2012 London to London

8 

20 

26 

34 

39 

43 

49 

55 

62 

71 

80 

91 

104 

118 

131 

147 

163 

LONDON 

PARLOUR GAME TO GLOBAL SPORT 

HISTORICAL LOCATIONS 

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 1926 





EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS 1966 

ITTF PRO TOUR GRAND FINALS 2011 

TABLE TENNIS IN THE OLYMPIC GAMES 

ACCEPTANCE 

SEOUL 1988 

BARCELONA 1992 

ATLANTA 1996 

SYDNEY 2000 

ATHENS 2004 

BEIJING 2008 

SINGAPORE YOUTH OLYMPIC GAMES 2010 

180 

190 

206 

210 

214 

218 

222 

226 

230 

234 

240 

242 

244 

246 

248 

249 

GOLD MEDALLISTS 

FACTFILE - WOMEN 

FACTFILE - MEN 

OLYMPIANS 

SEOUL 1988 

BARCELONA 1992 

ATLANTA 1996 

SYDNEY 2000 

ATHENS 2004 

BEIJING 2008 

SINGAPORE 2010 

OLYMPIC GAMES LONDON 2012 

TABLE TENNIS RETURNS HOME 

COMPETITORS - MEN 

COMPETITORS - WOMEN 

MEN’S SINGLES, MEN’S TEAM 

WOMEN’S SINGLES, WOMEN’S TEAM 

OFFICIALS 

SCHEDULE OF PLAY 

Editor: Ian Marshall 

Author: Colin Clemett 

Design: Jorge Alarcon (jl_alarconv@hotmail.com) 

Contributors: English Table Tennis Association, Jens Fellke, He 

Xiao, Chuck Hoey, Jean-Jacques Huberman, Louis Seo, Zhang 

Xiaopeng 

Photographs: An Sung Ho, Colin Clemett, Coloured Pins on 

Map, Rémy Gros, ETTA Archives, ITTF Archives, London Mayor’s 

Office, Monthly World Table Tennis, John Oros, Guido Schiefer, 

Manfred Schillings, Table Tennis 1926, Table Tennis Magazine, 

Tamasu Butterfly, The Victorian Web, Wikipedia, John Wood, 

www.deadpubs.co.uk, www.hmtickets.com, www.stbride.org 

Printed by: 

Grafinpren, Av.Carlos Arosemena 

Guayaquil, Ecuador 

Telf.:(5934) 221362 

E-mail: imprenta@grafinpren.com 

Website: www.grafinpren.com 

Acknowledgements 

Richard Scruton 

Jose Yepes 

Modany S.A.

Photo: London Mayor’s Office 

London, we are privileged to be hosting 

table tennis’ greatest exponents at the 

2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. 

Encouraging more people to get fit and 

active is a top priority of mine and I 

have no doubt that having the world’s 

greatest players battling it out here in 

London will help to encourage people 

of all ages and abilities to take up the 

bat. 

Table Tennis Comes Home 

at London 2012 

I’m really looking forward to watching 

the action this summer and I have no 

doubt that a new generation of players 

will be inspired by what they see and 

perhaps go on to represent their country 

and win gold themselves one day. 

Boris Johnson, (Mayor of London) 

At the close of the Beijing Games in 

2008, I prophesised that table tennis 

would be returning home. 

Four years later I am absolutely delighted 

to say that it has. My words generated 

much debate as to the origins of this 

fantastic game and I have no hesitation 

in confirming once more that I stand by 

my assertion that wiff-waff and pingpong 

are one and the same, with the 

wiffs predating the pongs. 

Regardless of the semantics this is a 

sport of which we can be proud of as 

a nation. It was in this country that 

wiff-waff moved from eighteenth 

century parlour game to internationally 

recognised sport, with the formation 

of the International Table Tennis 

Federation in 1926. 

Today, more than 80 years after the first 

World Championships was held here in

Shining Brightly 

London 2012, the seventh time that table 

tennis has been a member of the Olympic 

programme; we have moved from comparative 

tentative steps in Seoul in 1988 

to becoming one of the most firmly established 

of all Olympic sports. 

The facts and figures from Beijing, fourth 

overall in terms of television audience 

worldwide and eleventh in the United 

Kingdom amongst 28 sports, endorse the 

fact that table tennis has an increasingly 

high status; all together, whether volunteers 

or professional staff, we can take 

pride that table tennis enjoys such high 

regard. 

Furthermore, since the Olympic inauguration 

in 1988, table tennis has moved forward; 

we have moved with the times. Not 

only have regulations changed regarding 

the size of the ball, the service rule and 

the points scoring system; also, major advances 

in the way in which we present and 

promote the sport have occurred. 

The whole image with the designer centre 

court table, standing in a theatrical setting 

gives the occasion status. Meanwhile, 

in the promotion of the sport, the rapid 

advances in technology now enables our 

viewers to tune in to our telecasts and 

watch the drama unfold; more than four 

million distinct viewers are currently registered 

to our own itTV. 

Nowadays, enthusiasts can follow the GAC 

GROUP World Tour on laptop computers 

and just as the birth of the International 

Table Tennis Federation and the staging 

of the first World Championships was in 

England; so was the start of the present 

day Tour. 

In 1996, the first ever ITTF Pro Tour tournament 

was held in the market town of Kettering; 

a concept was born that has blossomed 

and is now an integral part of the 

International Table Tennis Federation’s 

competition programme. However, it is to 

the future that we must look, rest on laurels 

and there is stagnation; innovate and 

there is progress. 

Therefore, high praise must be afforded 

to the English Table Tennis Association. 

In late November 2011, a successful ITTF 

Pro Tour Grand Finals was staged, the test 

event for the Olympic Games. Now it is the 

real thing; of course their members are 

heavily involved in the organisation of the 

table tennis events at the Olympic Games 

and soon after the Paralympic Games. 

However that is not all; later in the year, 

the LIEBHERR Men’s World Cup will be 

staged some 180 miles north in the city 

of Liverpool. A high level of activity; from 

London to London, from Kettering to London, 

from London to Liverpool or wherever; 

the country where it all started is once 

again the focus of attention, the London 

2012 Olympic Games. 

I pay my highest respect to Mr. Colin Clemett 

for writing and documenting a piece 

of our history on the occasion of the 2012 

London Games. 

Light the torch; may table tennis once 

again shine brightly. 

Adham Sharara (ITTF President) 

Photo: Rémy Gros

Photo: Guido Schiefer 

A True Olympic Sport 

The streets of London are paved with 

gold; when the Closing Ceremony concludes 

and the Olympic flame is doused, 

the pantomime tale will be true for some 

but only for the few. 

It is only the very few who will leave England’s 

capital city with a medal clutched 

tightly in grasping hands.Quite simply being 

an Olympian is a gold medal in itself, 

that fact has been clearly witnessed in the 

table tennis arenas of the world for almost 

two years. 

Watching players in action, well over 18 

months before matters commence in the 

ExCel Arena, the desire to gain a World 

ranking that would ensure a direct entry 

was clearly evident; for those near the cut 

off line, clear goals of reaching a certain 

stage in a tournament had been set. The 

pressure on the faces of those near the 

borderline was clear to see; for those who 

achieved the target, there was a relief, for 

those who did not, a nervous wait. They 

lived in hope that others would come to 

their rescue. Equally, unbridled joy was 

mixed with the desolation of despair in 

all Continental and World qualification 

tournaments; enough tears of happiness 

and sadness were shed to necessitate the 

Thames flood barriers being raised. 

The Olympic Games is a great motivator, 

it lifts players to new heights and is it the 

reason why we see some enjoy long and 

distinguished careers? Jörgen Persson, 

Zoran Primorac and Jean-Michel Saive, in 

London they will be competing in no less 

than their seventh consecutive Olympic 

Games. They will have competed in every 

Olympic Games since table tennis was introduced 

in Seoul in 1988. I wonder, without 

the lure of the Olympic Games would 

they still be gracing the international table 

tennis arenas if the world? 

Also, if asked the question in 1988 which 

was the more important, the Olympic 

Games or the World Championships, the 

vote might well have been with the latter; 

over two decades later it is with the 

former. 

It now seems strange that there were times 

when leading members of the International 

Table Tennis Federation questioned 

and even opposed the idea of table tennis 

being in the Olympic Games; some feared 

such a move might reduce the value of the 

World Championships. 

The status of the World Championships 

is as strong as ever. Is anyone really upset 

that the Olympic Games is seen as the 

pinnacle? Quite the reverse, it is seen as 

complementary, not a rival, a fantastic 

showcase. 

A potential new clientele is introduced 

and whether new or an aficionado; those 

present in the tiered seating in the Olympic 

arena are the privileged. They witness 

a sport where the world’s greatest players 

are of the highest integrity, they see 

a sport they can try, they behold a sport 

that is truly global; a sport that upholds 

the principles of the International Olympic 

Committee. 

They see a true Olympic sport, the sport of 

table tennis. 

Ian Marshall (Editor)

Words of Wisdom 

Colin Clemett is the author of “From London to 

London”; it is his patient and painstaking work 

that has made the comprehensive book possible. 

We are indebted to his efforts. 

Photo: Rémy Gros 

Hours of detailed research have been necessary 

in order to produce this publication; 

delving into the archives has been the 

work of Colin Clemett. 

True to his character he has unravelled 

minutes of meetings, researched articles 

in magazines of yesteryear and placed 

matters into a logical, detailed and understandable 

order; but that is Colin Clemett. 

A reply from Colin Clemett is always forthcoming 

in a rational manner. Never is 

there a peak of anger or a hasty remark 

in annoyance, always a response of calm 

reason; you receive a reply in which you 

can have total confidence. 

He is in the same position as the player 

who stands at the top of the World ranking 

list; that player has nowhere to go to 

find a practice partner of a higher level. 

It is the same for Colin Clemett, if there 

is a problem to be solved, he is the man 

to whom you turn when all else has failed 

but where does he go for clarification? 

The answer is simple, nowhere, he is the 

ultimate; like the player ranked at the 

top of the global order, there is no higher 

point of reference. 

If Colin Clemett cannot give an answer, 

then there is no answer but that never 

happens, a judgement to help solve the issue 

is always made. 

One man above all who appreciates the 

advice of Colin Clemett is Richard Scruton, 

the Referee for the Athens 2004 Olympic 

Games and the Table Tennis Competition 

Manager for the London 2012 Olympic 

Games. 

He is a man to turn to for advice but more 

than once I have heard him utter the immortal 

words “let me check with Colin”. 

Quite right, Colin Clemett is the iconic arbiter, 

the definitive advisor and only the 

very few in sport can compare with his 

pedigree. 

A life member of the English Table Tennis 

Association; he has been a member of the 

ETTA National Umpires and Referees Committee 

for 55 years and Secretary since 

1959. 

