Olympics - Medal for spore !!

School has started and so has the Olympics..
There has been much woohaa about Beijing 2008, from the problematic torch relays around the world, to the infrastructure (eg the bird nest and water cube) and weather (smog?) in China, the English standard of the Chinese people to the opening ceremony (many fakes?). I guess the fact that it is taking place in asia brings the excitement and event closer to me.

We have heard countless times of how sp has not gotten a medal since 1960. The weight-lifter who did so has since become a grey-hair uncle. But history was changed yesterday when the women table tennis team won korea to qualify for the finals with china. This means a guaranteed silver for us! Wow the match was so nerve-wrecking and nail-bitting. Towards the end, the thing that came to mind was that korea already has so many medals (they are currently 4th in the medal ranking),多一个不多，少一个不少. Whereas for sp, a medal for us will translates into 举国欢庆 and ending the 48-years drought. Perhaps that's a bit naive thinking, but as if Park Mi Young of korea heard that, and the last game point was really a god-send for us! Good stuff!
A gold tmr would be quite impossible with the opponent being the game's best-china. but oh well fingers crossed =X

Today chanced upon the germany-japan men table tennis team semis on tv. Man it was as exciting as the women's match! Before the game, i thought the japan team would win. After watching the first round, i was rooting for the germans. They were good for the first 2 matches. Then they lost marginally for the next 2 matches, making the score 2-2. THe last match was just as nerve-wrecking, as they had to go into all 5 rounds. And yup in the end, the germans were stacking on top of each other, shouting with joy!

Timo Boll from Germany

Oh i just love watching table tennis, coz the ball is round and u will never know the ultimate winner till the very end, last point to be exact. Alot of it i think is luck and mind game, especially at the game point. There were times when a player had a few game points but yet was not the winner. And the fact that the players had to fight so long and hard to win the matches make their wins all the more treasured. 努力争取回来的东西是最美的... =)

Photos from zaobao.com.sg,http://en.beijing2008.cn