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Chinese Taipei, China Split Singles Titles of Asian Table Tennis
The six-day Asian Table Tennis Championships ended Monday after Chinese Taipei and China took the men's and women's singles respectively.
The women's single final, which took place ahead of the men's singles match Monday evening, was an all-Chinese battle as Lin Ling and Li Nan eliminated South Korea's Suk Eun Mi and Kim Moo Kyo respectively in the semifinals.
Lin Ling beat her teammate Li Nan 3-0 to take the women's singles, the fourth gold the Chinese team won in the championships. China had before women's single final won both the men's and women's team events, and the mixed doubles.
Suk and Kim were tied for the third place of the women's singles.
But China's Wang Liqin, the best male player at last championships in Osaka, Japan, and Ma Lin, world No. 5, were forced out of the men's singles finals after their losses to Kim Taek Soo of South Korea and Chiang Peng-lung of Chinese Taipei in the semifinals.
Chiang, ranked 10th in the world, overcame Kim in a five-set tough battle to win the men's single. Chiang and his teammate Chang Yuan-Su got the men's doubles crown on Sunday. More than 180 players from 25 Asian countries and regions participated in the Asian Table Tennis Championships, which started from 1972 and is held every two years.
But according to the latest decision adopted at a meeting of the Asian Table Tennis Union (ATTU) here, the next Asian Table Tennis Championships will be held in Bangkok, Thailand in 2003, an odd year, mainly to make way for bigger world sports events, such as Summer Olympic Games, which usually falls in even years.
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