The 30-year-old has been a key member of Singapore’s table tennis team over the past decade, including helping the country win the women’s World Team Table Tennis Championship title in Moscow in 2010.

Tianwei has also earned team Olympic silver and bronze medals at the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 respectively, as well as an individual bronze at the latter.

The medal at Beijing 2008 was Singapore's first in the Olympics since Rome 1960 and only the second in their history.

Tianwei made a quarter-final exit at Rio 2016 and, despite being the top ranked women’s player in Singapore, looks set to be cut adrift by the national team.

Tianwei was born in Harbin in China but moved to Singapore in March 2007 and commenced her international career in competitive table tennis the following month. 

She received Singapore citizenship in January 2008.

"Feng Tianwei has been a cornerstone of the national team since 2007," Ellen Lee, the STTA President, said.

"She has brought many golden moments to the sport. 

"We would like to thank her for all that she has done for Singapore table tennis, and we would like to take this opportunity to wish Tianwei all the best in her future endeavours."

The decision is claimed to be part of the STTA’s strategy ahead of Tokyo 2020, with the national governing body claiming Tianwei does not fit into their current plans for rejuvenation.

A focus will instead be placed on the development of Zhou Yihan, Lin Ye and Zeng Jian, who are all in their early twenties, with the STTA hopeful they will lead the team in the next two Olympic cycles.

The STTA claim their high performance strategy was developed after a consultation session with Sport Singapore, Singapore Sports School and Singapore National Olympic Council, coaches and players.

Three-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist Gao Ning has been named as the men’s assistant coach, working as the understudy to Liu Jiayi.

His role will involve mentoring and training the younger generation of players from the national team, while he is expected to retire as a player after the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta.

It is hoped Clarence Chew will be primed to qualify for Tokyo 2020 as a result of the move, with the SSTA confirming they would work closely with him on a training and competition plan.

The STTA have promised they will continue to work closely with their stakeholders to provide high potential athletes with the best support in their pursuit of sporting excellence, including continuing to offer academic pathways and develop their intermediate squad.

Their intermediate squad, which is aimed at helping progression to the national team, has been narrowed to offer several high potential youth players more support and resources.

A bursary scheme is also set to be launched in 2017 to aid poorer families, whose child is in the STTA’s junior development, youth training, school within school or intermediate squads.

"With competition becoming a lot keener, and with rivals like Japan catching up with Singapore, winning at the world stage has become a lot harder," said Lee.

"We need to develop and rejuvenate our national teams to be future ready, and we need to place greater emphasis on the development of our youth players.

"With our strategy plans in place, we strongly believe that our younger generation of players will lead Singapore to greater sporting achievements, with the aim of scoring a medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

"We also hope to field a local-born talent to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics."