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SINGAPORE: Singapore's historic medal-winning appearance in an Olympics final weighed on Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s mind last Friday, as he pondered “what to do” with his National Day Rally speech.
And it was the first thing he spoke about, when he stepped on stage at the University Cultural Centre at 6.45pm on Sunday.
“Our women table tennis team making the finals had left me with a small problem ... After thinking it over and discussing with my colleagues, we decided on this solution,” said Mr Lee, referring to the delayed broadcast of the English version of his speech tonight, so that Singaporeans could catch the live telecast of the face-off with China.
Throughout the night, the match taking place thousand of miles away in Beijing was not far from Mr Lee’s mind — he kept his audience up to date with the score-line SMSed at intervals to his mobile phone.
In his Mandarin speech shortly before the match began, Mr Lee tackled the debate on foreign talent and cited the example of Singapore’s Olympic contingent of 25, of which half are new citizens.
“We now have Tao Li reaching the swimming finals and the table-tennis team playing for either gold or silver ... Team Singapore all the way!” he said.
Minutes after Li Jiawei lost the second singles, he announced: “I just got an update. Singapore 0, China 2.”
About an hour later, result was in: 0-3 to China. But Mr Lee was not downhearted. “We were up against a very strong Chinese team. The Singapore team had done us proud,” he said.
In what he described as his “last special effect” for the evening, the Prime Minister made a call to Singapore’s Olympics chef de mission Tan Eng Liang in Beijing.
Describing the Chinese as the “better team”, Mr Tan — whose response was broadcast for all to hear — said Singapore’s women paddlers “tried their best and played well”, evoking thunderous applause.
Mr Tan also apologised for the defeat, to which Mr Lee had only words of encouragement, as images of the team was beamed on the big screen.
“Our paddlers have done very well and have done Singapore proud. Please thank them for us ... and also the whole Singapore team. You have carried our flag high,” said Mr Lee. Later, he told reporters: “It’s been a long time since we’ve had a medal at the Olympics ... there were high hopes, and they have not disappointed us.”
He added: “It is not just a few players but the whole team, the support, the training and also the encouragement and the morale boost they get from knowing that the whole of Singapore was watching and rooting for them. I think that made all the difference.
“Work a lot harder and we will have more chances in the future.” - TODAY/ra
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