Congratulations to National Paddler Wong Qi Shen and Choong Javen for beating China world number 1 pair Lin Shidong and Lin Gaoyuan in the Asian Table Tennis Championship and winning a bronze medal – the first medal for Malaysia in 54 years in this tournament.
This is a historic moment not only for the table tennis fraternity in Malaysia but also to all sports fans in Malaysia. Wong Qi Shen and Choong Javen have done the unthinkable by beating the China number 1 pair and no one would have predicted this feat since our National pair is ranked 187th in the world.
Our national paddlers have also proven Olympics Council of Malaysia(OCM) wrong in denying our National Table Tennis Team the chance from participating in the Asian Games in Hang Zhou in November 2023. This is despite commitment from Table Tennis Association of Malaysia to self fund the expenses to send our national paddlers to participate in the Asian Games.
Last year I have raised this issue in parliament and pointed out the glaring mistake by OCM and urge OCM to reconsider this decision. The world best table tennis players come from Asia including China, Japan and Korea. To participate in Asian Games alone is a huge achievement giving our National Paddlers a chance to play against world class players to improve their standard.
I urge OCM to acknowledge the mistake of not sending our Table Tennis National team to participate in Asian Games last year and apologise to all Malaysians particularly our National Table Tennis players who have been training hard consistently every day. OCM decision not to send our table tennis team to participate in the Asian Games has also cost Malaysia a potential medal.
I urge OCM not to repeat this mistake and make a commitment to allow our Table Tennis team to participate and compete in future Asian Games.
Malaysia has long depended on Badminton, Diving and Cycling to deliver medals at the world stage. It is high time for us to invest in more sports to be able to deliver results. With the recent strong results, table tennis has huge potential to win medals and glory for Malaysia at the international stage. I urge Ministry of Youth and Sports to allocate more funding and allocation to the Table Tennis sports in Malaysia – to upgrade the training facilities and to groom more young players.
I believe with the right investment and effort the future is bright for Malaysian Table Tennis.
Chong Zhemin
MP for Kampar
