Two of Singapore’s youngest-ever Olympians, Izaac Quek (18) and Zhou Jingyi (19), exited the Paris Olympics with pride, despite both losing their matches in the Round of 64.

The Republic’s youngest ever male paddler to clinch a spot at the Olympics, Quek put on a show for the crowd in the South Paris Arena 4, as he fought tooth and nail with the higher ranked Darko Jorgic of Slovenia.

Coming out with all guns blazing, the world number 83 from Singapore made it clear to his opponent that this was not going to be a walk in in the park, as Quek took the first set, 11-8.

Jorgic, who reached the quarterfinals at Tokyo 2020 and looking to do the same or go one better in Paris, then took the next three sets, winning 11-4, 11-8, 13-11, putting himself one set away from victory.

However, Quek had other ideas when he easily despatched Jorgic in five minutes in the fifth set, playing some scintillating table tennis to win 11-3.

Stunned from that, Jorgic regrouped and regained his focus, and while Quek put up a strong resistance, an unforced error eventually saw the defending SEA Games men’s singles champion go down in defeat.

Jingyi, the second youngest ever Singaporean female paddler and youngest local born player to qualify for the Olympics, also gave it her all when she faced world number 10 and Olympic 5th seed, Bernadette Szocs of Romania.

The youngster stunned Szocs by taking the first set, 11-9, but the Romanian’s experience and technical ability started to shine through, and try as hard as she could have done, the Singaporean eventually succumbed to her opponent, losing 4-1 (11-9, 4-11, 3-11, 7-11, 9-11).

Both will take this Olympic experience in good stride, and will be looking to make it back on the grandest sporting stage of them all, at Los Angeles 2028.