Singapore's table tennis player Li Jiawei retires

Singapore's veteran table tennis player Li Jiawei will be officially retiring from her sport with her last day of service on Dec. 31, the Singapore Table Tennis Association announced on Thursday. The association said Li, 31, achieved her highest world ranking in December 2005 when she was third. She won the fourth place in singles at both the 2004 Olympics in Athens and the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. She was also a member of the women's team that won the silver at the 2008 Olympics and a bronze at the London Games this year. Like her teammates Feng Tianwei and Wang Yuegu, Li grew up in China. Together they beat the powerful Chinese national team 3-1 in Moscow in 2010 to win the world championship. Li's teammate Sun Beibei will also be retiring as a player and she will be a coach of the youth players within School Program at the Singapore Sports School. "Our immediate plan is to raise the standards of younger players like Isabelle Li and Yu Mengyu to reach that of the seniors like Li Jiawei, Sun Beibei and Wang Yuegu," an official with the association said on Thursday.