Meanwhile, for the International Table 

Tennis Federation, he was Secretary of the 

Rules Committee from 1969 to 1973 and 

Chairman from 1973 to 2003. He was responsible 

for the introduction of the International 

Umpire and International Referee 

qualifications, editor of the Handbooks 

for Match Officials and Tournament Referees, 

whilst being a Technical Delegate at 

the 1992, 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games. 

Deservedly he has been recognised for his 

contribution. He was appointed a member 

of the ITTF President’s Advisory Council in 

2005 and ITTF Personal Honorary Member 

in 2007. 

He is a man held in high esteem by all and 

a man with whom it has been a privilege 

and honour to work in compiling London 

to London, the work of Colin Clemett. 

Ian Marshall (Editor)

London, the Home of Table Tennis 

PARLOUR 

Game to 

Global 

Sport 

Unfortunately, the two Associations diverged on a fundamental matter of rules. 

Although both had originally used the single-bounce service, the Ping Pong 

Association later decided to change to the double-bounce system and clubs 

affiliated to one or the other, in accordance with their preferred method. 

8 

London to London

It is widely accepted that table tennis, 

or “parlour tennis”, began in England 

in about 1880, as an indoor derivative 

of lawn tennis or of its predecessor, real 

tennis. 

In the beginning it was a fairly basic 

game with a variety of improvised 

equipment. Rackets might be of plain 

wood, of wood covered with cork or 

sandpaper, or of vellum stretched on a 

wooden frame. Nets were in a range of 

heights and might not actually be nets 

at all but solid, consisting, perhaps, of 

rows of books on end; balls could be 

made of cork or rubber. Tables, which 

were often dining tables, could be of 

different sizes and heights. 

There was no standard system of scoring; 

to win a game might mean scoring 

11, 21, 50 or even 100 points. Service 

could be by means of a first bounce on 

the server’s court, as at present, or by 

the ball being struck direct on to the opponent’s 

court, as in lawn tennis, except 

that in this case the ball had to be struck 

underhand from below the level of the 

server’s waist. There were also several 

variations of doubles play; this lack of 

uniformity was not important while 

table tennis was merely a light-hearted 

parlour game, not to be taken too seriously. 

However, towards the end of the 

century its character began to change. 

In the late 1890s a former English international 

cross country runner, James 

Gibb, brought home from a business 

trip to the U.S.A. some celluloid balls 

which he thought might be better for 

table tennis than the rubber balls which 

he had been using. It was his view that 

the sound that they made when struck 

with the vellum-covered rackets in common 

use, was “ping-pong”. 

He suggested this to a friend and neighbour, 

John Jaques, a prominent sports 

goods manufacturer, as a more suitable 

name for the game than “Gossima”, 

which Jaques had registered in 1891. 

John Jaques agreed and forthwith registered 

the title throughout the world, 


Berlin 

1926 

Photo: Table Tennis 1926 

London to London 9


an action which would have some unexpected 

consequences. 

Around 1900, the game began to acquire 

increased status and popularity 

and a number of clubs were formed 

throughout the country. The Cavendish 

Club, which was based in Armfield’s 

Hotel in Finsbury, is said to have been 

the earliest but it was soon followed 

by many others. A Directory published 

in a short-lived magazine of the time, 

the Table Tennis Pioneer, shows that in 

early 1902 there were over 50 clubs in 

the London area alone. Even so, it appears 

that these clubs may have been 

over-subscribed, because a later issue includes 

a request from a reader for information 

on a club “which has a vacancy 

for a new member”. 

From 1901 there was also a rapid 

growth in the number of tournaments, 

which usually included only singles 

events, sometimes “mixed singles” in 

which both men and women took part. 

Doubles, or “the four-handed game”, 

was generally regarded as something of 

a novelty; the announcement of a tournament 

at the Royal Aquarium in early 

1902 said “One of the features of this 

tournament will be the ‘mixed doubles’. 

The male player will have a member of 

the fair sex for his partner and they will 

use one racquet between them.” 

It was not unusual for there to be 300 

or more entries in such tournaments despite 

an entry fee of 2s 6d (one eighth of 

£1), at a time when the average weekly 

wage for a skilled worker in, say, the 

printing trade, was only about £2 and 

for a civil servant or teacher about £3. 

The attraction may have been the value 

of prizes, which for the winners were 

typically worth £25. Although there was 

no real national body, some of these 

tournaments were given titles such as 

the All-England Championships or the 

UK Championships and the winners 

were recognised as national champions. 

One of these was Percy Bromfield, who 

was to play an important part in the 

eventual revival of the game. 

Clubs from the outset had operated on 

an individual basis and with their own 

rules and there had been no attempt 

to form broader alliances. It was during 

the first major open tournament at 

the Royal Aquarium in 1901 that the 

first significant step towards wider organisation 

of the game was taken. In 

that year Walter Harrison, Secretary of 

the Cavendish Club, had suggested that 

there would be merit in forming an Association 

with the objects both of promoting 

the game and of agreeing on 

common standards and rules. On 12th 

December the Table Tennis Association 

was formed but almost immediately the 

hope of uniformity was threatened by 

the formation, a few days later, of the 

Ping Pong Association. 

Unfortunately, the two Associations diverged 

on a fundamental matter of rules. 

Although both had originally used the 

single-bounce service, the Ping Pong Association 

later decided to change to the 

double-bounce system and clubs affiliated 

to one or the other, in accordance 

with their preferred method. 

It was clearly an unsatisfactory situation, 

as was pointed out in The Pioneer: 

“While recognising the varied interests 

involved and the perfect right of individuals 

to play Ping Pong or Table Tennis, 

we cannot think that the best interests 

of the two games - so essentially 

similar - are best served by the governance 

of two distinct and independent 

Associations.” 

10 


The logic of this argument was apparent 

and in December 1902 the two Associations 

announced their intention to 

merge by the following 1st May. They 

agreed initially on the unwieldy title of 

“The United Table Tennis and Ping Pong 

Association” but this was soon changed 

and the new organisation became simply 

“The Table Tennis Association”. 

However, this rationalisation had come 

too late; table tennis had fallen out of 

fashion and the game in England died 

as quickly as it had risen. The situation 

was that by 1905 it was played in only 

few isolated parts of the country and it 

was many years before it regained anything 

like its former standing. 

There have been several suggested explanations 

for its sudden demise: the 

absence of a strong national organisation 

to define a uniform system of play 

and equipment standards; technical developments, 

such as the use of rubbercovered 

rackets, which widened the gap 

in skill between the dedicated competition 

player and those for whom the 

game was merely a leisure pursuit. 

The most likely reason was that table 

tennis did not in those early years acquire 

the status of a serious sport in the 

minds of the public. It was an entertaining 

pastime which became popular for 

a while but it had its time and then just 

died away. 

However, not everyone had lost their 

enthusiasm and in 1921, Percy Bromfield, 

the champion from 1904, and 

John Payne, the last secretary of the defunct 

Table Tennis Association decided 

to try to revive the game. Bromfield 

said in a 1931 article that the initiative 

came from a newspaper advertisement 

placed by an otherwise unidentified Mr 

Thompson, asking whether any former 

players were still active, to which he and 

Payne responded. He later gave a slightly 

different account but whatever the 

truth is, the fact is that the two of them 

met and established a new Ping Pong 

Association in November 1921, with 

Bromfield as Chairman, Payne as Secretary/Treasurer 

and a committee of five. 

Their first major enterprise was the organisation 

of a National Championships 

and this was held at Selfridge’s Department 

Store in Oxford Street in April 

1922. The only events were men’s and 

women’s singles and the men’s singles 

final seems to have been a ferociously 

competitive and slightly bad-tempered 

affair. 

The finalists were Austin Carris, a 

wealthy Manchester businessman and 

Andrew Donaldson, a schoolmaster 

from Sunderland. Donaldson’s only 

preparation for playing was to remove 

his jacket, collar and tie. Carris complained 

that the sound of Donaldson’s 

leather boots on the wooden floor was 

distracting him. In return, Donaldson 

protested that he was being unsighted 

by the reflection of light from the diamond 

studs in Carris’s dress shirt. Donaldson 

eventually won by four games to 

one and to show this was no fluke he 

reached the final again in 1924. 

The game was beginning to attract the 

interest of the popular press and early 

in 1923 the Daily Mirror organised its 

first national tournament. Over a period 

of several months more than 30,000 

entrants played in qualifying stages arranged 

in their own areas and the finals 

were staged in May at the Stadium Club 

in High Holborn. The first prize in both 

the men’s and the women’s events was 

a Calthorpe car, with the losing men’s 




Percy Bromfield 


The club’s tenure in Baker Street does 

not seem to have lasted very long, because 

in November 1923 it moved to 

the St Bride Institute in Bride Lane. The 

name was changed to the St Bride (All- 

England) Club (eventually to just St 

Bride’s Club) and it became one of the 

strongest in the country. 

In a 1937 advertisement it offered the 

use of five tables “on exclusive nights” 

for a subscription of 13 shillings (the 

equivalent of £0.65) a year. Table tennis 

was played there until the end of the 

1980s. Its name is best remembered for 

the World Men’s Singles trophy, the St 

Bride Vase, donated in 1929 by its then 

Secretary, Cyril Corti Woodcock. 

semi-finalist receiving a motor-cycle and 

the ladies’ runner-up a fur coat. 

Winner of the men’s event was James 

Thompson of Bristol. He beat Percy 

Bromfield in the semi-final aided, as 

Bromfield was keen to point out later, 

by a 5-0 start in each game. The ladies 

event was won by 15 year old Kathleen 

Berry from London, who was to be the 

English Open women’s singles title holder 

from 1923-25. 

The second new recruit to the Ping Pong 

Association’s committee was a young 

Cambridge student called the Hon. Ivor 

G. S. Montagu. He was born in London 

on Saturday 23rd April 1904, the third 

son of Lord Swaythling, a prominent 

banker. Somewhat to the dismay of 

The Ping Pong Association committee 

was joined in 1922 by two people 

who were to have a substantial influence 

on the game; one was Austin Carris, 

the losing finalist. He had come to 

London with big ideas to put the game 

back on the map. He introduced “ping 

pong teas” and “ping pong toys”, and 

he even bought a racehorse and called 

it Ping Pong. He set up the All-England 

Club in London with its headquarters in 

Slater’s, a restaurant in the Strand, moving 

later in 1922 to more spacious premises 

in Baker Street. 

Corti Woodcock 

Photo: ETTA Archives 

12 


his parents he held, from an early age, 

strong left-wing political views and as 

soon as he was old enough, he became 

an active member of the British Socialist 

Party, the Labour Party and then, in the 

1930s, the British Communist Party. 

He was educated at Westminster School 

and went on to study Zoology first at 

the Royal College of Science and later at 

Cambridge University, where he gained 

an honours degree in the subject. He 

had hoped originally to pursue a career 

as a scientist; as a young graduate he 

took part in an expedition to a remote 

part of the Caucasus to find and bring 

back specimens of a primitive type of 

mole that was thought to be facing extinction. 

