<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Aug 31, 2008
sunday people
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>She has played against the finest
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Jessica Phang does not mind the guys who ogle. 'With more people staring, it teaches you not to make a silly mistake on court,' says the 24-year-old. -- ST PHOTOS: DESMOND LIM
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->Jessica Phang watched beach volleyball on TV during the recent Beijing Olympics.
Nothing unusual about that, you say?
But unlike other couch potatoes, she has actually played against the players seen on TV - in her case, the Chinese women's team which lost to the United States in the final.
Her own showdown with the Chinese was in May last year at a tournament here which also had teams from Brazil, Cuba, Finland and Japan taking part.
Singapore was hosting a leg of the FIVB beach volleyball world tour and Phang was in one of two teams flying the country's flag.
She and her partner lost 21-9 and 21-8 to the mighty Chinese.
'I used to play netball and decided to try something new three to four years ago. I started watching beach volleyball and got annoyed that I was just sitting on the sidelines,' said the 24-year-old accounts manager with a broking house.
She asked her then-boyfriend to teach her.
Phang, who competed in the Rip Curl Beach Volleyball Championships - part of the ongoing Waterfest - in Sentosa yesterday, said she does not mind guys who ogle the bikini-clad women at play. 'The more the merrier. With more people staring, it teaches you not to make a silly mistake on court.'
Outside the court, the National University of Singapore graduate in communications does not seem to take time out to relax.
'I scuba-dive, wakeboard, do adventure races and go to the gym. My current boyfriend says I have attention-deficit disorder and cannot sit still,' she said with a laugh.
Loh Keng Fatt
sunday people
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>She has played against the finest
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- show image if available --><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
</TD><TD width=10>
Jessica Phang does not mind the guys who ogle. 'With more people staring, it teaches you not to make a silly mistake on court,' says the 24-year-old. -- ST PHOTOS: DESMOND LIM
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->Jessica Phang watched beach volleyball on TV during the recent Beijing Olympics.
Nothing unusual about that, you say?
But unlike other couch potatoes, she has actually played against the players seen on TV - in her case, the Chinese women's team which lost to the United States in the final.
Her own showdown with the Chinese was in May last year at a tournament here which also had teams from Brazil, Cuba, Finland and Japan taking part.
Singapore was hosting a leg of the FIVB beach volleyball world tour and Phang was in one of two teams flying the country's flag.
She and her partner lost 21-9 and 21-8 to the mighty Chinese.
'I used to play netball and decided to try something new three to four years ago. I started watching beach volleyball and got annoyed that I was just sitting on the sidelines,' said the 24-year-old accounts manager with a broking house.
She asked her then-boyfriend to teach her.
Phang, who competed in the Rip Curl Beach Volleyball Championships - part of the ongoing Waterfest - in Sentosa yesterday, said she does not mind guys who ogle the bikini-clad women at play. 'The more the merrier. With more people staring, it teaches you not to make a silly mistake on court.'
Outside the court, the National University of Singapore graduate in communications does not seem to take time out to relax.
'I scuba-dive, wakeboard, do adventure races and go to the gym. My current boyfriend says I have attention-deficit disorder and cannot sit still,' she said with a laugh.
Loh Keng Fatt
