Lee Bee Wah, please share with us a detailed breakdown of how you secured NS deferment for Joseph Schooling and Quah Zheng Wen, since you seem very convinced about your monumental contribution.
Because my understanding is that their parents negotiated with Mindef at a personal level.
But hey, you seem to be claiming credit too, so we would love to hear how much you did for them.
Source: mrbrown
Congrats Joseph Isaac Schooling! Everyone in Singapore is so excited and proud right now! I watched it at Singapore Swimming Association and everyone is cheering like crazy!
I’m glad I asked MINDEF to let elite male athletes defer their NS. Both you and Quah Zheng Wen have used the deferment wisely and done us proud.
Team Singapore #oneteamsg #Rio2016
Source: Lee Bee Wah
Do you know who this guy is? He’s Quah Zheng Wen. Yeah, and just like most publications (i.e. The New Paper), I have to use a nice picture just to clickbait you into reading this, because TNP has decided to drag a national athlete through the mud just because he refused to answer the media after he failed to qualify.
Read this article for more understanding: http://www.tnp.sg/…/team-sin…/leonard-thomas-speak-zheng-wen
“It was extraordinary, after he snubbed us following his swim in the 100m backstroke, where he fared badly in his first event of these Games.”
Why are all these journalists talking about how it is a “character flaw” that Zheng Wen refused to talk to them after he didn’t make it?
Why are these reporters feeling entitled for a response from a tired, disappointed athlete?
Do you know how hard he must’ve trained to even qualified to be at#Rio2016? Most Singaporean athletes have to fund their own way there.
He worked his ass off, and the moment he has a bad day, all these journalists start to say shit about him.
Zheng Wen might have a body of an Adonis and a smile of a heartthrob but deep down, he’s still a kid who wants to make his country proud. The reality is, he didn’t make it. And instead of showing compassion, and understanding of his disappointment, Singaporean journalists tear him a new asshole.
This is why we don’t have many local athletes, musicians, artists, actors, directors. Singaporeans are fucking quick to put each other down the moment someone says, “I don’t want to talk about it.” So much for kampung spirit. More like “kaypoh spirit”. These journalists sound like your annoying aunt when she asks you, “got girlfriend or not?”
He lost. He is disappointed, tired & frustrated. Last thing he wants to do is to face vulture journalists who want nothing than to write clickbaity articles – and they’ve already done that: A FULL PAGE ON THE NEW PAPER.
Do you guys know how hard it is to work towards being at #Rio2016? I sure don’t. These journalists sure don’t. So who are we to judge?
On behalf of Quah Zheng Wen, who represent our nation, and was vilified by local Journalists, here’s a big FUCK OFF.
To Quah Zheng Wen, I’m sorry that our journalists are horrible to you. But the rest of the Singaporeans and I, are glad you represented us.
To put it into perspective, these “journalists” are assassinating the character of a 19-year-old national hero.
And you know what? Even IF (I emphasise, IF) Zheng Wen is an asshole, and might not be as gracious as you, dragging him through the mud after what he did doesn’t make you that gracious either.
// EDIT: Let me just add this. It wasn’t very wise for him to just walk off after saying “hi guys”. It isn’t very professional. But for a 19-year-old to know the PR procedures isn’t really his responsibility or it might not be his strongest suit.
Most 19-year-olds are full of themselves. I sure know I was, but think of it this way. He lost. He panicked. He knew what to do was right. Say hello, and get out before his emotions take over. That to me, in some extent, shows not maturity, exactly, but rather, “ah fuck must I really be here? i hope I don’t say anything stupid,” kind of maturity.
Because a sad boy, can also say very mean and hurtful things, and I rather he stay quiet and not say anything that might hurt his reputation even more. He probably has a million fucking (used as an emphasis, not a curse word) things running through his head. “How am I gonna explain this to Singapore?” “What am I gonna do?” “Can I still catch that Gyrados I saw at the Olympic Village?” “Must I really say something? Screw it.”
“HI GUYS!” he exclaimed.
That to me, is a boy, preventing himself from crying in front of the entire world.
For TNP, its journalists and editors to portray him in such a negative light, is not fair.
Source: Zulkarnain Sadali
Francis Fong, Samuel Khoo, Dylan Koo and Darren Lim made history last night when they became the first Singapore relay quartet to reach a world swimming final.
They clocked a new national Under-17 record of 3min 47.36sec to finish ninth in the 4x100m individual medley heats of the Fina World Junior Swimming Championships yesterday morning and were put on the reserve list.
They were told of their place in the final yesterday afternoon, when Poland failed to report on time.
Dylan, 16, said: “When we heard the news at the Aquatic Centre, we immediately readied ourselves and we were quite pumped up because we knew that we had a second shot at the Under-17 record.”
They were close, but missed out on another new mark with their 3:47.40 swim to finish eighth in the final.