However, it was his other passion, films 

that soon claimed his interest and he 

spent some 40 years in the industry both 

in England and in Hollywood, working 

variously as a screenwriter, editor and 

producer. He was a producer or associate 

producer for several of Alfred Hitchcock’s 

early films, such as The Man Who 

Knew Too Much and The Thirty-Nine 

Steps; his close friends included Charles 

Chaplin and Sergei Eisenstein. 

In 1925 he was a founder member of 

the London Film Society and he later 

worked for a time as a film reviewer for 

The Observer. During World War Two 

he was a reporter for the Communist 

newspaper, the Daily Worker and, it has 

since been alleged, that while in this 

post he obtained privileged access to 

classified information which he passed 

to the U.S.S.R. 

Although he is remembered most for his 

table tennis activities, as a young man 

he was an enthusiastic participant in several 

other sports including soccer, lawn 

tennis and cricket; by his own account 

he was a competent but not outstanding 

performer in most of them. Perhaps 

realising his limitations he went on to 

become a qualified umpire for lawn 

tennis and cricket and he believed that 

this was invaluable experience when he 

came to drafting practical and enforceable 

rules for table tennis. 

Meanwhile, whilst at university he set 

up the Cambridge University Table 

Tennis Club, initially because having 

had some experience at the game he 

thought - wrongly, as it proved - that 

this was one sport where he would be 

able to excel against beginners. 

Not discouraged, he continued to promote 

table tennis at the university with 

the strong support of a senior member 

of the academic staff, F. B. Kipping, 

whose sister Florence (Scott) became 

the first English Open women’s singles 

champion. He arranged matches against 

other clubs that were starting and in his 

book he tells of their first contest with 

the equivalent club at Oxford University. 

The six members of each team played 

each of the six members of the opposing 

team and Cambridge won the match 31- 

5, with Ivor being the only loser for his 

side. However, before this he had made 

contact with the flourishing All-England 

Club, becoming a member in 1922; this 

brought him to the notice of the officers 

of the newly revived Ping Pong Association. 

A first test of his value to the organisation 

came later in 1922. He recounts in 

his autobiography The Youngest Son, 

“All went swimmingly until our committee, 

endorsing applications to hold 

tournaments, approved one that was 

to be held without specifying equip- 




ment manufactured by Messrs Jaques. 

Unknown to us, this name was the registered 

property of the London firm of 

John Jaques & Son; it had passed into 

common speech without realisation of 

its legal status as monopoly property. 

Crisis: our committee felt the game 

could never develop unless it was independent, 

yet there could be no doubt of 

the legal rights of Jaques. 

An emergency meeting was called for 

Thursday 2nd November 1922 at the 

George Hotel in the Strand. Jaques’ 

manager, a member of the committee, 

had equipped himself with countless 

proxies, gathered at high speed from all 

the towns where dealers sold his firm’s 

equipment. No-one wanted to bell the 

cat and I - possibly as youngest - was 

made the fall guy. I was voted into the 

chair, ruled all the proxies out of order, 

accepted a motion to dissolve the “Ping 

Pong Association” and led a move into 

the next room of everyone but Jaques’ 

manager, where we reformed ourselves, 

with identical rules, into the “Table Tennis 

Association”. 

One of Ivor’s strong convictions was 

that the lack of uniform rules had been 

at least a contributory factor in the collapse 

of the game in 1905. He was determined 

that there should be a single 

set of laws and regulations that was 

logically and legalistically correct and 

he led a small working group charged 

with this task. 

In the ensuing years they drew up a 

carefully considered code of laws of 

play, concentrated on persuading its 

nationwide acceptance by all supporters 

and on encouraging a high standard 

of available equipment. It is a tribute to 

their work and particularly to his leadership, 

that the laws that they drafted for 

the English Association were later adopted 

worldwide and that even today 

their basic principles and format remain 

virtually unchanged. 

Alas, all was not well with the new Table 

Tennis Association. Continual disagreements 

among the officers and committee 

members led to bitter arguments 

and eventual resignations. There were 

criticisms that the organisation was run 

by, and for the benefit of, an unrepresentative 

minority. 

Ivor describes the committee as functioning 

“just as a group of almost selfselected 

members, with only people 

who were well-known by their past 

prominence in the game or residence 

near London having any hope of being 

elected.” Soon this changed with 

the arrival of W. J. (Bill) Pope, a player 

of international standard with strong 

opinions on the way in which the game 

should be organised nationally. 

Bill Pope was born in Newport, Monmouthshire, 

in 1888, the eldest of six 

children. He left school at 12 years of 

age and worked as an errand boy until 

at 14 years of age he started work as a 

junior clerk at the District office of the 

Great Western Railway; from an early 

age he was a keen supporter of the 

Labour movement and an active trade 

unionist. 

Furthermore, he was a pacifist and 

during World War One he was sent to 

prison as a conscientious objector; as 

a result, he lost his job on the railway. 

He successfully applied for a post in the 

headquarters of the National Union of 

Railwaymen and this brought him to 

London, where his interest in table tennis 

brought him to the attention of the 

recently revived Ping Pong Association. 

14 


It was not long before his ability in organisation 

and administration were recognised 

and he became first a member 

of the committee and later the Secretary, 

a post he continued to hold, with some 

interruptions owing to illness, until his 

death in 1950. In 1936 he was elected 

English Language Secretary of the International 

Table Tennis Federation, a 

post he held until 1950. He was the ideal 

complement to Ivor Montagu and their 

relationship was in many ways similar 

to that established later in the International 

Table Tennis Federation between 

Roy Evans and Bill Vint. Ivor Montagu 

had the ideas, Bill Pope put them into 

practice; together they accomplished far 

more than either could have achieved 

without the other. 

Bill Pope’s first task was to persuade the 

committee that the Association should 

be reorganised so that it more truly represented 

national interests rather than 

those of an elite few. Ivor Montagu 

later admitted that he had not initially 

seen the need for such a change but he 

accepted it and later came to realise 

that it was an essential step in the establishment 

of the English Table Tennis Association. 

Thus in 1925 a sub-committee 

was set up to draft a new constitution, 

with Montagu as Chairman and Pope 

as Secretary. On Wednesday 26th August 

of the following year the Executive 

Committee Minutes record that: 

all documents finance etc. Signed: Percy 

Bromfield (Chairman).” 

The sub-committee was re-titled the 

Provisional Committee of the English 

Table Tennis Association and from that 

time it operated as the controlling body 

of English table tennis, although the 

formal establishment of the English Table 

Tennis Association was delayed until 

1927. There were more pressing matters 

to address and it was at this point that 

the affairs of the English Table Tennis 

Association and the International Table 

Tennis Federation became closely related, 

owing to the central part played in 

the foundation of both organisations by 

same man, Ivor Montagu. 

In the summer of 1925 Dr Georg Lehmann, 

Chairman of the German Ping Pong Association, 

invited Pranash Nanda, an 

Indian student living in London, to be 

the first international guest player in 

the German Championships. Earlier 

that year Nanda had won the English 

Open Championships and he repeated 


“It was decided at a meeting held at St 

Bride’s this evening that the Executive 

Committee should resign and hand over 

the management of the Table Tennis 

Association to the Hon I. G. S. Montagu, 

representing the four Leagues (London, 

London Business Houses, Civil Service 

and Luton) who intend to form a new 

Association, and Mr G W Decker (Secretary) 

is hereby empowered to hand over 

Ivor Montagu 




this success in Germany, winning every 

round six-nil (the tournament was 

played using lawn tennis scoring). 

Encouraged by the response of German 

enthusiasts to this experiment, Dr Lehmann 

decided to invite all the European 

countries in which it was known table 

tennis was being played, to send players 

to an international tournament in Berlin 

the following January and to attend 

a meeting there to discuss future international 

co-operation. 

The invitation was accepted only by 

Austria, Hungary and England, in England 

only after lengthy discussion. Most 

of the Executive Committee members 

were initially against England taking 

part but Ivor Montagu and Bill Pope 

thought it was a chance of progress that 

must not be missed. They finally managed 

to secure approval to assemble 

a party of players to accompany them 

but failed to gain any financial support 

and all those who went had to pay their 

own expenses. 

The tournament was held and for England 

was not very successful but it soon 

became clear that what Dr Lehmann 

had in mind was to prove much more 

important than just the tournament - 

the formation of an International Federation. 

A meeting duly took place at 

the Clubhouse of the Tennis Club 1900 

Berlin Gelb-Weiss to discuss the idea. 

However, the invitation had indicated 

the proposal only in vague terms, none 

of the delegates had the authority to 

commit their Associations to supporting 

it but they were all convinced of its merits 

and wanted to press ahead. It was 

decided, therefore, that any conclusions 

should be recorded as “provisional” and 

it would then be up to the delegates to 

secure national support when they returned 

home. 

Georg Lehmann 

Photo: ITTF Archives 

Thus on Saturday 16th January 1926 it 

was agreed to form a “provisional International 

Table Tennis Federation” and 

to include as founder members all who 

applied before June of that year. The 

formal foundation of the Federation 

would take place at a meeting held in 

conjunction with a European Championships 

in December 1926 and the English 

representatives’ offer of London as 

the venue, subject to endorsement by 

the English Table Tennis Association’s 

Executive Committee, was gratefully accepted. 

Playing plans for the Championships 

were discussed; there would be a men’s 

team event and individual events for 

men and women including, somewhat 

to the surprise of the English represen- 

16 


tatives, doubles events. At that time, 

doubles was not popular in England 

and seldom played in tournaments. The 

rules were to be those drafted in England, 

which were already widely used 

elsewhere in Europe. 

On their return Ivor and Bill had to persuade 

the members of the English Table 

Tennis Association’s Executive Committee 

to confirm the provisional invitation. 

Eventually, this was achieved, in spite of 

strong opposition from members of the 

committee who were appalled by the 

magnitude of the project and the financial 

risks being taken. 

Agreement was reached only after Ivor 

had guaranteed that he would personally 

cover any losses. Further possible 

expense was avoided when his mother, 

Lady Swaythling, donated the now famous 

Swaythling Cup for the winners of 

the team competition. The tournament 

was staged mainly in the Memorial Hall 

in Farringdon Street, although the first 

international team match was played at 

the Herga Lawn Tennis Club in Harrow 

and others were played at various venues 

in London. 

The Foundation Meeting of the International 

Table Tennis Federation was formally 

opened at the Stadium Club and 

was attended by delegates from Austria, 

Czechoslovakia, Denmark, England, 

Germany, Hungary, India, Sweden and 

Wales. At this first session Ivor Montagu 

was unanimously elected as Chairman 

of the meeting, the reason being, according 

to Ivor was that he was reasonably 

fluent in the three main languages 

used. 

