Table Tennis: History Made as Formidable China Tumbles

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, October 10, 2002

Table Tennis: History Made as Formidable China Tumbles

As the nine-day Asian Games table tennis tournament came to an end Wednesday afternoon, many of the 19 participating teams, with or without a gold, had made their Asiad history.

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As the nine-day Asian Games table tennis tournament came to an end Wednesday afternoon, many of the 19 participating teams, with or without a gold, had made their Asiad history.

In what some had called "the biggest surprise" at this Asiad, DPR Korean women team, in a full display of gallantry, perseverance and confidence, gave a shock 3-1 defeat to the all-star Chinese team in a Friday evening encounter.

This was the first Asiad team gold for the DPR Korean women, aswell as their first victory against the powerful Chinese in more than four years. China was the victor in both of the previous encounters between the two - in the finals of the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games and last year's Osaka world championships.

"While we were training very hard, we believed that one day we could win, and the day has come in Ulsan," said a DPR Korean team official.

On Sunday afternoon, it was the Chinese Hong Kong team who celebrated their first Asiad table tennis gold, as their mixed doubles pair Cheung Yuk/Tie Ya'na staged a magical comeback from three games down to overcome a South Korean pair 4-3.

China had never lost the mixed doubles gold since its debutant Asian Games in 1974. However, its best pair, formed by world No. 1for both men and women Wang Liqin and Wang Nan, were shut out of the final by Cheung/Tie.

Tuesday was just the day for the host team, as they unprecedentedly bagged both golds for men's and women's doubles. More significantly, they had achieved this after beating their long time arch rival China.

The semifinals of both doubles events on Monday afternoon were actually a matter between China and South Korea, as both sides had two pairs each in the last four. But the South Koreans, having prepared for a long time for a breakthrough, won three of the four clashes and even blocked both Chinese pairs from the men's doubles final.

South Korea's winning streak continued in Tuesday's women's doubles final, as Lee Eun-sil/Seok Eun-mi walked tightrope to overcome their strong Chinese opponents Zhang Yining/Li Nan.

Zhang and Li had taken an early lead of 3-1, but only to turn weak after that and gave the South Koreans a chance to catch up and finish the match 4-3.

"The table tennis Great Wall collapsed," some South Korean media hailed, while the South Korean team head coach Yoo Nam-kyu and women's team coach Hyun Jung-wha once again became national heroes, 14 years after they were crowned Olympic champions at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

For teams like Singapore and Chinese Taipei, Ulsan was also a lucky place, as their players, though failing in their gold quest,also achieved some best ever results. The Singapore girls were bronze winners of both team and singles events, and Chuang Chih-yuan from Chinese Taipei, after edging out South Korea's defending champion Kim Taek-soo and China's veteran Kong Linghui, earned the first men's singles silver for his team.

The Chinese team, which had achieved title sweeps in the last two Olympics and also last year's world championships, also made history, but a rather sad one.

After losing the women's team and all three doubles titles, the Chinese team, winners of six golds in Bangkok, had recorded the worst ever Asiad results.

Wang Nan, top player of the women's squad and the most crowned athlete in Bangkok with four golds, also dropped to the lowest point of her career and had to go home with two silvers and two bronzes.

"We are now in the most difficult time in more than a decade," said head coach Cai Zhenhua.

There were many reasons for the Chinese player's defeats at this Asiad, such as the introduction of new rules, especially the 11-point scoring system, and the rapid technique improvement of some major opponents, said Cai.

"However, the main reason was that we had trailed other teams in getting adapted to the new situation in the wake of table tennis reforms, and had been conservative in training and management," he added.

"A very loud alarm has been sounded to me at this Asiad. All the defeats have taught me a lesson: never think you will always be the sole best player in the world," said Wang Nan. "But I think they (the defeats) will help me in the future competitions."

History was not made only by table tennis heavyweights, the East Timorese had proved this: with only one player competing in the men's singles event, the newly-independent southeast Asian nation still scored a successful debut in Asiad table tennis.

Although the player, a 32-year-old Mr. Da Costa Antonio G. Sales, was easily outclassed 0-4 in the first round encounter with Chinese Hong Kong's world 33rd Ko Lai Chak, but his appearance on court was the best interpretation of the famous saying "It's taking part that counts".

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