S’pore wrap up SEA Youth Table Tennis C’ships with four golds, Malaysia overall champions

SINGAPORE – After falling short in the Under-19 mixed doubles and girls’ doubles finals at the SEA Youth Table Tennis Championships, Singapore’s Loy Ming Ying looked at risk of missing out on another title as she trailed Thailand’s Phatsaraphon Wonglakhon in the girls’ singles final on April 19.

Down 3-2 in the best-of-seven match at Pasir Ris Sports Hall, the 16-year-old needed to win the next two games to clinch the gold.

Against Phatsaraphon – whose nickname is Ice – Ming Ying kept her cool, staging a comeback to win 4-3 (11-13, 11-9, 8-11, 11-8, 9-11, 11-8, 11-7) and seal the title.

On the significance of her victory, she said: “It really means a lot to me because it was a very hard-fought match and I managed to win in the end, so I’m very happy.”

Earlier in the day, she and Chloe Lai had lost the girls’ doubles final 3-0 (11-9, 11-7, 11-7) to Phatsaraphon and Kulapassr Vijitviriyagul.

When Ming Ying and Phatsaraphon returned to the court for the singles final, the pair were equally matched in the opening four games, with two wins each.

Phatsaraphon edged out Ming Ying 11-9 in the fifth game and needed to win just one more game to capture her second title of this meet, but the latter had other plans.

With the score at 5-5 in the sixth game, Ming Ying surged 10-5 ahead. Although Phatsaraphon saved three game points, the Singaporean closed it out 11-8 to force the decider.

It was a tense final game, but with the score locked at 7-7, Ming Ying, buoyed by the home crowd, pulled away to secure the victory.

When asked what carried her through the final, she said: “I just told myself to take it slowly, just not to think too much, just try to win it one point by one point.”

Her singles gold, along with Ng Jing Xuan and Sonia Zainudeen’s U-15 girls’ doubles title earlier in the day, brought Singapore’s final tally to four golds, six silvers and six bronzes.

The Republic had also clinched the U-19 girls’ team title – with Ming Ying part of that squad – as well as the U-19 boys’ team title on April 17. The squad bettered the tally of three golds, four silvers and five bronzes in the 2025 edition in Jakarta.

Malaysia emerged overall champions for the second time – they first won it in 2024 – taking home seven golds, three silvers and five bronzes.

Besides the U-19 boys’ doubles and mixed doubles, they also won the U-15 boys’ singles and boys’ doubles, U-15 girls’ singles and U-15 team titles for both genders.

Ming Ying is on a leave of absence from her studies to prepare for the Oct 31-Nov 13 Youth Olympics in Dakar, Senegal. She was supposed to sit her O-level examinations at the end of the year.

The Singapore Sports School (SSP) student, who trains twice daily now, has already achieved some breakthroughs in 2026.

In February, she and Chloe made history by making the women’s doubles quarter-finals at the Singapore Smash, becoming the first Singaporeans to reach the last eight of the event at a World Table Tennis Grand Smash.

National women’s team deputy head coach Hao Anlin praised Ming Ying for her resilience, saying: “She did exceptionally well to withstand the pressure and win her singles match. Her mentality and tactical execution in that match were all crucial, I hope this will help her further strengthen her mental resilience.”

It was also a comeback win for Sonia and Jing Xuan, who beat Thailand’s Jitnada Unjit and Panita Vijittham 3-2 (6-11, 12-10, 8-11, 11-9, 11-8) to capture the U-15 girls’ doubles crown.

While the teenagers are playing together as a pair for the first time, they felt they complemented each other well.

Sonia, a Secondary 3 SSP student, said: “I feel like I’m in charge of calming down the mental side of things and she’s in charge of the tactics.

“She will keep telling me where we should hit and how to play and I try to keep encouraging us even if we miss a ball.”

“We did think about every opponent and how to win each point at a time,” said Jing Xuan, a Secondary 3 student in Raffles Girls’ School.

“When we were training, we were thinking about how to calm ourselves down.”

With the stiff challenge they faced from their regional rivals, Hao believes the standard of table tennis in South-east Asia is rising.

“This is a good thing because with strong competition, our players are constantly pushed to work harder and improve their competitive level,” he said.

Table Tennis Association of Malaysia national coach Beh Lee Fong was proud of what her athletes achieved, and hailed support from people, including the association’s president Dato’ Sri Tee Lip Sin, vice-president Lau Joo Han and team manager Jacky Sia.

She shared that the association had organised centralised training in Selangor in preparation for the tournament.

She said: “We didn’t think we would get the overall champion, so we’re all very happy. It is very encouraging and I hope these athletes will continue to work hard.”