Apart from agreeing some administrative 

details the only business conducted 

was to rename the European Cham- 

pionships that were in progress as the 

World Championships for 1926-27. The 

decision was justified on the basis that 

the participants included several Indian 

players, mostly students who were living 

temporarily in London. The meeting 

was then adjourned and re-convened 

on the following Sunday 12th December, 

in the library of Ivor’s father’s 

house at 28 Kensington Court. 

During the second session the draft 

Constitution which had been proposed 

by England was discussed in detail and 

was accepted after a number of minor 

amendments had been made, including 

the adoption of both English and 

German as official International Table 

Tennis Federation languages. Elections 

to the various offices set out in the Constitution 

followed and resulted in the 

following appointments: 

Chairman: Ivor Montagu 

English Language Secretary: C. H. Hallett 

(Wales) German Language Secretary: 

Jan Gerke (Czechoslovakia) Advisory 

Committee: Dr A. H. Fyzee (India), Bela 

von Kehrling (Hungary), Dr Richard Pick 

(Germany), Dr Carl Linde (Sweden), Fritz 

Zinn (Germany),It was decided to adopt 

the Laws as used by the English as the 

international Laws but to allow some 

variations. 

Following a proposal by Czechoslovakia, 

seconded by Sweden, it was agreed that 

lawn tennis scoring be included as an experimental 

alternative to 21 point games but 

it appears that this system did not prove 

popular and the option 

was deleted at the 

subsequent Annual 

General 

Meeting. 

However, 

another 




variation, making it illegal to volley the 

ball even when it had passed over the 

playing surface without touching it, remained 

part of the Laws until 1995. 

Having successfully hosted the inauguration 

of the International Federation 

and the first World Championships, the 

Provisional English Table Tennis Association 

now needed to ratify its own 

position. The Foundation Conference 

took place at the Indian Students Hostel 

in Gower Street on Sunday 4th April 

1927. The Constitution and Regulations 

drawn up by the provisional Committee 

were adopted and Ivor Montagu and 

Bill Pope were elected Chairman and 

Secretary respectively. It was a fitting 

recognition of the contributions that 

they had made to the establishment of 

table tennis as a national and an international 

sport. 

it was not sustained but when the renaissance 

came in 1921 it was in London 

that the process began. 

Between then and 1927 nearly all of the 

significant events in table tennis, such 

as the foundation of the International 

Table Tennis Federation and the English 

Table Tennis Association took place 

in London, mostly within a fairly small 

area of the city. At the end of that period, 

table tennis in England had gone 

from being a fringe activity to a properly 

organised national sport and internationally 

a sound base had been established 

for its development throughout 

the world. 

Now 86 years after the revival it will be 

London that is the setting for another 

memorable occasion, the table tennis 

competition of the 2012 Olympic Games. 

London saw the first wave of enthusiasm 

for table tennis, in the early years 

of the twentieth century. Unfortunately 

W.I.(Bill) Pope 


18 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

Much of the early history of the game was lost when the English Table Tennis 

Association’s Office and all its records were destroyed by bombing in September 

1940. Since then great efforts have been made to retrieve the missing information 

from personal records and reports in contemporary newspapers and magazines, 

particularly by people such as Gerald Gurney, author of “Table Tennis - The Early 

Years” and Alan Duke and Steve Grant, whose research has been published from 

time to time in “The Table Tennis Collector”. The account makes use of these 

sources, which are gratefully acknowledged. 



Historical Locations 

London, with its rich historic and 

cultural heritage, has long been a 

major tourist centre. Buildings like 

Buckingham Palace, the Houses 

of Parliament, Westminster 

Abbey, St Paul’s Cathedral, the 

Tower of London are visited 

and photographed daily by 

thousands of sightseers. There 

is an abundance of museums, art 

galleries and theatres and those 

with a particular interest are 

equally well catered for, whether 

it be railway stations, river travel 

or sporting arenas. 

For the table tennis enthusiast, 

many of the sites associated with 

the formative years of the sport 

are located within quite a small 

central area of the capital. Not 

all of the buildings have survived 

the ravages of wartime bombing 

and urban development but 

others can still be seen, some very 

little changed from their original 

condition. 


20 


Photo: www.hmtickets.com Photo: ITTF Archives 

The Stadium Club 

Alexandra Palace 

The Stadium Club in Holborn started life 

in 1867 as the New Royal Amphitheatre. 

It ceased operating as a theatre in 

1887 and was converted into the West 

Central Hall, subsequently to be known 

as the Holborn Stadium and finally as 

the Stadium Club. 

The finals of the first Daily Mirror 

national table tennis tournament were 

staged there in 1923 and it was used 

for the ceremonial opening of the ITTF 

Foundation Meeting in 1926. In the 

1920s and 1930s it accommodated a 

variety of sports, particularly boxing, 

until it was destroyed by bombing 

during World War Two. 

The Alexandra Palace was built in 

1873 as a public centre of recreation, 

education and entertainment, North 

London’s equivalent to the Crystal 

Palace in South London. In the 1900s 

it was one of London’s most popular 

table tennis venues and a number of 

large tournaments took place there. 

It became in 1936 the headquarters of 

the world’s first regular public television 

service operated by the BBC and the 

original transmission tower has been 

retained. It is still in use, now mainly as 

an exhibition and conference centre. 




The Royal Aquarium 

Photo: website st.bride.org Photo: Wikipedia 

The St Bride Institute 

The Royal Aquarium was a recreational 

complex, opened in 1876, which included, 

in addition to the aquarium, a theatre, 

an art gallery, a skating rink and several 

halls which could be hired; its main hall 

was 100 metres long and 50 metres 

wide. The English Championships were 

held there in 1902 and 1903. However, 

it was not the success its founders had 

hoped. The building closed at the end of 

1903 and the site, just off Victoria Street 

in Westminster, is now occupied by the 

Methodist Central Hall. 

The St Bride Institute was set up in Bride 

Lane, a turning off Fleet Street, in 1891 

as a cultural and social centre for the 

local community. It was intended primarily 

for those working in the printing 

trade, which was the main occupation in 

the area. It contains a number of halls 

in which various sports were played, 

as well as a swimming pool which was 

boarded over during the winter and 

which provided space for activities such 

as table tennis, which continued to be 

played there until the late 1980s. Now 

managed by the St Bride Foundation, 

the building provides facilities for conferences 

and theatrical activities, as well 

as housing a comprehensive library of 

printing related material. 

22 


The George Hotel 

Photo: www.deadpubs.co.uk 

The George Hotel in the Strand was the 

setting for the meeting held in 1925 

that resulted in the dissolution of the 

revived Ping Pong Association and its 

immediate re-birth as the Table Tennis 

Association, which later became the 

English Table Tennis Association. It is 

still open, and is now known as “The 

George on the Strand”. 


28 Kensington Court 


No. 28 Kensington Court was the home 

of Ivor Montagu’s father, Lord Swaythling, 

until his death in 1927. It was 

here that the Foundation Meeting of 

the International Table Tennis Federation 

was held on 12th December 1926. 

Kensington Court is now an area of diplomatic 

activity, with the embassies of 

several countries located there; No. 28 is 

still residential but in the form of luxury 

apartments. 



The Memorial Hall 


The Memorial Hall was built by the 

Congregationalists in 1872 on the 

former site of the notorious Fleet Prison 

in Farringdon Street. The Labour Party 

was founded there at a conference held 

in the main hall 26th – 27th February 

1900 and in 1926 it was chosen as the 

main venue for the inaugural World 

Championships. The building was 

demolished in 1969 to be replaced by an 

office block, which was re-built in 2007 

and is now known as Ludgate West. 

The Indian Student Hostel 

The Indian Student Hostel was founded by the YMCA in 1920 and was originally 

housed in a large hut - the “Shakespeare Hut” - opposite the Senate House of 

London University. After three years it was relocated to a permanent building 

in Gower Street, where several matches of the 1926 World Championships were 

played. The inaugural General Meeting of the English Table Tennis Association was 

held in this building in April 1927. In 1940 it was badly damaged by bombing but 

was later restored and greatly extended. It now provides an extensive range of 

services for Indian students in London. 

24 


The Imperial Institute 

Photo: The Victorian Web 

The Imperial Institute was established in 

1887 to promote “the arts, manufactures 

and commerce of the Queen’s Colonial 

and Indian Empire” and initially its 

activities were directed mainly to 

scientific research that supported 

industrial and commercial development. 

From 1893 the Institute was located in a 

large building in Exhibition Road, South 

Kensington but the running costs proved 

to be more than the Institute could 

afford and in 1899 half of the building 

was taken over by London University. It 

was demolished in the 1950s to make 

way for the present Imperial College; 

the 85-metre Queen’s Tower is now 

the only remaining part of the original 

building. 


The Royal Albert Hall 


The Royal Albert Hall is in Kensington 

Gore, directly opposite Hyde Park. It 

was originally to have been called the 

Central Hall of Arts and Sciences but 

when Queen Victoria opened it in 1871 

the name was changed to the Royal 

Albert Hall, as a dedication to her late 

husband. It is still one of London’s main 

concert halls and is in continual use for 

activities ranging from classical music 

concerts to indoor tennis. 



WORLD 

CHAMPIONSHIPS 

Monday 6th – Saturday 12th 

December 

1926 

Ivor Montagu had gained the support of 

his colleagues at the English Table Tennis 

Association for England to host the inaugural 

Championships by guaranteeing to cover any 

losses up to £300, an amount he had recently 

inherited from his grandfather. 

It must be remembered that currency has 

been greatly devalued since 1926 and 

this was the equivalent of about £15,000 

today, a substantial commitment for 

someone who was still only 22 years 

old. The actual deficit proved to be 

only half of this amount but the fact 

that he was prepared to sustain such 

a loss personally shows how dedicated 

he was to furthering the interests of 

international table tennis. 

It had been agreed at the conference in 

Berlin that invitations to take part would 

be sent to Austria, Czechoslovakia, 

“By decision of the 

International Table 

Tennis Federation, 

Tuesday December 7th 

1926, Events II, III, IV 

and V at the London 

Congress Tournament 

carry with them the 

World Championships 

Titles for 1926-7.” 

Lady Gladys Swaythling, 

donor of Swaythling Cup 


26 



Programme 

Cover 

England, Germany, Hungary, India, 

Sweden, Wales “and such other Nations 

as may before November 1st be accepted 

by majority vote of the above named”. 

No replies were received from any but 

the named Associations but of these all 

except Sweden sent teams. However, 

a Swedish player entered the men’s 

singles and Sweden was represented 

by a delegate at the Foundation 

Meeting held in conjunction with the 

Championships. 

An organising committee was formed, 

consisting of Ivor Montagu, who was 

also to be the Referee, Bill Pope, then 

the Secretary of the English Association, 

and Philip Warden, a founder member 

with Bromfield and Payne of the revived 

Ping Pong Association. 


Programme 

In spite of their organising duties both 

Ivor and Bill 

felt able to 

play in the 

tournament 

but, perhaps 

fortunately, 

neither of 

them survived 

the first round 

of the men’s 

singles. 

