By Lim Say Heng

HE thinks he's been fair.

More importantly, national table tennis head coach Liu Guodong feels he should be judged on the results he has achieved

Those were the first words uttered by Liu when The New Paper caught up with him yesterday.

"It wasn't a matter of sacrificing the male players, but I was just protecting the Singapore's medal hopes at the Olympic Games," he said.

"I feel that I was fair and objective.

"Was the standard of the male players good enough for an Olympic medal?" he added.

He also insisted that while the focus was on the women players during the Games, the interests of Gao Ning and Yang Zi were not neglected.

"Yang Zi had his own coach and the incident only happened because Yang's coach fell ill at the last minute."

Gao Ning's Olympic dreams ended in tears last Thursday, as Singapore's top ranked player crashed out of the round-of-16 of the men's singles.

The 25-year-old had aimed for a top-eight finish, but lost to an unheralded Tan Ruiwu from Croatia without a coach by his side.

Zu Haining, who was supposed to oversee Gao's match, was re-deployed to help Yang Zi after his coach Chen Jian suddenly fell ill.

By that time, Liu and his assistant Zhang Yong had already returned to the Games Village to help Li Jiawei and Feng Tianwei prepare for their singles semi-final matches the next day.

In the resulting fallout, Singapore Table Tennis Association president Lee Bee Wah pointed to Liu and team manager Antony Lee as the main culprits. Antony was then told that his services were no longer needed, while Liu's future is still on shaky ground.

Tears

"I am not here because of the money or because the head coach position is very glamorous," he said in a shaky voice, tears welling in his eyes.

"I have not made any demands, nor have I been treated in a special manner during my time in Singapore.

"I came here without even negotiating my pay first," he added.

"If I feel that my authority to do what it takes to bring Singapore glory is undermined, or if my authority to deal with players in a way that I see fit is compromised, then why should I want to continue, since it will definitely lead to defeat?"

Throughout the interview, he asked Singaporeans to judge for themselves the victims of this incident.

"I always believe that results are everything and my results show for themselves," he said quietly.

"I believe if I stay on I can make Singaporeans as happy at the next Olympics, or even happier," he added.

"I feel that this should be left up to the public to decide, because this concerns the dreams of more than four million Singaporeans.

"If they think that I am wrong, I am willing to face the consequences."

This article was first published in The New Paper on Aug 27, 2008.