Chen Zhibin, a 54-year-old German-Chinese with 11 years of coaching experience, will take charge of the women’s team.

He replaces Liu Jiayi, who will now oversee the running of the men’s side.

Liu stepped into the women’s team role in November following the redeployment of Jing Junhong to work as chief coach of youth development.

The removal of Jing, who had held the position since 2012, came after she was involved in a spat with Yu Mengyu at the Polish Open in October.

Yu, a member of the Singapore team which won gold at the 2010 World Championships, claimed an argument with Jing had caused her to lose a doubles match leading to the women’s team requesting Chen’s appointment.

Chen served as head coach of The Netherlands' women’s team from 2009 to 2012, guiding them to three consecutive titles at the European Table Tennis Championships.

In 2012, they finished sixth at the World Team Table Tennis Championships and reached the quarter-finals at the London Olympics that same year.

"It is a privilege to have been selected by the STTA and Singapore Sports Institute to lead the Singapore women's team to the Rio Olympics," said Chen.

"The Olympics is only six months away and my immediate task is to raise the level of play and the world ranking of the players.

"The players and I will do our utmost best to bring greater sporting glory to Singapore."

Chen, a former world number five, won a men's doubles gold medal at the 1990 Asian Games and was also part of the Chinese team that finished second at the World Team Cup that same year.

He will be assisted by Hao Anlin, while the men's team will be supported by deputy coaches Wang Xiang and Zhu Jiang.

"We had to make some coaching changes in the run up to the Rio Olympics," said STTA President Ellen Lee.

"Along with our many stakeholders, STTA have already invested so much in our teams and we would like our players to do their best to improve their Olympics chances.

"We urge Singaporeans who have put their belief and trust in us to continue to support us.

"Right now, the teams need to focus on training harder than before towards the Rio Olympics.

"Now that the issue of coaching support has been firmly resolved, the national players should continue with their high level training and execute the competition calendar, as scheduled."

World number eight Feng Tianwei believes Chen will take Singapore’s women's team to "greater heights".

"Coach Chen has the coaching experience to take my playing career to the next level of success," she added.

"Coach Chen and I also aim to achieve medals at the Rio Olympics and we wish to see the Singapore flag fly high at the upcoming Rio Olympics."