World Collegiate Table-Tennis Championship News
Latest Updates:
Men's teams:
Quarter finals: China-Brazil 4:0, France-Belgium 4:1,
Japan-Germany 4:1, China Taipei-Greece 4:1
Semifinals: China-France 4:0, China Taipei-Japan 4:0
Finals: China - China Taipei
Women's Teams:
Semifinals: China-France 3:0, Korea-Japan 3:1
Finals: China - Korea
(Chung's Notes: These news items are condensed from
several articles. My comments are in italics.)
- The 13th World Collegiate TT Championships are being held
in Shanghai, China, starting on October 25th. There are
13 men's and 10 women's teams in the team events. China,
Chinese Taipei, France and Japan are the seeded teams in
the 4 men's groups, and China and Japan are the 2 seeded
teams in the women's groups. The men's team format is
best out of 7 matches, and the women's best-of-5.
- China's men's team consists of Wang Liqin, Liu Guozheng,
Zhang Yong and 2 others. (This is a team that is
worthy of the Worlds.) The Chinese women's team has
Sun Jin and Cheng Hongxia. They are expected to dominate
the competition. China Taipei's men's team consists of
Chiang Peng-Lung, Chang Yuan-Su and Chuan Chi-Yuan. This
team should meet China in the finals.
- Besides the team competitions, there will be the other 5
individual championships, just like in the Worlds.
- China's men's team easily won over the German and Swiss
teams in the first day of competiton, without dropping a
game. China's women's team also beat the Korean and
Hungarian teams, without losing a game.
- The participating countries are: Belgium, Brazil,
Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Japan,
Korea, Nepal, Poland, Switzerland, China, China Macau and
Chinese Taipei.
- The Chinese are taking this tournament quite seriously. One
of the reasons is that this is a prelude to the
University Games to be held in Beijing next year.
- The most contested events will probably be the men's
singles and doubles. Chiang Peng-Lung is ranked 6th in
the world, so he should get to the finals, assuming he
does not play the top Chinese in the earlier rounds. He
has never beaten Wang Liqin or Liu Guozheng. Chiang and
Chang, however, are favorites to win the men's doubles.
- Big Balls are being used. That was a very late change. 38
mm balls were intended to be used, but ITTF issued a
fairly strongly-worded recommendation to the organizing
comittee, 5 days before the tournament, to change to the
big balls. ITTF advised China to withdraw if the
committee were to stay with the small ball. This caused
the players a great deal of confusion, since they were
prepared for the small ball.
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