That Illusive Medal

Hard work may not land you to an award or medal.

That is what ex-coach Liu Guodong experiencsd even though he helped Singapore to a silver Olympic medal for the women’s Table Tennis team.

It seems like somebody in the Singapore Table Tennis Association does not like him and fails to nominate him. Even though he has the support of the Project 0812 chairman, Ng Ser Miang and Singapore’s chief de mission at Beijin, Dr Tan Eng Liang.

It bring back memory, when I too missed out on that illusive medal…

It was 3rd July 1987. I was working in Chartered Electronics Industries then. We had a 5km Cross Country Race at the Chinese Garden.

The pace of the race was very slow. About less than 1km before the finishing line, there were only 5 of us at the front. I decided to pull off the crowd and speeded all the way, running alone. Unfortunately there was a cross-junction and both the road marshals and I did not know each other. (we did not know each others, since we were working in different buildings). Runners were also not given any number tags.

So I missed the turn and ended into a car park instead. I waited for more than a minute and then decided to back track to the cross-junction. The road marshals saw me again and realized their mistake in not directing me to the right route as I was running alone then. Because of that fatal error, I was 8th in position out of about a hundred runners and there was no award. Only the first 5 runners received medal.

The two pretty marshals apologized profusely.

A few days later, they gave me this plaque.

At the back was written:

X-COUNTRY

Jasmine Lim
Mary Tan
3/7/87

To some, life is like a race. But it is all right to miss out that illusive medal. There is always a final medal waiting for us.

24Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.
25Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. 27No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
(1 Cor 9:24-27)