For UTP Spinners, UTP's table tennis club, replicating the heights achieved by its more celebrated predecessors is a tough ask. However, for current president, Sim Jun Jie, 19, a chemical engineering student at UTP, this is a chance to lay down a marker of sorts.
Founded in 2013 under the watch of former president, Ho Syhui, UTP's Spinners had previously made quite an impression on the local table tennis youth circuit. A force to be reckoned with, in 2016, UTP's table tennis outfit won four team gold medals out of the five categories contested at the Kejohanan Sukan Majlis Sukan Institusi Pengajian Tinggi Swasta (MASISWA) 2016.
At the heart of the club's development were its national-level players who had contributed greatly to the visibility of the sport at UTP. Over the years, key players, particularly Ho Syhui, who now acts as the club's advisor had gone on to represent UTP, Perak and Malaysia at various table tennis tournaments both locally and abroad.
After a strong run of results, in 2018, Ho Syhui was selected to represent Malaysia at the 19th ASEAN University Games in Myanmar where she won a bronze medal. Ho says, “At UTP, I was able to continue my development as a player." In addition, her consistency had also earned her a number of opportunities to take part in tournaments outside Malaysia namely the Jakarta Open 2017 and the Philippines Open 2018.
Recounting the highlight of her career as a student-athlete, In 2017, Ho was chosen as Malaysia's ambassador at the International Olympics Academy in Greece where participants from 88 countries took part in the governing body's youth development programme. Ho says, “At Olympia, I learned a lot about the Olympic movement, the shared values the governing body upholds and sports governance. The programme taught me the real meaning of Olympic Games and friendship to promote world peace."
Unfortunately, key players who have finished studying have left a huge gap to be filled. In response, the club's focus has now shifted to polishing young talents. Further, the club hopes to create a habit of winning by becoming a fixture at local tournaments. “We hope to bring table tennis into the spotlight again," says Sim.
“Only then can we capitalize on all the hard work that has been done in the past few years. The challenge starts now," adds Sim.
Despite this, the team recently made it to the quarter finals of the National Higher Education Sports Fest 2019 held in October.
The development of the sport is also viewed as an important measure to create more options for the university's youthful population. Sim says, “I want our players to get continuity. We hope the development work we do for table tennis goes on constantly."
So much so, the president considers balancing sports and academic as equally important. He says, “Here, we have a good support system to bring out the best in our promising athletes. What's more, we hope some will continue as athletes after they finish studying and others can become coaches to help grow the sport at national level."
Next, according to Sim, the club's main objective in the coming years is to target good finishes to produce UTP-bred players capable of challenging for places in the national team. He says, “We are really looking forward to the next intake to recruit more new blood to prepare for local university tournaments. We need to expose our players early. By joining more tournaments, it allows us to improve the team's overall performance."
Indeed, the pursuit of excellence is promoting the well-being of our student-athletes. This is another prime example of UTP's profound career connected learning and industry collaboration. From the work we do, we foster long-term relationships with our global social-impact partners to prepare our students, people and researchers as global citizens.
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Published on 18 August 2020
