Chinese Taipei Upset in Table Tennis Team Final at FESPIC Games

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, October 30, 2002

Chinese Taipei Upset in Table Tennis Team Final at FESPIC Games

Long-standing winners Chinese Taipei were upset in table tennis men's team final, one oftheir favorites at the 8th Far East and South Pacific Games for the Disabled (FESPIC Games), here on Tuesday.

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Long-standing winners Chinese Taipei were upset in table tennis men's team final, one oftheir favorites at the 8th Far East and South Pacific Games for the Disabled (FESPIC Games), here on Tuesday.

While Chinese Taipei were sad in the TT9 class final, members of the younger team of China were celebrating their first ever triumph in the category in any international events.

Chinese Taipei came into the final with titles from such major tournaments as the 7th FESPIC Games in 1998, the Paralympic Games in 2000 and this year's world championships, but their era suddenly came to a halt in Busan. Li Zhendong, 32, and Yan Jian, 27, from China played a determined game to win 3-1 over their opponents Hsu Chih Shan, 39, Hsiao Kuo Wei, 40, and Hou Ting Sung,42.

The two sides tied 1-1 after the first two singles. But the hot-favored Chinese Taipei duet seemed to be out of form in the doubles and lost it 3-1, which proved to be the turning point.

Obviously shaken by the loss, Hsu, ranked fifth in the world, lost the last singles 3-0 to his much younger opponent, Yan.

"We had never lost in the event in any international tournamentand we should have won the title here without much trouble," Hsu said disappointedly after the match. "We couldn't concentrate on the rest of the game. We were beaten by ourselves," he admitted.

Chinese Taipei coach Huang Chung Long said the failure was not something out of blue. As his players were all amateurs, they couldn't afford taking much time for a longer training before the Busan Games. "We had taken only three training sessions, all at weekends," he said.

"Let's hope for the best in the (following) singles competition," he added.

Yuan Feng, the coach of the team of China, told Xinhua that histeam had been in a closed-door training camp for two months beforeBusan. As the team had competed in an international tournament in Taipei, some players had been away from their families for some four months.

"They had fully devoted themselves to the training and all their pains-taking efforts have now paid off," he added.

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