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Table netters to get $500 in incentives
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Posted on Aug 03 2005
KOROR, Palau—Each of the three-man cast making up the CNMI table tennis team at the 2005 Palau South Pacific Mini Games will soon be needing bigger wallets after coach Steve Lim said he will keep his word on giving each $500 if the team wins a medal.
“I’ll proceed with that when we get back to Saipan,” Lim said yesterday. “I’m very happy with what we’ve done here so I think the guys deserve it.”
Budhi Gurung, Su Yong Dong, and Chen Lin Ying represented the best they could in the team competition last week and ended up taking home the bronze medal, sharing the glory with Fiji.
“To sum it up, it was very surprising in a positive way because we came here not expecting to get a medal, but simply to begin the process of giving international competition experience and exposure to our players. Surprisingly we got a medal so we’re very happy about that.”
Lim reiterated that throwing in the incentive before competition further inspires athletes to do their best.
“I feel that that is something that should do well not only for table tennis but for any sport,” he said. “If the athletes know that if they do their best, not only will they receive the recognition and glory, but they get some financial reward for their efforts, and of course, I guess any body would be inspired to do better.”
He added that the team overcame tough challenges and were very competitive against powerhouse teams such as New Caledonia and Fiji, which Lim said offered roughly $70,000 for any gold medal winner from their country.
“Budhi had tennis elbow concern. I’m proud of them because despite of the tough schedule, they still played the way we know they could play. Budhi continued to play, and at one point, wanted to stop because of so much pain, but decided to endure pain and play through it,” said Lim.
He explained that earning the bronze now raises the bar for future international table tennis competitions.
“Getting bronzes raised the bar for us…coming here expecting nothing and all of a sudden getting this bronze medal, there’s sort of going to be an expectation to maintain what we achieved here, and that would mean more work.
