OOAK Table Tennis Forum

http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-1 ... oes-global

China’s table tennis dominance has gone truly global at the Olympics with Chinese-born players making up half the team draw and representing outposts such as Poland and the Dominican Republic.

The Chinese have won a majority of titles in this sport for decades, but more worrying is that ambitious moves to reduce the export of Chinese players have as yet had no obvious effect.

Statistics suggest 25 percent of the players not representing China at these Games are China-born, a similar proportion to a quarter of a century ago.

The best known is probably Li Jiao, a Qingdao-born 39-year-old who is representing The Netherlands and who was not far from winning a medal after playing a fine quarter-final in the women’s singles.

More startling is that almost half the competitors in the team event are China-born, a statistic hinting at how imported talent has been stifling the development of indigenous players.

This remains the case, despite the severe restrictions placed upon such imports four years ago by the sport’s governing body, the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF).

It was partly this which caused ITTF President Adham Sharara to say last week that the impact of China on other countries was “devastating” and that “challenging the Chinese” is one of the sport’s three biggest needs.

Few could fail to admire the skill and talent of the Chinese players, or the brilliance with which their organisation have taken the game forward, or the value of some of their coaches.

But neither can one ignore the intensity of feeling all this sometimes causes.

That was never clearer than in the case of the most famous of Chinese exports, Chen Xinhua, a gold medallist with two world title winning teams and a winner of the World Cup singles.

He left home to represent England in world events during the nineties when he also competed for Great Britain at the 1996 Olympics. Chen’s arrival prevented Carl Prean from remaining his country’s number one player.

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