Also, three other national Under-17 relay records were rewritten during the six-day meet – the women’s 4x100m medley, the men’s 4x200m free and the men’s 4x100m free.
National assistant coach Gary Tan said relays were the focus of the swimmers’ training when the 22-member squad were named in July.
He said: “Through relays, we started to see the kids coming together to bond as a team. The times also started to drop, both individually and as a team.
“This is the first time that we have a swim team in a final at a major (world) meet, whether at junior or senior level, and I hope it translates into the senior level.”
The former national swimmer also acknowledged that the relay focus is to build up Singapore’s relay capabilities to qualify for future Olympics, especially Tokyo 2020.
Competing among giants – many swimmers at the Fina World Juniors are taller than the Singaporeans – has given the local athletes more confidence.
Francis, 15, said: “For many of us it was our first international meet… many of us came into this meet fearful because a lot of the foreign swimmers were taller and stronger than us.
“But, through this meet, we’ve learned that in order to do our best, we have to overcome our fears and that, in itself, was a challenge to become better swimmers.”
Singapore Swimming Association president Lee Kok Choy was happy with how the competition had turned out, as well as the performances of the local swimmers.
He said: “It is still early stages of their development, but I think they are on track.”
Source: www.tnp.sg
Team Singapore’s swimmers continued their gold mining of the pool on the final of day of the event competition at the Southeast Asia (SEA) Games on Thursday (Jun 11).
Singapore added four more gold medals to the haul to finish with a national record of 23. That is more than double the 11 gold they got in the Myanmar SEA Games in 2013. Vietnam were next best with 10 gold – eight of those won by dynamo Nguyen Thi Ahn Vien. The 18-year-old added yet another gold to her name by claiming victory in the 200m breaststroke, and then saluted cheekily to the cameras for the last time as she left the pool after a remarkable 12 events.
Singapore’s Quah Zheng Wen was just as busy. He won his 11th medal of the SEA Games by taking the 50m backstroke in a new record time of 25.27 seconds, ahead of reigning champion Indonesia’s I Gede Siman Sudartawa (25.34s).
Singapore swimmer Quah Zheng Wen (Photo: Jack Board)
Earlier, Indonesia won its first gold of a disappointing swimming campaign courtesy of a powerful swim from Indra Gunawan (28,27s) in the 50m breaststroke.
But this was, once again, a night that belonged to Singapore. Amanda Lim set the tone in the night’s second race by winning the women’s 50m freestyle for the fourth consecutive time in 25.59s just one hundredth of a second in front of teammate Quah Ting Wen.
Singapore’s Quah Ting Wen and Amanda Lim with their medals from the 50m freestyle. (Photo: Jack Board)
Tao Li after winning the 100m butterfly (Photo: Jack Board)
Tao Li made it 22 after winning the women’s 100m butterfly in 59.79s, prompting a ceremonial bell ringing on the pool deck by swimming legend Ang Peng Siong, one for each gold won. Tao was visibly pumped up by the victory as she slapped the water with vigour and waved enthusiastically to the full house in the stands. She won five gold in total, winning every event she entered. Quah Ting Wen was right behind her with a time of 1:00.30.
“I did it, I proved to myself that I’m still there and in the butterfly no-one can touch me in Southeast Asia,” she said. “I did what I aimed for.
“There’s been no one (SEA Games) like this before, the home crowd cheering for us, that’s a big thing for the swimmers,” she added.
And to ensure a clean sweep of the relays it was left to four men accustomed to success this SEA Games – Quah, Joseph Schooling, Clement Lim and Lionel Khoo – to wrap things up in the 4x100m medley relay.
Singapore’s Quah Zheng Wen, Joseph Schooling, Clement Lim and Lionel Khoo win the gold in the 4x100m medley relay. (Photo: Jack Board)
They did it in style, breaking a Games record in the process with a time of 3:38.25, the 29th overall, and notably giving Schooling his ninth gold medal. That is nine gold out of nine events, for Singapore’s swim king.
“I’m very happy with myself but I’m more happy for the relay. I don’t think we’d won since ’91 and that’s the perfect way to finish the meet,” the 19-year-old said. “I think we’ve just got a lot of talent. The result speaks for itself, we’re better than the previous teams and I think that’s really positive for Singapore swimming teams moving forward.”
Joseph Schooling. (Photo: Goh Chiew Tong)
“I get to let the diet go,” joked Quah when asked what celebrations he had planned.
Indonesia and Thailand’s men were right behind Singapore’s 4x100m medley relay team, clocking 3:42.10 and 3:45.67 respectively for silver and bronze.
Singapore’s national coach Sergio Lopez said before the Games that he would be happy with 12 gold from the team. The smile on his face after six days that saw his team nearly double that goal was deservedly jubilant.