SNOC “NO” to an All-S'porean National WeiQi team competing in Asian Game 2010

[kojakbt]

http://www.temasekreview.com/2010/0...competing-in-the-forthcoming-asian-game-2010/

SNOC “NO” to National WeiQi team competing in the forthcoming Asian Game 2010

July 12th, 2010 |

Author: Your Correspondent





According to feedback from on an Online Forum “zaobao luntan”, the SNOC has rejected the application of the National WeiQi team to compete in the forthcoming Asian Game 2010 to be held in GuangZhou – China.


The team members have done reasonable well in previous international competitions on individual events and the team members are willing to finance themselves entirely for the game.


The Singapore Weiqi team are mainly locals which put in lots of self initiated effort in raising their standards and promoting the game; only their coach is from China.


With the massive support for the Table Tennis teams and the YOG which is upcoming, it is unthinkable why the SNOC should deprive this Weiqi team a chance to participate in the Asian game.

Mark Wu

 

[Ash007]

No FTs means cannot go?

 

[kojakbt]

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BT Kojak <[email protected]></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="gG">to</td><td colspan="2" class="gL">

[email protected],

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[email protected],

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Mon, Jul 12, 2010 at 11:19 AM</td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="gG">subject</td><td colspan="2" class="gL">

SNOC “NO” to National WeiQi team competing in the forthcoming Asian Game 2010</td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="gG">mailed-by</td><td colspan="2" class="gL">

gmail.com</td></tr><tr><td colspan="4">
</td></tr></tbody></table></td><td class="gH">hide details 11:19 AM (0 minutes ago)
</td><td class="gH cY8xve">
</td></tr></tbody></table>To: Mr. Chris Chan
Secretary General
Singapore National Olympic Council

cc: Teo Chee Hean, Jessie Phua, Ng Ser Miang

Dear Sir,

I've read the following report from Temasek Review with interest:
http://www.temasekreview.com/<wbr>2010/07/12/snoc-no-to-<wbr>national-weiqi-team-competing-<wbr>in-the-forthcoming-asian-game-<wbr>2010/

In the news article, it was reported that SNOC has rejected the application of the National WeiQi team to compete in the forthcoming Asian Game 2010 to be held in GuangZhou despite good efforts from the team members who did reasonably well in international competitions. Is this true?

It was further reported that the Singapore's Weiqi team is composed of mainly Singaporean locals. If this is the case, I would like to know why SNOC didn't allow Singapore's Weiqi team to represent Singapore in the forthcoming Asian Game? Perhaps it's because there is no foreign talents inside the team?

Looking forward to your reply.


Yours sincerely

Kojakbt

 

[kojakbt]

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</td><td class="gG">from</td><td colspan="2" class="gL">

CHRIS CHAN <[email protected]></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="gG">to</td><td colspan="2" class="gL">

[email protected]
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[email protected],

Edmund Lim <[email protected]>
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Wed, Jul 14, 2010 at 11:56 AM</td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="gG">subject</td><td colspan="2" class="gL">

Fw: Weiqi - Asian Games</td></tr><tr><td colspan="4">
</td></tr></tbody></table></td><td class="gH">hide details Jul 14 (8 days ago)
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</td></tr></tbody></table> Dear Sir,

Please see my reply to the President Singapore Go Federation on the reasons why his nominations for the Men's Team, Women's Team and the Mixed Pair Team were not selected for the 2010 Asian Games.

As the Asian Games is a major Games where the 45 NOCs in Asia send their best athletes, SNOC has set a mark of the 6th placing or standing so that our athletes or teams will be competitive at the Games. SNOC does not believe in sending athletes for exposure at these major Games. The NSAs are expected to expose their athletes to their regional,cotinental and world games, and if this had been done then the results of these athletes and teams preparing for the games would surely be of great help and perhaps good enough in supporting their nominations. Many of the more established NSAs such as Singapore Sailing, Singapore Shooting and Singapore bowling send their nominated athletes and teams for exposure in numerous internatonal competitions. With the exposure, come the results eventually, and they help when being considered for selection.

For the Weiqi nominations, sadly there was no effort made to field the teams against other stronger teams eg. even in a bilateral competition. With no results, it was difficult for the selectors to give the nod.

Regards,
Chris Chan
Secretary General
Singapore National Olympic Council

Tel: 65005502/63459275 l Fax: 63459274 l Website: www.singaporeolympics.com

Privileged/Confidential information may be contained in this message. If you are not the intended recipient, you should not use, disclose or copy this communication to anyone. Please notify the sender of the error and delete it immediately.






Dear Kim Chiong,

SNOC's selection criteria paragraph 2 states,

* For team sports, they should currently be ranked 6th among the Asian Games countries.
* All achievements should be achieved within a twelve-month period before the 2010 Asian Games.

In your nomination for the Men's Team there were no results of the Men's Team. There was no attempt to bring the team to compete with any of the top countries' teams, but instead the NSA submitted the individual results of the 6 players to form the team. Their most current individual results are depicted below,

* Khang Zhan Bin - Ist in 2007 SEA Games (where Weiqi was only a demonstration sport).
* Tan Jia Cheng - 6th 2009 WAGC; 6th 2009 KPMC.
* Zhang Xiang - 2nd in 2007 SEA Games.
* Yen Ting Yu - No results against Asian opponents.
* Goh Rong Yao - No results against Asian opponents.
*Lou Yu Xiang - 8th in 2010 WAGC.

