SINGAPORE — There would be no clean sweep of the gold medals, but Singapore’s national table tennis players ended their SEA Games campaign on a high by clinching the men’s and women’s team titles tonight (June 8).

In front of 4,029 spectators at the Singapore Indoor Stadium — the largest turnout of the SEA Games table tennis competition — the Republic overcame Thailand 3-2 to win the women’s team final, while the men’s team secured their sixth and final gold with a 3-1 victory over Vietnam.

The only gold medal that eluded Singapore was the women’s singles, when world No 4 Feng Tianwei and Isabelle Li were unexpectedly eliminated at the group stage.

It meant that the hosts missed out on a clean sweep of all seven events at the Games, but national head coach Jing Junhong believes that experience will ultimately benefit the players.

“The women’s singles loss disappointed everyone, as we lost unexpectedly, but we learnt some lessons here and taught our younger players how to deal with the pressure, particularly when our opponents were taking the fight to us,” said Jing, who represented Singapore at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, where she reached the semi-finals of the women’s singles.

“What we got was not only the three gold medals (in the women’s team, women’s doubles and mixed doubles events), but (also) strength and maturity ... and I hope that through the SEA Games, (the players) can do better in bigger tournaments and raise their standard.”

Ahead of today's final, Thailand’s veteran player Nanthana Kumwong announced her intention to gatecrash Singapore’s gold-medal party at the Games, and the world No 104 paddler made good on her word early in the night.

Up against Singapore’s world No 13 Yu Mengyu, who was nursing a shoulder injury, four-time Olympian Nanthana dealt the first blow, shocking Yu 11-7, 8-11, 12-10, 11-9 to score the first point for Thailand, who are 16 rungs below world No 3 Singapore.

But Feng levelled matters by outplaying Tamolwan Khetkhuan 13-11, 12-10, 7-11, 11-6. However, Li then lost 3-2 to Orawan Paranang to hand the initiative back to the Thais.

With Singapore’s President Tony Tan and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong turning out to cheer on the Singaporeans, Feng made light work of Nanthana, sealing victory in straight sets (3-0) to level the score at 2-2 and set up a nail-biting finale for the home crowd.

In a tense fifth and deciding match, Yu overcame Tamolwan 3-1 to secure a 3-2 win and the gold medal for Singapore.

“The support was fantastic tonight, and I didn’t want to let the fans down and for Singapore to be disappointed,” said Yu. “I was a bit nervous tonight as there were so many people cheering for us. But I’m glad I stood up to the tough test at this competition.”

Under pressure to deliver on home ground, Feng was finally able to smile after her victory tonight.

“I feel touched because we’ve never been in this situation at the SEA Games where we lost the women’s singles, and I was recovering from injury,” she said.

“Though there was a bit of pressure, I am very grateful for the support. Losing the singles affected me quite a bit and I haven’t been in a good mood in the last few days, but I’m happy to win gold today.”