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Chinese dominance may hurt game
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THE table tennis world was packing up its paddles and heading home on Monday, but as one team prepared for a triumphant return the rest were left in no doubt they had some serious work to do.
China completely dominated the 46th World Championships in Osaka, winning every title and more than half of all the medals on offer.
Already feted as national heroes after their similar clean sweep of the Sydney Olympic titles last year, the Chinese team were returning to “lots of flowers and applause” as women's star and triple title-winner Wang Nan put it.
However, the other countries left with the harsh words of International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) President Adham Sharara ringing in their ears.
In a scathing assessment, Sharara warned bluntly the game would become “boring” if China continued to win everything, and effectively accused many non-Chinese players of being unfit, unprepared and unprofessional.
Rejecting calls for China to perhaps be forced to limit the number of players it entered, he instead challenged the rest of the table tennis world to “take the sport more seriously”.
“There is no secret. The Chinese are not from Mars or another planet. They have two eyes and two arms and one brain, the same as everyone else,” he said.
“But the volume of training that they put in to a world championship far exceeds any other nation.”
Sharara has spearheaded a series of sweeping reforms designed to slow down play, lengthen rallies, and generally make table tennis more attractive for that holy grail of all modern sport, television coverage.
The ITTF has even asked clothing firms to consider making less frumpy outfits for the female players in an attempt to bring more glamour to the game.
But Sharara is aware all this could go to waste if the viewing public decides it does not want to watch a sport in which the nationality of the winners is all but pre-ordained.
After the president's tirade on the last day of the two-week championships, not all players necessarily agreed with his diagnosis.
Belgium's Jean-Michel Saive, who led his nation to an unprecedented silver medal in the men's team event, said China's domination was “quite normal as China is a big nation and table tennis is a big deal”.
“Their structure is much better than other countries in the world, they have a big team and a big structure,” he said.
“Maybe they (ITTF) could cut the number of Chinese, so they would not play with seven players, maybe with four, then maybe there could be a little more chance for the others.”
However, to perhaps assuage the ITTF's worst fears, almost all the best and most dramatic moments over the championships involved Chinese players.
The undoubted highlight was their men's team's almost unbelieveably dramatic semifinal win over South Korea, in which Liu Guozheng saved an astonishing seven match points in the fifth and final rubber.
Time and again Korea's Kim Taek-soo hit seemingly unreturnable smashes, only for the Chinese star to somehow scramble a return and then win the point, eventually clawing back the deficit to win the tie.
And while women's star Wang maintained her usual blank composure on court, barely cracking a smile en route to three titles, newly-crowned men's singles champion Wang Liqin showed a more human side to the Chinese squad.
The 22-year-old Wang, who had never before won a major title, hugged his towel to his face and wept after completing a brave comeback to beat teammate Kong Linghui 3-2 in Sunday's final.
Wang, who had been dropped from the semifinal and final stages of their team campaign amid whispered concerns about his temperament, spoke of his joy at surmounting the “obstacles” he had faced.
“I could not help myself from crying as this is what I have been dreaming about for years,” he said, showing that while other nations might lag, competition within China can be as tough as anywhere. (SD-Agencies)
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