If the selectors wanted to have a feel of the individual athlete's current form, then only Jia Cheng and Yu Xiang had results (2009) that tell the selectors something. For the other four athletes their results were achieved in 2007, or there were no results at all.

Given the above, the selectors find it difficult to understand how the NSA had ranked the team as being 6th in Asia. The International Federation's (IF) ranking of Singapore as being 6th in Asia is also not supported by statistics or a ladder, as given by IFs such as FIFA, IAAF, FIBA, etc Without statistics or a ladder of all the Asian countries results, when the IF had ranked Singapore as 6th, could they be referring to Jia Cheng, because Jia Cheng was the only Singapore athlete who finished 6th in two competitions in 2009?

As for the Women's team, again there were no results to show where they stand in Asia.

For the Mixed Pair Team of Kang Zhan Bin and Cheng Mun Yi there was no results submitted, although there were results sibmitted for three different mixed pairs (results of competitions in 2007 and 2008).

The selectors therefore found it difficult to support the Men's Team, Women's Team and Mixed Pair Team for the 2010 Asian Games. Notwithstanding that, if there was an individual event, I dare say Jia Cheng would have got the nod from the selectors.

I would suggest that Singapore Weiqi Association learn from the other more established NSAs how they go about getting results to support their individual athletes or teams nominations for the major games. The results to support your nominations were sadly lacking, making it difficult for the selectors to pick your teams.

Regards,
Chris Chan
Secretary General
Singapore National Olympic Council

Tel: 65005502/63459275 l Fax: 63459274 l Website: www.singaporeolympics.com

 

[kojakbt]

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BT Kojak <[email protected]></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="gG">to</td><td colspan="2" class="gL">

CHRIS CHAN <[email protected]>
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[email protected],

Edmund Lim <[email protected]>,

[email protected],

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Thu, Jul 22, 2010 at 11:26 AM</td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="gG">subject</td><td colspan="2" class="gL">

Re: Fw: Weiqi - Asian Games</td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="gG">mailed-by</td><td colspan="2" class="gL">

gmail.com</td></tr><tr><td colspan="4">
</td></tr></tbody></table></td><td class="gH">hide details 11:26 AM (7 minutes ago)
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</td></tr></tbody></table>Dear Chris,

Thank you for your reply.

With regard to SNOC's criteria that a team must attain 6th placing or better before SNOC could allow the NSA to represent Singapore, I have actually discovered that there were hardly any team events for Weiqi regional competitions to begin with. This is what I've gathered from my many enquiries in the various online forums. Is SNOC aware of any team event for Weiqi international competitions previously? I understand that this is probably the first time a team event has been introduced in the Asian Game 2010. Hence, to use SNOC's 6th placing or better to qualify Weiqi's team in this case hardly seems fair.

Nevertheless, after much checking, indeed it was found that the International Go Federation (IGF) has ranked Singapore 6th in Asia. I thought that in the absence of regional team competitions for Weiqi to help in the ranking, official ranking from IGF would suffice. But alas, you are now even questioning the way IGF ranked its members? How could SNOC be in a position or have the expertise to decide if an International Federation of a sport is ranking its members correctly? The question really is, does SNOC trust the International Federation of that sport enough to make the correct judgment of its members? At this point, I can't help but to question if there is anyone in the selection committee even familiar with Mind sports to evaluate the Weiqi team?

In my research, I've also found that Thailand would be sending their Weiqi team to the Asian Game even though they have lost to Singapore in regional individual competitions before. It would be hilarious if Thailand could achieved 6th position in Asia ranking after the Asian Game competition because of the absence of Singapore - thanks to the rigidness of SNOC to adhere to qualification rules which clearly do not apply in Weiqi's case.

Finally, I also understand that the Singapore Weiqi team is composed entirely of Singaporeans born and bred here in Singapore. I'm proud of the fact that they could achieve top rankings in Asia without resorting to "buying" any foreign talents. Kudos to Weiqi team!



Yours sincerely,

Kojakbt

p.s. In case you are not aware, there is an online petition going on supporting Singapore Weiqi team to participate in Asian Game: http://www.petitiononline.com/<wbr>weiqi/petition.html

 

[metalslug]

http://tnp.sg/news/story/0,4136,250849,00.html?

National weiqi players rejected for Asian Games
By Shree Ann Mathavan

August 02, 2010




Local weiqi players thought they were all set to compete in November's Asian Games in Guangzhou, China.

After all, the team had won two golds and a silver in the 2007 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Korat, Thailand.

A selected 10-member team trained two and a half extra days on top of their usual weekly practice in order to prepare for the Asian Games.

But the team's list of nominees was rejected by the Singapore National Olympic Council in June because it failed to meet the council's selection criteria.

For team sports, athletes need to be ranked within the top six among the Asian Games countries, said SNOC. In addition, all achievements have to be within a year before the games.

Singapore Weiqi Association president Kwa Kim Chiong appealed against the decision in June. His appeal was rejected.

Mr Kwa explained that there were hardly any international or regional tournaments on a team level before the Asian Games.

Weiqi is usually played competitively on an individual level, hence using team-based criteria is unfair, he added.

Mr Chris Chan, secretary-general of the SNOC, explained that the selection criteria was in place in order to keep local teams competitive in major games.

He pointed out that the 2007 SEA Games achievements were not convincing because weiqi was then played on the sidelines as a demonstration sport.

The medals were not included in the official tally.

Mr Chan said the weiqi team could "organise bilateral matches on their own with the top country teams to show their strength", and their results in these games would be considered if the team did well.