Thursday, August 19, 2004
1:07 AM
Was supposed to watch 'Collateral' with HY and Gab today. Ended up watching Susilo losing to the Thai at HY's house. Such a disappointing match. Was hoping that Susilo would win and get into the semi-finals. He got a thrashing from Ponsana instead. Straight set loss. Oh my god. Couldn't believe the results as I sat there watching. There Ronald was, playing a guy who has lost to him on three other occasions, and losing to this same guy by a such a great margin. This is so unbelieveable. But well, it just goes to show that nothing in this world is impossible, just like how Ronald beat Lin Dan, the world no. 1 earlier on in the Games.
Must give credit to Ponsana for playing really well in the match tonight. Could tell that he had put in his best and did whatever he could. Susilo, on the other hand, seemed quite listless. I guess it must be coz of the tremdous amount of pressure on him to deliver. So once again, Singapore's hope of getting an Olympic medal is yet another step further away from us as Susilo crashes out of the tournament.
The only hopeful left in the Games now is Susilo's beau, Li Jia Wei, but I think that the chances of her clinching a medal is next to impossible coz there are so many paddlers who are better and more experienced than her. If she can really win a medal, it would most probably be coz of a combination of various reasons such as luck, conviction, skills and some other factors combined. But I'm quite skeptical about that. Though I don't think its quite possible that such a thing might happen, I still hope that miracles may occur and Li manages to get a medal.
Even though Li isn't a true-blue Singaporean, and many people think that there's nothing to be proud of when a "non-Singapore" Singaporean clinches a medal for the country, I still feel that since Li is groomed in Singapore and is already made a Singapore citizen, we should not be that bothered over the sportsperson's origin. If we insist on doing this, all the sportspeople who came from other countries might become very demoralised coz instead of having a feeling that they are supported by our countrymen, they feel rejected.
Feel that its unfair to treat them this way after so much that they have done for the country. Think about this. Singapore isn't the only country that sends sportspeople who are not "pure-bred" to participate in international tournaments. Many other countries do that, including big countries like Germany, France, and a lot others. On top of that, the people from these countries really do support these sportspeople who represent their countries even though they weren't originally of that nationality. At least these sportspeople are appreciated, not like those who represent Singapore. Most of the time, they only get criticised. Sometimes, I really pity them. There they are, trying their best, playing for both personal glory and the glory of our nation, but most of our countrymen do not suport their cause. Instead, they are always regarded as outsiders.
Come on people, its time to cast away your prejudices.
- i make my life perfect -
