Asiad Table Tennis Draw to Avoid Selection of Opponents

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, October 01, 2002

Asiad Table Tennis Draw to Avoid Selection of Opponents

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The draw for the quarter-final playoffs in the teams event of the 14th Asian Games table tennis competition will rule out the possibility of stronger or weaker teams deliberately choosing their opponents through preliminary matches.

Eleven men's teams and 10 women's will participate in the table tennis team competition of this Asiad, to be launched at the Dongcheon Gymnasium in Busan's neighboring city of Ulsan from Tuesday. The men's teams will play the three-day preliminary stage in four groups while the women's will play in two groups, and eight teams each will advance into the quarter-finals.

The competition committee for the table tennis event on Monday afternoon held a meeting to decide on the drawing procedure and rules for the team quarter-finals.

According to the committee's decision, men's teams taking the first place in each of the 4 groups and women's teams ranking first and second in each of the two groups will become seeded teams in the quarter-final draw and acquire fixed positions.

However, the four second-placed teams in the men's groups and those women's teams ranked third and fourth in the five-team groups will have to face uncertain destinies as they could be tied against any of the four seeded teams through mixed draws.

Teams sources said that this drawing procedure could help avoid the immoral practice of opponents selection in the preliminary phase, and would force every team to show their best to seize the top position of their groups, if they want to feel comfortable in the quarter-finals.

However, it could also lead to such a situation that two teams which have already met in the group match will have a second encounter in the elimination stage, they added.

But head coach of the all-conquering Chinese team Cai Zhenhua, after learning the drawing rules, said with confidence:"It doesn't matter which rules they have adopted, since we will go for the group top place anyway."

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