Feng targets World Cup medal
World No. 6 eyeing a medal at World Cup under coach Hao
Despite the uncertainty following the internal dispute between national women's table tennis coach Jing Junhong and national paddler Yu Mengyu, women's team captain Feng Tianwei is determined to medal at the Women's World Cup which starts in Sendai, Japan tomorrow.
The world No. 6 told The New Paper: "I have been busy preparing for this tournament and I hope to get a medal."
Feng (above) won bronzes in 2008 and 2013 but, in this year's gathering of the top 20 women paddlers, she will have to do it without Jing.
The 29-year-old, who won this year's Asian Cup, is seeded fifth for this tournament, behind China's Liu Shiwen and Zhu Yuling and Japan's Ai Fukuhara and Kasumi Ishikawa respectively.
When contacted, former national paddler Jing, who was appointed national women's coach in Oct 2012, confirmed she will not travel to Japan, but declined further comment.
DECISION
The Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA) added that Hao Anlin will coach Feng at the Women's World Cup, and the decision was made before Yu's fallout with Jing.
After last Sunday's Polish Open women's doubles final, the 26-year-old had claimed that a dispute with Jing had affected her performance in the final.
Feng and Yu had a good run to the final before losing 3-0 to China's Ding Ning and Zhu Yuling in just 20 minutes.
Yu said after the doubles loss that Jing had insisted on guiding her for her women's singles Round-of-16 tie against China's world No. 2, Liu Shiwen.
Yu had previously been working with coach Hao and wanted to continue with the arrangement.
Jing eventually relented after team officials and the match umpire stepped in to mediate.
STTA president Ellen Lee later told TNP that the national sports association would conduct an investigation into the incident and condemned Yu's outburst in the media.
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