A member of the bronze medal winning team at the recent London 2012 Olympic Games, Li Jiawei has announced her retirement from international play.
The announcement very much marks the end of an era for the Singaporean Women’s National Team; following the London success, Wang Yuegu announced her retirement from international play. More recently Sun Beibei has followed suit.
Sun Beibei will focus her attentions on coaching young players in the south east Asia city state.
Only Feng Tianwei Remains
Now, only Feng Tianwei, who lined up alongside Sun Beibei and Wang Yuegu, remains of the trio who sensationally clinched gold in the Women’s final at the LIEBHERR 2010 World Team Championships in Moscow.
Also, it is only Feng Tianwei who remains of the outfit that secured Women’s Team silver in the Beijing Olympic Games and bronze in the same event in London four years later. On both occasions Feng Tianwei was supported by Li Jiawei and Wang Yuegu.
Impressive Teenagers
Now Singapore must look to their teenage generation, in particular Zhou Yihan, Lin Ye and Isabelle Siyun Li, all three impressive on the ITTF Junior Circuit in 2012.
Learned Trade in Beijing
Now 31 years old, Li Jiawei was born on Sunday 9th August 1981 in Beijing; she was a student at Beijing Shichahai Sports School and joined the Beijing Provincial Team in 1994.
She followed the same coaching programme as Zhang Yining; thus the similarity in the backhand top spin stroke, the major difference being that Li Jiawei used short pimpled rubber on the forehand, as opposed to the reversed rubber used by Zhang Yining.
Spotted by Scouts
Practising in Beijing, Li Jiawei was spotted by Singaporean talent scouts; she was invited to Singapore as a member of the Foreign Sports Talent Scheme in 1996.
She first represented Singapore the following year and when 18 years old became a Singapore citizen.
Olympic Games
In addition to her Women’s Team medals at the Olympic Games, she finished in fourth place in the Women’s Singles event in both Athens and Beijing; making her debut in Sydney in 2000, with London being her farewell.
Four consecutive Olympic Games and always most competitive, memorably beating defending champion Wang Nan in Athens, underlines her quality and her value to Singapore. The fact is further endorsed by her appearances in other major international events.
Pivotal Member
Additional to being a member of the successful squad that sensationally clinched gold in the Women’s event at the LIEBHERR World Team Championships in May 2010 but not on duty in the final, Li Jiawei was a pivotal member of the silver medal winning outfit at the Evergrande Real Estate World Championships in Guangzhou in 2008 and more recently at the LIEBHERR World Team Championships in Dortmund in 2012.
Overall she competed in 13 World Championships, making her debut in Manchester in 1997; ever since she has been a vital member of Singaporean teams and a familiar face on the international scene.
Women’s World Cup
She played the Women’s World Cup on no less than ten occasions with 2006 in Urumqi being highest finish when concluding proceedings in third place.
ITTF World Tour
Meanwhile, she competed in no less than 115 tournaments on the now named ITTF World Tour making her debut at the Malaysian Open in 1997.
Notably she won six Women’s Tour titles – USA (2004 & 2005), Slovenia (2005), Russia (2006), Chinese Taipei (2007), Chile (2008) – in addition to the same number of Women’s Doubles crowns – Japan (2002, Russia (2006), Germany (2006), Singapore (2008), Brazil (2011 & 2012).
Grand Finals
Success on Tour meant qualification for the Grand Finals; overall she competed in ten Grand Finals with 2008 in Macao being her greatest success, when she won the Women’s Doubles title with Sun Beibei.
South East Asia
Titles in tournaments that attracted global entries and also there was success in regional events, especially in the South East Asian and Commonwealth events.
Further to numerous team and doubles titles, she won the Women’s Singles titles at the South East Asian Championships in 1998 (Bangkok), 2001 (Kuala Lumpur) and 2004 (Ho Chi Min City); whilst at the South Asian Games she emulated the success in 1999 (Darussalam), 2001 (Kuala Lumpur), and 2003 (Hai Duong).
Commonwealth
Medals in South East Asia and also in the Commonwealth; at the Commonwealth Championships in 2000 (Singapore) and 2001 (New Delhi) she was the Women’s Singles winner; whilst at the Commonwealth Games in 2002 (Manchester) and 2006 (Melbourne) she was the runner up.
A stalwart of the Singaporean team, for both Li Jiawei and Singapore, a new age dawns.
