It's time to focus on achieving more Olympic medals, not trade barbs over what happened in the past.
Oh come on, it's been nine months since former national table tennis head coach Liu Guodong (right) led the women's team to an Olympic silver... and abandoned male paddler Gao Ning to lose sorely early in the Games.
Yet, the ugly public spat continues, re-ignited by the Singapore Table Tennis Association's (STTA) decision not to nominate Liu for the annual Coach of the Year award.
The euphoria of winning an Olympic medal at the Beijing Olympics last August rallied the nation.
It made us all proud.
It was a feat not seen in 48 long years.
That triumph now seemed to grate like a broken record.
Like the Aware saga, the ongoing table-tennis dispute is disgraceful.
Where is the sportsmanship?
When our athletes take to the world stage, we want them to demonstrate fair play, integrity and respect toward others.
One would expect their managers, coaches and supporting associations to demonstrate the same.
STTA claims coach Liu fell short in terms of professionalism, integrity and the ability to foster team spirit and hence stood their ground and did not nominate him for the award.
Those qualities are what a good coach must have.
Let's face it, even the strongest athletes (both physically and mentally) need their coaches. And Liu, as the head of four coaches for the team, left Gao Ning out to dry.
On the flip side, STTA's claims of Liu's lack of professionalism may be a case of pot calling the kettle black.
Liu seeks a clarification from STTA because he claims their comments on his character were never said to him face to face.
If this were true, why had STTA not addressed these issues with him directly?
Where's the professionalism?
Where's the professionalism in STTA as an employer and as a national sports association?
As an employer, it is only right to counsel any employee who falls short of meeting their key performance indicators.
With all that's said and done, no one can detract from the fact that Liu did help Singapore achieve our first Olympic medal in nearly half a century.
He deserves some commendation and recognition for his part in our Olympic achievment, even if it weren't the Coach of the Year award.
The STTA could relook their PR and HR skills, but as a national sporting association that manages a pool of talent within the sport, they had every right to stand its ground and uphold the message of equality and fair treatment of all althetes under its charge.
Even if compromises need to be made due to limited resources and the desire to maximise medal opportunity, abandonment is not in the spirit of sportsmanship.
Instead of quarrelling, we should rally around our athletes and build a true culture of sportsmanship.
It's time to move forward.
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Q: Should former Singapore table-tennis coach Liu Guodong been nominated for the Coach of the Year award?
Agree or disagree? We ask 50 Singaporeans
YES: 80%
'He did bring back the Olympic silver medal. It's such a long-awaited award.' - Mr Ben Puah, 28, engineer
'So what if he was not there for the men's competition? His mission was to get a medal for the women's team. He did' - Mr Joseph Teo, 33, insurance agent
NO: 20%
'You don't just abandon one team just because another team is more likely to win.' - Ms Jessie Chan, 26, marketing executive
