Chinese table tennis stars look unstoppable in Asian Games
Wednesday, 3 November 2010
HONG KONG, Nov 2 (AFP): China are again expected to be all-powerful at the Asian Games table tennis, although a Singapore squad coming off the back of a hugely successful Commonwealth Games could slow the fearsome juggernaut.
Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong will also be competitive, but a Chinese clean sweep is on the cards, particularly playing in front of a vociferous home crowd in the southern city of Guangzhou.
The Chinese, who have long dominated the sport, obliterated the opposition at the China Open in August, winning every title going and demonstrating they are likely to be unstoppable at the Asian Games from November 12-27.
Table tennis traditionally ranks as one of the most popular sports in China and top players such as Ma Lin, Ma Long, Wang Hao, Wang Liqin and Zhang Jike are among the most feted sports figures in the country.
In Guo Yan and Liu Shiwen they also have two of the top-ranked women's players in the world, not to mention the rest of an enviable cast of world-class men and women paddlers.
Such is the Chinese supremacy that it has sparked a debate within the game as to whether in fact they are too good, with even prominent figures in China saying it might be hurting the game.
"It's dangerous," Cai Zhenhua, a Chinese senior table tennis official, said last year in Japan after China's third successive clean sweep of the world championships.
Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong will also be competitive, but a Chinese clean sweep is on the cards, particularly playing in front of a vociferous home crowd in the southern city of Guangzhou.
The Chinese, who have long dominated the sport, obliterated the opposition at the China Open in August, winning every title going and demonstrating they are likely to be unstoppable at the Asian Games from November 12-27.
Table tennis traditionally ranks as one of the most popular sports in China and top players such as Ma Lin, Ma Long, Wang Hao, Wang Liqin and Zhang Jike are among the most feted sports figures in the country.
In Guo Yan and Liu Shiwen they also have two of the top-ranked women's players in the world, not to mention the rest of an enviable cast of world-class men and women paddlers.
Such is the Chinese supremacy that it has sparked a debate within the game as to whether in fact they are too good, with even prominent figures in China saying it might be hurting the game.
"It's dangerous," Cai Zhenhua, a Chinese senior table tennis official, said last year in Japan after China's third successive clean sweep of the world championships.