S’pore’s male paddlers can be among the best, says former world No. 1
Belarusian Vladimir Samsonov sparring with a young padder during the T2APAC clinc at the STTA. Photo: T2APAC
SINGAPORE — Breaking into the top ranks of world table tennis can be a daunting task for any athlete, and particularly so for Team Singapore’s young batch of male paddlers, who are currently all ranked outside the top 100.
Aside from veteran player Gao Ning, who is ranked 46th in the world, Singapore’s next two highest ranked paddlers are Clarence Chew and Pang Xuejie, who are placed 213th and 331st respectively.
While the climb to the top may appear insurmountable, six-time European champion Vladimir Samsonov believes that the Republic’s young talents have what it takes to mix it up with the world’s best.
Samsonov, who had previously sparred with Chew and Pang during his training stints in Singapore, was in town on Monday (Oct 30) for the T2 Asia Pacific (T2APAC) Table Tennis League clinic at the Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA) with the national junior development squad and national paddlers.
“Clarence can be a very good player. He’s still young, there is potential,” said the 41-year-old Belarusian after his match against Chew.
“For sure there are good connections in China to find very good places for training in China. But, in the end, you have to concentrate on table tennis (training), education is also important, so you have to find some kind of balance to decide what you really want to do in life.
“In Singapore, you have great facilities, great coaches, and the potential is very big for the kids in Singapore to become good in the future. But it takes time.”
Chew, who won three silvers and a bronze at the recent SEA Games, is aiming to make his Olympic debut in the 2020 Tokyo Games.
“I definitely want to play in 2020, but firstly I need to improve not only my technical, but tactical skills in order to use different tactical skills during matches,” said the 21-year-old Republic Polytechnic student.
“Experienced players like Samsonov know how to take the opportunity at crucial moments. They are more composed, whether they are behind or leading, they still have the same mindset. That’s something to learn from.”
Once ranked No 1 in the world, the evergreen Samsonov has competed at six Olympic Games since 1996, and currently holds the record for winning the most number of titles (27) on the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Tour.
Having once shared the stage with Chinese greats like Liu Guoliang — who won a clean sweep of major titles including World Championships, Olympics and World Cup — Samsonov now competes against a younger generation of Chinese players, including world No 1 Ma Long and Fan Zhendong (2).
The Chinese juggernaut is proving to be tougher to beat now, said Samsonov. “For last 10 years, China has been totally dominating, but at least an European (German Dimitrij Ovtcharov) won the World Cup,” he pointed out.
“I think the Europeans were much stronger in the 1990s…I remember we had maybe 10 players who had real chance to win world championships. Now it’s limited, we have top Chinese players, maybe Otcharov, Jun Mizutani (Japan), Timo Boll (German) suddenly is playing much better.”
Samsonov attributed the lack of competitiveness to a dip in the sport’s popularity in Europe. He added: “Maybe the popularity of the sport in Europe is not as good…you need lots of kids in the beginning to play table tennis.
“You see what happened in Japan: There was Ai Fukuhara, as a little girl she was very popular…and now we have so many top Japanese girls and also in Japan there are many top players now.
“Popularity of the sport is very important. If people see players on TV, if sportsmen are big stars in the country, parents will want their kids to play sport.”
The veteran paddler is also happy to see new format competitions such as the T2APAC attempting to inject life into the sport.
The T2APAC is a dynamic competition featuring 24 of the world’s best players competing in 24-min matches, kill zone games and a mixed team format.
Under the watchful eyes of two-time Chinese world champion Jiang Jialiang (captain of Team JJ), Samsonov and fellow T2APAC players Jeong Young Sik (South Korea) and Liu Fei (China) spent Monday afternoon entertaining spectators at STTA with their sparring sessions with the junior development squad and national paddlers.
World No 14 Samsonov proved a popular draw for local table tennis fans, signing autographs and posing for photos with spectators after the clinic.
Fans will be also relieved to hear that the 41-year-old does not plan on retiring yet as he wants a final shot at the Olympic Games in 2020, where he hopes to achieve his lifelong dream of winning a medal.
The Belarusian narrowly missed out on a medal in Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000, where he lost to China’s Wang Tao and Swedish legend Jan-Ove Waldner, respectively, in the quarterfinals.
He added: “Olympic Games is always something special, you play just once in four years and it has such a history.
“If I go there’s only one goal, which is to win a medal.”
