A fortnight after withdrawing Feng Tianwei's nomination for the South-east Asia (SEA) Games, the Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA) has decided to include the world No.2 back in the squad.
The Straits Times understands that this was proposed to the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) as part of its response to the council yesterday.
The SNOC - the selection body for the Republic's contingent to major Games - had given the STTA until yesterday to explain why it did not want to field its top players for the Nov 11-22 Games in Indonesia.
This, after the STTA removed Feng, Wang Yuegu (No.7) and Li Jiawei (No.20) from its list of nominees just three days before the SNOC met to select the contingent on July 22. The deadline for nominations was on June 1.
Following the change, the STTA had just four nominees for the women's squad - youngsters Isabelle Li, 16, and Zena Sim, 20, Sun Beibei, 27, and Yu Mengyu, 21. Five men were also nominated.
The committee, chaired by SNOC president and Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean, felt that Feng, Wang and Jiawei had a higher chance of winning medals in a sport that has been one of the gold mines for Singapore at the biennial Games over the past decade.
The committee was puzzled by their omission as there were no clashes with other competitions. It thus declined to include any paddlers in the initial list of 369 athletes selected for the Games.
The STTA yesterday clarified that it nominated Isabelle, Sim, Sun and Yu after considering several factors.
First, it had hoped to rest its top paddlers ahead of the Nov 24-27 International Table Tennis Federation Pro Tour Grand Finals, a prestigious, year-end event worth US$365,000 (S$441,000) and a test event for the 2012 London Olympics.
Second, it also wanted to give youth talent an opportunity to feature at the Games, while believing that the quartet were capable of winning medals for Singapore.
The women's doubles partnership of Sun and Yu had won gold at both the 2007 and 2009 SEA Games, while world No.26 Sun would have been the highest-ranked singles paddler at the Games.
However, with the SNOC's concerns in mind, the STTA has decided to make one switch, with Feng replacing Yu in the line-up.
This, despite STTA president Lee Bee Wah saying last week that the association would not be changing the nominees.
But Ms Lee stressed that the STTA remains firm in its top priority - sending young players like Isabelle, Sim and male paddler Pang Xue Jie, 18 - to the Games.
"The STTA strongly believes in sending the best athletes to all major Games so that we are able to meet various objectives such as the ability to win medals and to groom and provide exposure to athletes with potential," she said.
"The line-up which has been proposed includes Singapore's No. 1 woman player Tianwei... It is an ideal line-up which includes both youth and experience and we hope that the SNOC will give them the nod."
The STTA now plans to field Feng and Isabelle in the singles.
Of the potential opponents in the region, only Malaysia's Beh Lee Wei (No.112) has a higher world ranking than Isabelle (No.128).
The association also intends to field Isabelle and Sim in the doubles, after the duo reached the main draw of May's World Table Tennis Championships alongside pairs from Thailand and Malaysia.
However, the nominated athletes will still have to be assessed based on the SNOC's SEA Games selection criteria of third placing at the previous edition.
The SNOC declined to comment on the matter until the council's appeals committee meets on Aug 22.
