OLYMPICS/ Team china
Table tennis supremo forecasts Beijing gold rush
(China Daily)
Updated: 2007-09-26 10:41
China's table tennis chief Xu Yinsheng predicts the team will clean-sweep the Beijing Olympics next year following a successful run at the Asian Championships.
The Chinese Table Tennis Association president believes China has what it takes to sweep the board but warned home-court advantage will not necessarily be so.
Zhang Yining returns the ball to her compatriot during the women's singles final at the Asian Table Tennis championships. Zhang win first. [Xinhua] |
"It's very likely that China will sweep the four golds," the former International Table Tennis Federation president said.
"I am only worried about home advantage turning into a double-edged sword."
China won six of the seven titles at the Asian Table Tennis championships that concluded in Jiangsu Province on Sunday, with South Korean duo Oh Sang-eun and former Chinese Kwak Bang-bang denying China the Asian mixed doubles title for the first time since 1992.
World No 1s Wang Hao and Zhang Yining dominated the singles matches, Guo Yue and Xiaoxia won the women's doubles title and Ma Lin and Hao Shuai finished first in the men's doubles.
Adding to the country's bulging trophy cabinet, the Chinese paddlers also pocketed gold in the men's and women's team events.
China swept the table tennis titles in the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games, only missing the men's singles and women's doubles in the sport's Olympic debut in 1988 and losing the men's singles in 1992 and 2004.
The Olympic table tennis competition features the men's and women's singles events, and two team events instead of doubles.
Xu said the men's singles event would be the hardest title to win.
"Chinese women are definitely favorites for the singles title, while the men's singles is the most difficult," said the 70-year-old Xu.
Xu, himself a former world champion, named a few players he admired.
"Wang Liqin is very strong and he has a good attitude to the sport," Xu said.
"His weakness is an inability to adapt to changes on the court."
Chinese Wang, a three-time world champion, is currently ranked third in the world after teammates Ma Lin and Wang Hao.
Xu named Ryu and German Timo Boll as major threats to China's 2008 campaign.
"Ryu is a fighter and Boll is nearly perfect technically," he said.
The Chinese table tennis boss listed Chinese Zhang Yining, Wang Nan and Guo Yue as the top women's players.
"Zhang is level-headed and technically solid, Wang Nan has immense battle experience, Guo Yue is aggressive and hungry."
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