Photo Credit: SportSG
By Averlynn Lim
Isabelle Li Si Yun is Singapore's biggest local born future table tennis star and one to keep an eye on in the upcoming years.
Even though teenager Li lost to Feng Tianwei in the finals of the Women Singles in the 26th SEA games and Yu Mengyu in the Women Singles final for the 27th SEA Games, her development in recent years has been staggering after first coming to wide acclaim at the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games, where she also bagged a silver medal.
Singapore Youth Olympic Games 2010
At the end of 2009, most 12 year-olds were busy preparing themselves for their end of year school examinations or scouring for places to go on for their holidays once the year end festive period began. Not Isabelle. The petite teenager was instead preparing to do her best for Singapore, training for endless hours in a distant country.
Her stay in China caused her to miss school and her preliminary exams. However, her hard work and training paid off when she bagged the silver medal in the girls’ table tennis singles event at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games.
Medal winning streak
Singapore’s pride for our biggest local born future star still remains high till this day, while Isabelle continues to give her all to bag even more medals at overseas competitions. In the recently concluded 27th SEA Games in Myanmar, she took home a silver medal in the Women's singles, losing only to her compatriot Yu Mengyu in the finals. She was also part of the women's team that brought home Gold in the Women's team event.
File Photo Credit: Andrew Tan/SportSG
A look to the future
Isabelle graduated in 2010 from the Singapore Sports School. She is currently pursuing her Diploma in Sports and Leisure Management at Republic Polytechnic.
The teenage Team Singapore paddler admitted that she continues to work hard in training for future competitions so as not to let Singapore and the earlier generation of her retired table tennis players like Jin Junhong and Li Jiawei down.
Her efforts have been rewarded when she was honoured by the Singapore Table Tennis Association as the QT Young Player of the Year in 2010. She was also awarded the Chia Kim Lee Most Improved Payer of the Year in 2011.
When asked what she looked forward to achieving in future, she replied: "I'd like to take part in the 2016 Olympics but there is still a long way to go. What I aspire to most right now is to be a positive source of influence to those around me, such as my team-mates and schoolmates." For the sake of our sporting future, we hope she succeeds!
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