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China Secure 3rd Gold Medal
China pocketed its third gold medal yesterday after two Chinese pairs reached the final of the men's doubles here at the 46th World Table Tennis Championships.
Olympic champions and world No 1 Wang Liqin and Yan Sen held off strong resistance from Asian Championships winners Chiang Peng-Lung and Chang Yun-Shu from Chinese Taipei 21-18, 21-10, 15-21, 17-21, 21-19. Defending champions and Atlanta Olympics winners Liu Guoliang and Kong Linghui had an easy time against Kim Taek-soo and Oh Sang-eun, of the Republic of Korea (ROK), winning 21-18, 21-11 and 21-16.
The Chinese team had already won the men's and women's team titles, last week. They are on the right track for their third clean sweep of all championships' seven titles, having previously done it in 1983 and 1995. Three women's doubles and three mixed doubles pairs are in the semi-finals and five men and five women reached the final 16 in the men's singles and final eight in the women's singles.
Yesterday, four Chinese players occupied the all four quarter-final berths in the upper half of the women's singles competition after each scored easy 3-0 victories over respective opponents including two former Chinese players.
Double Olympic champion and world No 1 Wang Nan beat top Democratic People's Republic of Korean (DPRK) player Kim Hyon-hui, world No 19, 21-15, 21-14 and 21-19 in 34 minutes. Today Wang faces teammate and world No 11 Li Nan, who surprised ROK No 1 Ryu Ji-hye in 33 minutes, 21-10, 21-8 and 21-14, for a place in the final four.
"I have got nothing to lose against Wang and I may well win," Li said.
And her opinion is shared by teammate Niu Jianfeng, who demolished former Chinese player, now representing Luxembourg Ni Xia Lian, 21-11, 21-15 and 21-13 in 32 minutes. Ni was a member of the winning Chinese team at the 1983 championships and also won the mixed doubles with Guo Yuehua.
Niu, world No 25, plays world No 3 teammate Zhang Yining for a place in the final four. Zhang yesterday defeated Singaporean Li Jia Wei, a former Chinese player, 21-14, 21-14 and 21-18 in 31 minutes.
In the bottom half, Lin Ling proved her last-minute selection on the Chinese team was worth it after she easily demolished Chinese Taipei's Chen Jing in straight sets, 21-15, 21-9 and 21-10. Lin, world No 11, replaced not-in-form world No 4 Sun Jin just before the team left for Osaka.
"She is a very talented player," said Xu Yinsheng, chairman of the Chinese Table Tennis Association and former chairman of the International Table Tennis Federation. "If given a chance, she might very well rise to the top of the world."
Chen Jing was the Osaka championships major obstacle for the Chinese in the women's singles. Surprisingly Chen, world No 5, succumbed tamely to Lin in just 29 minutes.
Lin faces another Chinese but one representing Austria, Liu Jia, for a place in the semi-finals. Liu defeated Singaporean Jing Jun Hong 15-21, 21-15, 21-14 and 21-14. The remaining quarter-final will pit Romanian Mihaela Steff against Kim Yun-mi of the DPRK. Steff, world No 9, edged Kim Moo-kyo of the ROK 15-21, 21-7, 21-18, 14-21, 23-21 and Kim, world No 59, won over Krisztina Toth of Hungary 21-15, 21-19 and 21-15.
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