Table tennis legend Liu Guoliang re-elected as CTTA president

BEIJING, April 6 (Xinhua) -- Liu Guoliang, who had a successful playing career before transitioning to coaching, was re-elected as the president of the Chinese Table Tennis Association (CTTA) on Thursday.

The 47-year-old, first elected as the CTTA chief in December 2018, was unanimously re-elected through a show of hands by the CTTA delegates as the only nominee for the position.

"I'm thrilled to be re-elected while also feeling more pressure and a sense of responsibility," said Liu, who swept a "Grand Slam" of Olympic, World Championships and World Cup singles titles in his playing career and served as the chief coach of the Chinese national team.

In addition to Liu's re-election, Qin Zhijian, current secretary-general of the CTTA, was elected as vice president of the organization along with Liu Yi, Zhang Xiaopeng, Wang Liqin, Gao Yaxiang, and Zhang Lei. He Xiao was named the new secretary-general.

"In the new term, we will focus on the Chinese team's Paris Olympic preparation, laying a solid foundation for the development of table tennis, fostering quality competitions, and promoting table tennis culture to ensure a sustainable and high-quality development of the sport in China," said Liu while delivering his speech.

Liu emphasized that 2023 is a crucial year as the Chinese team is making a final push in its preparation for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, and revealed that the team's roster for the Paris Olympics is expected to take shape by the end of the year.

"We have the ITTF World Table Tennis Championships Finals in Durban, the Hangzhou Asian Games, and some World Table Tennis (WTT) tournaments this year. These competitions will be closely related to the Paris Olympics, whether in terms of our preparation, players' ranking points, or squad selection," he said.

At the last Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021, China won four of five gold medals in table tennis, while the mixed doubles title went to hosts Japan.