Ivor lost to Raja 

Gopal Suppiah 

of India, who 

went on to 

reach the semifinals, 

and Bill 

lost to Zoltan 

Mechlovits 

of Hungary, the eventual runnerup. 

Furthermore, they were no more 

successful in the men’s doubles, with 

different partners, again losing in round 

one. Warden entered only the minor 

men’s singles but he too was eliminated 

in his first played match. 

It had been clear from the initial meeting 

in Berlin that the primary purpose was 

to stage an international men’s team 

competition and that the individual 

events were of secondary importance; 

this was reflected in the schedule. The 

Championships ran from Monday 6th to 

Friday 11th December and the individual 

events did not start until Thursday 10th 

December. 

The organisers had originally supposed 

that there would be only singles events, 

as doubles were seldom played in 

English tournaments but it turned out 

that they were popular in most of the 

other countries taking part, so men’s 




28 






The team event was played as a group 

in which every team played every other, 

with individual matches the best of three 

games. All individual matches were 

played in each team match, which did 

not, as is now usual, end when one team 

had won a majority. Individual events 

were simple knock-outs, with matches 

the best of five in the men’ singles and 

doubles and the best of three in other 

events. 

Roland Jacobi, 1926 Men’s 

Singles Champion 

and mixed doubles events were duly 

included. 

The original decision to call the tournament 

the European Championships was 

rescinded at the opening session of the 

Foundation meeting; the programme, 

still showing the European title, contains 

the following note:“By decision of the 

International Table Tennis Federation, 

Tuesday December 7th 1926. Events II to 

V were, respectively, the men’s singles, 

ladies’ singles, men’s doubles and mixed 

doubles and it is not clear why the team 

events were not included. However, the 

Minutes of the Foundation meeting said 

that it was to be recognised as “the sole 

international match for men’s teams”. 

The tournament was conducted in 

accordance with the Laws of the English 

Association which were, in any case, used 

by most of the competing Associations. 

The majority of matches took place in 

the Memorial Hall, Farringdon but a 

few took place in other London venues. 

Ivor Montagu recalled: “We did the 

tournament pretty well in style, with 

the play held in the old Memorial Hall 

at Farringdon Street, first floor; special 

stands put in by Beck & Pollitzer to hold 

several hundreds of spectators; a posh 

champagne party for diplomats to do 

the draw beforehand; and the general 

press at last paying some attention to 

our sport, even The Times sending its 

correspondent to the finals”. 

Bill Pope, writing in the 1938 World 

Championships programme, remembered 

it rather differently: “The Memorial 

Hall holds under 1,000 spectators, 

but we took up all the centre space 

with four tables. Two rows of chairs ran 

around the walls, but we were never 

inconvenienced by these being packed. 

I remember in the final match we removed 

three tables and appealed to the 

spectators to bring their chairs around 

the one table”. 

The opening match, between England 

and India, was played on Monday 6th 

December at the premises of the Herga 

Lawn Tennis Club in Harrow, a northwest 

suburb of London. India had been 

regarded as one of the favourites to win 

the team event, as its players had been 

30 


outstandingly successful in tournaments 

in the previous season but the result 

was closer than expected. They won 

5-4, mainly because Percy Bromfield, the 

English No. 1, failed to win even a single 

game. He was dropped for the next 

match, against Austria, which England 

won by the same score. 

Meanwhile Hungary demonstrated its 

strength, easily defeating India, England 

and Wales. Its team included both 

Roland Jacobi and Zoltan Mechlovits, 

who were later to contest the final 

of the men’s singles; they each lost 

only one individual match in the team 

competition, both to the same player, 

Paul Flussmann of Austria. 

Czechoslovakia’s only success was a 

five-four win over Germany, who won 

no matches and these two teams both 

ended in the bottom places of the group. 

Wales lost to Austria and Hungary but 

defeated Czechoslovakia and Germany 

and lost only narrowly to England and 

India. 

make Hungary the first holders of the 

Swaythling Cup. 

There were 64 entries in the men’s 

singles, where there appears to have 

been some curious seeding. There were 

six first round matches in which both 

players were listed as national seeds, 

but nine in which neither player was 

seeded. 

The quarter-finalists in the men’s singles 

comprised three Indians, Fyzee, Suppiah 

and Ernest, two Hungarians, Mechlovits 

and Jacobi, two Austrians, Pillinger 

and Freudenheim - the latter having 

reached this stage by means of a series 

of walkovers - and a Welsh player, B. 

Penny. 



The final group match between Hungary 

and Austria was not decided until the 

last possible game of the last individual 

match, in which Munio Pillinger of 

Austria beat Dani Pecsi of Hungary 21- 

19. It meant that Austria and Hungary 

led the group with five wins each, 

somewhat to the embarrassment of the 

organisers, who had not foreseen this 

possibility. 

They had to arrange a play-off match 

at the Memorial Hall on Monday 

13th December. Hungary’s team was 

weakened by the absence of Jacobi, 

who had had to return home owing 

to the death of his father but his 

replacement, Bela von Kehrling, won 

the deciding match against Pillinger to 

Maria Mednyanszky, 1926 

Women’s Singles Champion 



Advertisement for 1926 World Championships 


In one semi-final Mechlovits defeated 

Suppiah in straight games; in the 

other, Jacobi had a somewhat harder 

match against Pillinger but eventually 

won three-one. The final was widely 

acclaimed as an example of top-class 

table tennis and the difference in skill 

between the two players was probably 

less than is suggested by Jacobi’s winning 

score of three-nil. In the all-Hungarian 

men’s doubles final Jacobi and his 

partner Dani Pecsi beat Mechlovits and 

von Kehrling three-one. 

The ladies’ singles attracted only 16 

entries and two of these withdrew 

before the event. Here the seeding 

seems to have been dealt with more 

rationally than in the men’s singles, with 

one seeded player in each quarter. In 

the semi-finals Dolly Gubbins of Wales 

convincingly beat Mrs Flussman of 

Austria but England’s Wendy Land lost 

equally easily to Maria Mednyansky of 

Hungary. In the final Mednyansky beat 

Gubbins two-nil and, in partnership 

with Mechlovits, she won also the mixed 

doubles title. The men’s minor singles, 

an event open to other than the top 

four seeded players of each Association, 

was won by Pillinger. He beat Frank 

Lawes of England. 

32 


The final accounts showed that the 

cost of the Championships had been 

£352, equivalent to about £18,000 

today. In broad terms, the main items 

of expenditure were £140 for the 

visitors’ travel and accommodation, 

£100 for printing, postage and other 

administrative costs and £75 for the hire 

of the Memorial Hall. The income from 

ticket sales and programmes was about 

£95 and that from entry fees was about 

£55. 

Another £50 was received in miscellaneous 

donations but by far the biggest 

contributions were from Ivor Montagu 

and his family, his mother donating 

the Swaythling Cup, his father hosting 

free the Foundation Meeting and Ivor 

making up the deficit from his personal 

funds. 

Those in the English Association who 

had initially been so apprehensive about 

the magnitude of the project, now 

recognised the significance of what had 

been achieved and the Conference in 

the following year, at which the English 

Table Tennis Association was formally 

established, passed with acclamation 

the following resolution: 

“That this Conference places on record 

its cordial appreciation of the work done 

in connection with the International 

Tournament by the Hon. Ivor Montagu 

and thanks him for the financial 

provision made by him which ensured 

the success of this historic competition.” 



Ivor Montagu, 

Referee for the 1926 




WORLD 

CHAMPIONSHIPS 

Friday 8th – Friday 15th 

February 

1935 

A contemporary journal, “Tennis 

Illustrated” reported “the crowds thronging 

the courts at South Kensington were 

reminiscent of Wimbledon and this 

support and the interest at Wembley, 

challenges comparison with finals 

day on the centre court there.” 

34 


Victor Barna (Hungary) 

Crowned Men’s Singles 

World Champion for the fifth 

time 



By 1935 the membership of the International 

Table Tennis Federation had 

more than doubled since its foundation 

in 1926 and this was reflected by a substantial 

increase in the numbers competing 

at the World Championships. 

New events had been added - in 1928 

women’s doubles and in 1933 a women’s 

team competition for the Corbillon 

Cup. The numbers of players in individual 

events had been raised to 128 in the 

men’s singles and 64 in all other events. 

New standards of organisation and presentation 

had been set by subsequent 

championships in Stockholm, Budapest, 

Berlin, Prague, Baden and Paris. It 

was clear that the 1935 Championships 

would be a much more demanding project 

than the inaugural one had been. 

Initially the task was to find a playing 

hall. There was at that time no arena 

in London set up for the playing of 

indoor sports such as table tennis and it 

would almost certainly be necessary to 

provide for the temporary installation 

of suitable flooring and lighting. 

There were several buildings in which 

this could be done but most of them 

were not designed to accommodate 

large numbers of spectators and it was 

decided eventually to use two venues. 

Marie Kettnerova 

(Czechoslovakia) 

World Champion in 1934, 

title retained in 1935 




Photo: The Victorian Web 

The Imperial Institute 

The team events and the initial rounds 

of individual events would be played 

on eight tables at the Imperial Institute 

building in South Kensington, which 

could accommodate up to 3,000 

spectators. The individual finals would 

be staged at the Empire Pool and Sports 

Arena in Wembley, where there were 

about 12,000 seats. 

In 1924 the British Empire Exhibition 

had been staged in Wembley, a northwestern 

suburb of London. 

Arthur Elvin, who had bought the 

Stadium, which had been the centrepiece 

of the Exhibition, wanted to develop 

the site as a multi-sport complex and 

in 1933 he built the Empire Pool and 

Sports Arena. 

It hosted the 1934 Empire Games and in 

1948 was the location for the Olympic 

swimming and boxing competitions. 

The swimming pool which gave the 

building its name could be boarded 

over and used for other sports. It was 

here that the finals of the 1935, 1938, 

1948 and 1954 World Table Tennis 

Championships were played. In 1977 a 

Conference Centre was added and in 

1978 it acquired its present name of 

“Wembley Arena”. 

As had happened in 1926, some 

members of the English Table Tennis 

Association’s Executive Committee were 

apprehensive at the likely expense of 

the Championships and their worries 

must have increased as it became clear 

that the original estimates were too low. 

36 


It had been expected that 12 National 

Associations would enter players but 

the number was actually 18, with a 

consequent 50% increase in the cost of 

hospitality. 

In addition to the expected costs of 

flooring, lighting and screening of 

windows to exclude daylight, it cost 

£550 to set up at the Imperial Institute 

a “centre court” with seating for 

2,000, equivalent to about £9,000 

today. However, it was agreed that 

once the commitment had been 

undertaken everything possible must 

be done to make the Championships a 

success; doubts were put aside and the 

organisation went ahead. 

