however, about giving them chances to compete at international level outside South-east Asia.

“The STTA has invested heavily in our youth development programmes and we have in place elite programmes to develop local youth players for progression into the national team,” she continues. “The STTA has a comprehensive system in place to nurture local sporting talents, from the grassroots to elite level.”

She then talks about working with PAP Community Foundation (PCF) kindergartens in 34 constituencies to spot talented “local children” playing table tennis at a young age.

“Each year, a broad base of 1,200 promising local children from these kindergartens are introduced to the game at a very young age, monitored and developed.”

But she doesn’t explain why STTA only works with PAP kindergartens and not others.

Neither does she say if the term “local children” means Singaporean children, or the children of Singaporeans and foreigners who reside here.

“During this time, talented players are sent to the STTA’s seven zone training centres located islandwide for intensive training. From these zone training centres, the more promising ones will be directed to the junior development squad.”

“This cohort will be further shortlisted to join our youth programmes and eventually be part of the national team.”

Ms Wong concludes her rambling letter by saying that...http://www.tremeritus.com/2015/06/20...ooming-locals/


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