The men’s team competition was played 

as two groups, with the group winners 

playing each other in the final. In group 

one the Hungarian team was unbeaten, 

winning 40 individual matches and 

losing only five. Czechoslovakia won 

group two, also unbeaten, although 

their victories were not achieved quite 

as easily as were those of Hungary. The 

final was won five-three by Hungary, 

although the games were very close and 

both teams at times held the lead. 

There was only one group in the 

women’s team event; a tie between 

Czechoslovakia and Hungary being the 

end result. The play-off was won threeone 

by Czechoslovakia, giving them 

the Corbillon Cup for the first time. For 

England, the success of the organisation 

was not matched by the performance 

of their players, who in both team 

competitions did not finish high enough 



The Programme 

for the 1935 World Championships 



in their groups to gain a place in the 

play-offs. In the men’s singles, the only 

non-seeded player to reach the quarterfinals 

was Maurice Bergl, the youngest 

member of the English team. In his 

quarter-final match against Kohn of 

Austria he led by two games to one and 

13-2 in the fourth. He extended his lead 

to 19-12 but inexplicably lost that game 

19-21 and the next game 9-21. 

Meanwhile, in the other quarter-finals, 

the Hungarians Miklos Szabados and 

Victor Barna beat Miroslav Hamr of 

Czechoslovakia and Stanislas Kolar of 

Czechoslovakia respectively, while Poland’s 

Aloisjy Ehrlich defeated Laszlo 

Bellak of Hungary. The final between 

Szabados and Barna was closely fought, 

the eventual winner being Barna by 

three games to two. In the men’s doubles, 

the men’s singles finalists formed 

the winning pair, beating Adrian Haydon 

of England and Austria’s Alfred Liebster. 

In the women’s singles quarter-finals, 

Magda Gal of Hungary beat Astrid 

Krebsbach of Germany, Marie Smidova 

of Czechoslovakia overcame Connie 

Wheaton of England, Marie Kettnerova 

of Czechoslovakia defeated Margaret 

Osborne, also from England while Miss 

Delacour of France accounted for Gertrude 

Kleinova of Czechoslovakia. 

Mednyansky and Anna Sipos defeating 

Kettnerova and Smidova. Meanwhile, 

Victor Barna completed a clean sweep 

of available titles. He won the mixed 

doubles in partnership with Anna 

Sipos, the runners-up being Kolar and 

Kettnerova. 

Many people had been doubtful at 

first that the Championships would 

attract much public support but in the 

weeks building up to the starting date 

it became apparent that there was 

enormous interest and the attendance 

proved to be beyond all expectations. 

The Treasurer of the English Table 

Tennis Association reported at the 

1935 Annual General Meeting that the 

total attendance had been over 20,000, 

whereas never before had more than 

1,000 people attended a table tennis 

tournament in England. 

A contemporary journal, “Tennis Illustrated” 

reported “the crowds thronging 

the courts at South Kensington were 

reminiscent of Wimbledon and this support 

and the interest at Wembley, challenges 

comparison with finals day on 

the centre court there.” 

The final deficit, just over £500, was 

less than had been feared and it was 

considered that the money had been 

well spent in the cause of table tennis. 

The final was between Gal and Kettnerova, 

who had both won their semi-finals 

three-nil against Smidova and Delacour 

respectively. 

The final was acclaimed in the press as 

one of the finest women’s matches ever 

seen, with Gal winning the first game 

but Kettnerova taking the next three 

to gain the title. The women’s doubles 

was another success for Hungary, Maria 

38 


WORLD 

CHAMPIONSHIPS 

Monday 24th – Monday 11st 

January 

1938 



Trude Pritzi (Austria) 



The 1935 experiment of playing all 

matches but the individual finals at a 

central London location had proved successful 

but spectator seating had been 

costly to install at the Imperial Institute 

and the 2,000 places provided had not, 

in any case, been really sufficient for 

the numbers attending. It was decided, 

therefore, to stage the preliminary 

rounds of the 1938 Championships at a 

venue which, although more expensive 

to hire, already had adequate seating. 

The choice was the Royal Albert Hall, in 

South Kensington, which could accommodate 

an attendance of over 6,000. 

Particular efforts were made in the 

area of publicity. Over 10,000 posters 

and more than 100,000 handbills were 

produced and distributed; in addition 

80,000 envelopes were addressed 

and posted. During play, there were 

also officials responsible for supplying 

journalists regularly with exclusive 

items of news and up-to-date results. 

The referee, in a tribute to the contribution 

of the volunteers, mentioned 

the variety of duties that had been undertaken, 

from escorting visitors and 

their luggage to their hotels to making 

sure that players arrived at the right 

time and right table for their matches. 


Royal Albert Hall 

The organisation of the Championships 

was a project far greater than 

anything that had previously been attempted 

in English table tennis. Over 

600 people were involved and the cost 

would have been prohibitive had not 

every one of them been a volunteer. 

In addition to those responsible for 

the conduct of play once it had started, 

there were committees to deal beforehand 

with hotels, seating, prizes, 

programmes and many more topics. 

Language was a particular problem as it 

was not always possible to find an interpreter 

at short notice. One official had 

the problem of explaining to a foreign 

captain who did not speak English, largely 

by means of sign language, that a fire 

alarm box was not the correct place in 

which to post a letter home. In spite of 

all the difficulties, the programme was 

completed on schedule and the outcome 

amply justified the efforts of those who 

had worked so hard to achieve success. 

It was the first World Championships 

played since an important change to the 

Laws had been introduced - the reduction 

of the height of the net from 6.75 inches 

to 6 inches. A contemporary report says 

that “the outstanding feature of the 

championships was the remarkable success 

of the lower net as an aid to attack. 

Unenterprising play is now practically 

dead and, with one or two exceptions, 

‘hitting to glory’ was the general rule”. 

In retrospect, this claim was somewhat 

premature, but certainly it was true of 

the men’s singles at the 1938 Championships, 

where Richard Bergmann 

40 


of Austria was the only mainly defensive 

player to reach the later stages. 

There were two groups of eight men’s 

teams in the Swaythling Cup competition. 

In group one, Austria lost only to 

England, England lost only to the U.S.A. 

and the U.S.A. lost only to Austria. Poland, 

which had been considered one of 

the strongest teams in the group, lost to 

Austria, the U.S.A. and, for the first time, 

to England. Therefore, the end result 

was a triple tie and a play-off was organised 

to decide the final group positions. 

Austria and the U.S.A. easily beat England, 

while Austria defeated the U.S.A. 

five-three to become the group winners. 

The replay of the match between Austria 

and the U.S.A. produced some spectacular 

table tennis. In his match against 

Sol Schiff, Bergmann won the first game 

22-20 and lost the second 18-21. In the 

third game Schiff, one of the hardest hitters 

in the world, kept up the attack but 

Bergmann seemed to be able to retrieve 

the ball from any angle and in the end 

it was Schiff who weakened, losing 7-21. 

The result of group two was much more 

clear-cut, with Hungary winning all of 

their matches, although they had some 

anxious moments against both Czechoslovakia 

and France. The final was held 

in the Royal Albert Hall on Monday 31st 

January, when Hungary beat Austria 

to regain the title they had last held 

in 1935. The women’s team winners 

were Czechoslovakia, who won all of 

their matches, seven of them without 

losing an individual match. Their only 

close matches were against Austria 

and Hungary, where the scores were 

three-one and three-two respectively. 



Vana Bohumil 

The men’s singles finalists were Bergmann 

of Austria and Bohumil Vana of 

Czechoslovakia. In the first game they 

seemed evenly matched, with first one 

then the other taking the lead and 

Bergmann eventually winning 22-20. 

However, in the second Vana completely 

changed his game and went 

on all-out attack, leaping about the 

playing area to ensure being in the 

best position for his powerful forehand 

hit. Bergmann was taken by surprise 

and, in spite of some spectacular 

retrieving, he lost the game 9-21. 

In the next two games Vana continued 

to attack, albeit more cautiously. He won 

both to gain his first world title. It was 

suggested afterwards that Bergmann 

had made a mistake in keeping to defensive 

play rather than making use of 

his own attacking capability but perhaps 

Vana’s extraordinary speed and agility 

did not give him the opportunity to do so. 



Conversely, the women’s singles final 

between Czechoslovakia’s Vlasta 

Depetrisova and Trude Pritzi of Austria 

was very disappointing. In the first 

game Depetrisova tried but failed, to 

hit Pritzi off the table. However, when 

Pritzi’s defence proved too good for 

her she reverted to just keeping the 

ball in play and the match dragged 

on, to the irritation of spectators. 

The winner was Pritzi three-nil but for 

the first time in England both players 

were booed and every attacking 

shot, however mild, was sarcastically 

applauded. The women’s doubles, between 

the Hungarian pair Dora Beregi 

and Ida Ferenczy against the Czechoslovaks 

Vera Votrubcova and Depetrisova 

was more entertaining. All were natural 

attackers and the games were close, 

Votrubcova and Depetrisova winning 

the match 25-23, 21-13, 18-21, 21-18. 

The men’s doubles produced one of 

the surprises of the Championships. 

On form, the Hungarian pair of Victor 

Barna and Laszlo Bellak was expected 

easily to beat Schiff and Jimmy 

McClure of the U.S.A. but the match 

went to a fifth game. In this game, after 

the Hungarians had led 15-10 and 

then 19-16, McClure hit six outright 

winners in the next seven rallies to win 

the game 22-20 and hence the match. 

Interior of the 

Royal Albert Hall 

the competition had proved to be 

a wise one. The problems of adapting 

a building not designed to accommodate 

spectators had been avoided 

and the greater number of seats 

available had led to a substantial increase 

in attendance throughout. 

Moreover, after the losses that had been 

incurred in 1926 and 1935, it was with 

some gratification that the ETTA Treasurer 

was able to report to the 1938 Annual 

General Meeting that there had been a 

profit of nearly £300 on the Championships, 

an achievement that few, if any, 

of his successors were likely to emulate. 


The result of the mixed doubles also 

was unexpected. Bellak, playing with 

Wendy Woodhead of England, beat 

Vana and Vera Votrubcova of Czechoslovakia. 

It was Bellak’s first World title, 

having been three times the losing 

finalist in the men’s singles event. 

Wendy Woodhead became the first 

English woman to hold a World title. 

The decision to change the venue for 

42 


WORLD 

CHAMPIONSHIPS 

Wednesday 4th – Wednesday 11th 

February 

1948 


The request to do so was granted in 1947 and an 

Organising Committee was set up with Ivor 

Montagu as Chairman and Bill Pope as 

Secretary, posts that they had occupied 

for the 1926 Championships. 



Funds were low and there was a general 

air of austerity when the English Table 

Tennis Association returned to full operation 

after World War Two. Nevertheless, 

it was agreed that hosting the 1948 

World Championships would be a fitting 

way to celebrate the Association’s 

21st Anniversary. 

The request to do so was granted in 

1947 and an Organising Committee was 

set up with Ivor Montagu as Chairman 

and Bill Pope as Secretary, posts that 

they had occupied for the 1926 Championships. 

Other members with long experience 

included Godfrey Decker, the 

former Secretary of the English Table 

Tennis Association, and Corti Woodcock, 

donor in 1929 of the St Bride Vase. 

War damage had left central London 

with a shortage of suitable halls and the 

decision was taken to stage the whole 

Championships in Wembley, at the Empire 

Pool and Sports Arena. Undoubtedly, 

this presented some difficulties, 

especially for Godfrey Decker, who was 

responsible for equipment. 

The level of lighting in the area was not 

considered adequate for table tennis 

and he was faced with the problem of 

providing for each of the eleven tables 

individual sets of lights, which had to be 

suspended from a roof some 25 metres 

high. The size of the playing area meant 

also that the normal score indicators 

were not large enough to be seen easily 

from the spectator seats and special 

arrangements were needed to ensure 

that those watching could keep track 

of the play. Many National Associations 

were still suffering in one way or another 

from the effects of the war and 

there was some concern that the entry 

might not be sufficient to justify the 

costs but this fear proved groundless. A 

total of 25 countries entered teams for 

the Swaythling Cup competition and 16 

for the Corbillon Cup, more than ever 

before. The individual events also attracted 

record entries. 

In contrast, spectator support for all but 

the individual finals was disappointing 

owing largely, it was believed, to transport 

difficulties. In those days petrol for 

private cars was strictly rationed and 

around the time of the Championships 

the allowance was temporarily suspended 

altogether, so that those who had 

planned to drive to the venue were unable 

so to do. The result was that instead 

of the hoped-for profit, there was a loss 

of about £250, a substantial proportion 

of the English Table Tennis Association’s 

then funds. 


Richard Bergmann (England) 1948 

World Men’s Singles champion 

44 


The cover for the 1948 


Programme 


Vana winning all three of his matches 

in two straight games and Andreadis 

beating Amouretti and Haguenauer. 

The only unsuccessful Czech player was 

Laszlo Stipek; he lost to both Bordrez 

and Haguenauer. 

There were two groups in the Corbillon 

Cup competition and these were won by 

England and Hungary; as in the men’s 

team competition, both were unbeaten 

in their groups, Hungary losing only one 

game in its seven matches. In the final 

England, who had first won this event in 

Paris in the previous year, beat Hungary 

three-one, Vera Thomas losing the only 

match to Gisi Farkas. 


The Swaythling Cup competition was 

played in four groups, which were won 

by the U.S.A., Czechoslovakia, France 

and Austria, each of them being unbeaten 

in their own group. In the first semifinal 

between the U.S.A. and Czechoslovakia 

Richard Miles, who had not lost 

a game in the group, was beaten by 

both Ivan Andreadis and Bohumil Vana. 

Czechoslovakia won the match 5-2, their 

only defeats being sustained by Frantisek 

Tokar, who lost easily to both Miles 

and Garrett Nash. 

In the other semi-final France beat Austria 

even more decisively, with Guy Amouretti 

and Michel Haguenauer each winning 

twice and Maurice Bordrez once, 

Austria’s only success being Herbert 

Just’s defeat of Bordrez. The final was 

won five-two by Czechoslovakia, with 

It must have been particularly frustrating 

for Hungary that England’s success 

was due mainly to the efforts of a former 

Hungarian player, Dora Beregi. She 

had married an Englishman, John Trevanney 

and acquired British nationality; 

she won both of her singles matches 

two-nil and, in partnership with Vera 

Thomas, the doubles. 

The first quarter of the men’s singles 

included two players who, like Dora 

Beregi, had acquired British nationality. 

One was Victor Barna, who had won 

14 individual world titles between 1930 

and 1935 and who had six times been 

a member of the successful Hungarian 

Swaythling Cup team; the other was 

Richard Bergmann, twice a winner of 

the World men’s singles. He had played 

in the winning Austrian men’s team at 

the 1936 World Championships. In their 

quarter-finals, Bergmann beat Just but 

Barna lost to Andreadis. 

The third quarter-final between Miles 

and Vana was one of the most spectacular 

matches of the tournament, with 

both players attacking throughout. Un- 




The Empire Pool in London 

der the regulations, either player could 

claim a five-minute rest period after the 

third game. Miles chose to do so when 

he was leading by two games to one. It 

was widely believed that this cost him 

the match, as the break disturbed the 

rhythm of his play. He was eventually 

beaten in five games. 

Meanwhile, in the fourth quarter-final, 

Amouretti of France was too steady for 

Tokar, winning three-nil. 


Gisi Farkas the 1948 Women’s Singles 

World Champion 


Gisi Farkas, 

very much 

the pin up 

girl in 1948 

In the first semi-final, Andreadis played 

a consistent game of forehand drives, 

against which Bergmann at first tried 

occasional counter-attacks. However, 

when all of these were comfortably returned 

by Andreadis, he quickly reverted 

to the defensive style for which he 

was so well known and set out to wear 

Andreadis down. 

Nevertheless, Andreadis gained a two 

games to one lead and when in the 

fourth game the score was 9-4 in his favour 

he knew he had only to maintain 

that advantage until the time limit was 

reached to win the match. However, for 

some reason he chose instead to go for 

quick winners and proceeded to lose 

the next six points; his confidence gone, 

that game and then the match was lost. 

He was another victim of Bergmann’s 

extraordinary staying power. The other 

semi-final was more one-sided and, although 

Amouretti took the first game, 

Vana easily won the next three to produce 

the expected result. 

The men’s singles final was thus a repeat 

of the 1938 World men’s singles, 

when Vana had hit through Bergmann’s 

defence to gain the title but this time 

Bergmann had clearly decided on a different 

approach. From the start he went 

46 



Play in progress in the 

Wembley Arena 



on the attack and Vana was 1-8 down 

almost before he realised what was happening. 

He lost that game but in the next he recovered 

some of his own attacking skill 

and levelled the match score. For the 

next two closely-fought games Bergmann 

played more defensively with 

only occasional counter-attacks but in 

the deciding game he once again took 

the initiative, alternating fierce drives 

with delicate drop shots. They changed 

ends at 10-4 to Bergmann and thereafter 

Vana was never really in contention; 

after two hours’ play Bergmann 

regained the title that he had last won 

in 1939. 

In the quarter-finals of the women’s singles, 

England’s Vera Thomas beat Trude 

Pritzi of Austria, who had been the 

champion in 1937 and 1938; Vera Pokorna 

(formerly Depetricova) of Czechoslovakia 

overcame Karpati of Hungary; Gisi 

Farkas also from Hungary accounted for 

the American Leah Thall and Angelica 

Rozeanu of Romania defeated the Scot 

Helen Elliott, the scores being three-nil 

in all four matches. 

Similarly, the scores in both semi-finals 

were also three-nil, with Thomas beating 

Pokorna and Farkas ending the 

hopes of Rozeanu. However, the latter 

At the 1948 World 

Championships Victor Barna 

Represented England 

match was decided in a very controversial 

way and many people thought that 

Rozeanu should have been the winner. 

Rozeanu won the first two games but 

Farkas defended grimly in the next two 

to even the score and in the final game 

they were so evenly matched that at the 

end of 20 minutes the score was 22-22. 

Under the “Time Limit” rule, they 

should have been warned at this stage 

that they would be allowed five minutes 

more and that the next point would decide 

the game, but the umpire failed to 

give this warning. They played on until, 

after 26 minutes, the score reached 29- 

27 in favour of Farkas. 

She claimed the match but there was 

a protest and the matter was referred 

to the Jury. The Jury was told that after 

22-all Rozeanu had won what should 

have been the decisive point but it was 

decided that the match had been completed 

“irregularly” and so could not be 



awarded to either player and must be 

replayed. It is the result of the replayed 

match, won clearly this time by Farkas, 

that appears in the records. 

In the final, Thomas managed to level 

the scores at two-all but in the fifth 

game the defence of Farkas was just too 

good for her and the 1947 champion retained 

her title. 

A surprise in the men’s doubles was the 

performance of the non-playing captain 

of the English men’s team, Adrian 

Haydon. Now 37 years old, he had long 

since retired from serious international 

play but with Ferenc Soos of Hungary as 

his partner he reached the final, losing 

to the strong Czechoslovak pair of Vana 

and Stipek. 

The women’s doubles final was an all- 

British match, in which Peggy Franks 

and Vera Thomas beat Dora Beregi and 

Helen Elliott fairly comfortably threeone, 

but the mixed doubles was much 

more competitive. Richard Miles and 

Thelma Thall of the U.S.A. lost the first 

two games to Vana and Mrs Pokorna but 

Thall in particular fought back strongly 

and she and her partner went on to win 

three-two. 

lost to the eventual winner, Bernie Bernstein. 

In a later challenge match Bernstein 

was beaten by Dolly Evans, who 

had been unable to take part in the 

knock-out competition. 

An outstanding feature of the organisation 

was again the support given by the 

volunteer workers. The war had been 

over for only a few years and people 

were still struggling to return to normal 

life. There was real concern whether 

enough of them would be able and willing 

to contribute towards the task of 

organisation but there need not have 

been any worries. 

The annual report of the English Table 

Tennis Association for 1947-1948 stated: 

“The thanks of the Association are due 

to those hundreds of table tennis fans 

who volunteered to work as stewards 

and umpires, some spending the whole 

of the time on the job, sacrificing their 

holidays and business interests to work 

for the success of the Championships”. 

An innovation in 1948 was the Jubilee 

Cup, a mixed singles event for men and 

women who had played in the inaugural 

Championships in 1926. The entrants 

included Zoltan Mechlovits, the 1928 

World men’s singles champion, and 

two former holders of the English Open 

women’s singles title, Kathleen Graves 

(formerly Berry) and Dolly Evans (formerly 

Gubbins). 

After his opponents in the first two 

rounds withdrew, Ivor Montagu reached 

the semi-finals of this event, where he 

48 


World 

Championships 


Monday 5th - Wednesday - 14th 

April 1954 



The 1948 and 1954 World Championships 

had a common theme; the 

former had been held during the 

21st anniversary year of the English 

Table Tennis Association and the latter 

was to be the 21st time on which 

the Championships had been played. 

Members of the English Table Tennis 

Association’s Executive Committee 

were keen to host the event but 

knew it would be a substantial undertaking, 

so they submitted to the 

1952 Annual General Meeting a full 

statement of the expected costs and 

sought an indication of the extent to 

which players, clubs and organisations 

were prepared to support the venture. 

To their relief, there was unanimous endorsement 

of the proposal; people were 

prepared not only to contribute to the 

cost but also to volunteer for the many 

duties entailed in staging the Championships. 

It was decided to proceed. 

The Empire Pool and Sports Arena 

had proved a very satisfactory venue 

for the 1948 Championships, as 

well as for several subsequent English 

Opens. Good relationships had 

been established with the management 

and it was the obvious choice. 

Once again there were eleven tables in 

use and this time each was managed by a 

team of three qualified umpires. In 1950 

the English Table Tennis Association 

had introduced the first national qualifying 

scheme for umpires and for many 

this was their first opportunity to officiate 

at an event of international status. 

There were also about 50 subsidiary 

officials. They undertook such tasks 

as operating scoring machines, shepherding 

players to the correct tables 

and making sure that score cards were 

returned promptly. The overall result 

was that the playing arena was organised 

in a much more systematic manner 

than at the previous Championships. 

The entry was even larger than had been 

expected. Regulations at the time limited 

the number of players in the first rounds 

proper of the individual events, it was 

necessary in all events to have several 

qualifying rounds. There was similar over 

subscription in the men’s team event, 

where 12 countries had to play in qualifying 

groups of four to determine who 

would be drawn into the main groups 

competing for the Swaythling Cup. 

Only in the women’s team event was it 

found possible to accept all of the entries 

direct into the main competition. In both 

team events the winner was decided by a 

play-off among the three group winners. 

Group A of the men’s event was won by 

England, whose team included former 

World Champions Richard Bergmann 

and Johnny Leach. They were unbeaten 

but their match against France was much 

closer than the five-three score line suggests. 

Bergmann lost his first game 

against René Roothoft 5-21 but went on 

to win the next 18-12 under the timelimit 

rule. In the final game, with both 

players defending tenaciously, the score 

after 20 minutes was 5-5; it was then 

that Bergmann produced a series of brilliant 

attacking strokes, ending with a 

spectacular kill to win the decisive point. 

Meanwhile, group B was dominated by 

Japan. They won all their matches except 

the one against Hungary five-nil. 

In that match Ferenc Sido, the reigning 

World Champion, could not cope with 

the speed and directional changes of his 

Japanese opponents; he was beaten by 

both Ichiro Ogimura and Yoshie Tomita. 

50 


In the key match of group C Czechoslovakia, 

although without Bohumil 

Vana, managed to defeat Yugoslavia 

five-three and won the group. 

The first play-off was between England 

and Japan and the superiority of the 

visitors was soon evident. Ogimura won 

all of his matches and Tomita beat Bergmann 

and Simons to make the final score 

five-two. In the second play-off, between 

Czechoslovakia and England, the English 

team was clearly still feeling the effects 

of their previous night’s efforts against 

Japan and they were below their best. 


Ivan Andreadis won three matches 

and Vaclav Tereba beat Bergmann and 

Leach, to give Czechoslovakia victory 

by five matches to three. Two defeats 

for England meant the third play-off 

between Japan and Czechoslovakia became 

effectively the final of the competition. 

It proved to be a close contest. 

Andreadis, one of the few players who 

seemed able to deal with the Asian 

style of play, beat all three Japanese 

players, including Ogimura. Stipek 

beat Tomita but with Tereba losing all 

his matches, the outcome depended 

on the contest between Stipek and 

Kishiji Tamasu. Stipek fought hard but 

Tamasu was too good and for the first 

time Japan won the Swaythling Cup. 

Japan lost only one match in group 

A of the women’s team event, when 

Trude Pritzi just managed to beat 

Kiiko Watanabe. Group B was headed 

by England, who almost equalled 

the Japanese result by dropping only 

two matches, Kathleen Best losing to 

Krejcova of Czechoslovakia and Diane 

Rowe to Audrey Bates of Wales. 


Ichiro Ogimura 

The Men’s Singles winner 

The crucial match in group C was between 

Romania, the holders, and Hungary, 

a match in which Rozeanu suffered 

her only loss in the tournament, 

beaten by Koczian. Play started late 

and was further delayed by a disagreement 

about the score in the game between 

Eva Koczian of Hungary and 

Ella Zeller of Romania. Matters culminated 

with Koczian personally altering 

the score indicators; by the time the 

match ended, well after midnight, with 

a victory for Hungary, there were only 

about 20 spectators left in the arena. 

For the play-off against Hungary, England 

rested Diane Rowe, who had 

seemed to be off form and replaced 

her with Ann Haydon. Alas for the host 

nation, this did not bring the hoped 

for improvement and Hungary won 

three-one. Rosalind Rowe’s defeat of 

Koczian was the only English success. 



However, their play-off against Japan 

was much closer and the result unexpected. 

Japan established a two matches 

to nil lead after Tanaka beat Rosalind 

Rowe and Watanabe overcame her sister 

Diane. When the Japanese pair won 

the first game of the doubles, it looked 

as though the match was virtually over. 

But the twins rallied to win the doubles, 

Rosalind beat Watanabe and Diane won 

the deciding game against Tanaka 22- 

20, to give England a three-two victory. 

In the third play-off Japan defeated 

Hungary three-one, with only Gisi 

Gervai (formerly Farkas) winning a 

match, so that the Japan women, with 

two wins out of three, matched the 

achievement of the Japanese men by 

securing their first World Team title. 

rallies lasting only a few strokes. Flisberg 

narrowly won one game but in the others 

his score barely reached double figures; 

it was obvious from an early stage 

that Ogimura would be the winner. 

Both of the Rowe twins reached the 

quarter-finals of the women’s singles 

but progressed no further, Rosalind losing 

to Koczian and Diane to Fuji Eguchi 

of Japan. In the other quarter-finals Angelica 

Rozeanu of Romania, the holder, 

beat Shirley Jones of Wales and Tanaka 

defeated England’s Kathleen Best. 

In the first semi-final, Koczian was unable 

to repeat her Corbillon Cup win 

over Rozeanu, who won the third and 

final game after being 15-20 in arrears. 

The all-Japanese semi-final between 

In the quarter-finals of the men’s singles, 

Bergmann convincingly beat Tomita 

three-nil but in an earlier round 

he had struggled to defeat a young 

German player, Helmut Hanschmann, 

in a match in which four of the five 

games went to the time limit. Ogimura 

reached the quarter-finals having 

lost only one game and he continued 

in this form by routing the titleholder, 

Sido, in a three straight games 

match which lasted only 17 minutes. 

In his semi-final with Tage Flisberg of 

Sweden, Bergmann never looked confident 

and he made a number of errors 

against what seemed like easy returns, 

perhaps deceived by Flisberg’s exploitation 

of the thick sponge covering of 

his racket. The semi-final between Andreadis 

and Ogimura was closer and more 

exciting but in the end Ogimura’s vigorous 

attack was too much for the Czech’s 

defence and he won in four games. 

The final was, by most accounts, one of 

the poorest ever as a spectacle, with most 

Ichiro Ogimura 

Set new standards 


52 


Eguchi and Tanaka was a match of prolonged 

counter-hitting, with the more 

accurate Tanaka winning three-one. 

Tanaka continued in this manner 

against Rozeanu in the final but Rozeanu’s 

remarkable defence combined 

with the occasional quick attack secured 

her the title for the fifth successive 

year; thus she matched the 

1926-31 record of Maria Mednyanszky. 

A highlight of the men’s doubles was 

the performance of Victor Barna and 

Michel Haguenauer. Barna, who was 

now in his forties, had first won this title 

in 1929; his partner was 38 years old. 

Nevertheless, on their way to the final 

they beat the no.2 seeds, Bergmann and 

Leach in addition to the strong Czech 

pair, Adolf Slar and Vaclav Tereba. 

Meanwhile, in the other half of the 

draw, both men’s singles finalists were 

in the same quarter but neither reached 

the final. Flisberg, partnered with Aloisjy 

Ehrlich of France, lost to the all-French 

pair Roothoft and Michel Lanskoy in the 

longest match of the whole event, decided 

only at 22-20 in the fifth game. 

The French pair was then beaten by 

Ogimura and Tomita, who in the semifinal 

lost to Zarko Dolinar and Vilim 

Harangozo of Yugoslavia. In the final, 

Barna and Haguenauer had no answer 

to the power of Dolinar and Harangozo, 

who won the title without conceding 

a game in any of their matches. 

In the women’s doubles the Rowe twins, 

who had won the title in 1951, were 

expected to do well but it was another 

English pair, Kathleen Best and 15 

year old Ann Haydon, who produced 

some surprising results to reach the final. 

In successive rounds they beat a 

Japanese pair and the seeded Helen 

Elliott of Scotland and Leah Neuberger 

of the U.S.A., followed by a fifthgame 

21-19 victory over the defending 

champions Farkas and Rozeanu. 

They played well in an entertaining final 

but the experience of Diane and Rosalind 

Rowe gave them the edge; they 

regained the title on their 21st birthday. 

There were surprises, too, in the mixed 

doubles. The holders Sido and Rozeanu 

were eliminated in the second round 

by the Czech pair Laszlo Stipek and 

Eliska Kerjcova, who later beat Ogimura 

and Watanabe but lost in the quarterfinals 

to Barna and Rosalind Rowe. 

In the semi-finals Barna and Rosalind 

Rowe lost to the eventual winners, 

Andreadis and Gervai, who beat Tomita 

and Eguchi three-one in the final. 

Once again the Jubilee Cup was staged 

on the same basis as in 1948. Ivor Montagu 

was drawn in the first round 

against Roy Evans but this match between 

two Presidents of the International 

Table Tennis Federation failed to 

materialise when Roy Evans withdrew. 

After another walk-over Ivor reached 

the quarter-final, where he lost to the 

veteran Alec Brook, thus maintaining 

his record of having competed in 

almost every World Championships, 

without winning a single played match! 

In terms of entries, this was larger than 

any previous World Championships, 

with some 350 players from 37 countries 

taking part. It was also by far the most 

ambitious project so far undertaken by 

the English Table Tennis Association and 

managing the paperwork, in the days of 

manual typewriters and no copying facilities, 

was a gargantuan task on its own. 

Yet the typing section managed to pro- 




duce during the course of the Championships 

no fewer than 39 printed bulletins, 

each in the three official languages 

(English, French, Spanish) of the International 

Table Tennis Federation. The 

papers contained the latest results and 

news, as well as the thousands of other 

documents associated with the organisation 

and management of the events. 

Perhaps if these people and others, 

who had to work 15 hours and more 

a day, had known in advance what 

would be required, they would have 

thought twice about accepting the responsibility. 

However, when it was all 

over they could feel nothing but pride 

in what they had together achieved. 


Angelica Rozeanu (Romania) 

The Women’s Singles Champion in London 

54 


European 

Championships 

April 

Wednesday 

13th - 20th 

1966 




The leading article in the April 1962 issue 

of the English Table Tennis Association’s 

official magazine “Table Tennis” 

began “As we go to press, the news 

comes that the ETTA has decided to exercise 

the option it holds on the staging 

of the next European Championships”. 

It continued to report that sponsorship 

had been secured and that the Championships 

would be staged in 1964, being 

the first major international event to 

be held at the new National Recreation 

Centre then being built on the site of 

the old Crystal Palace; building being 

due for completion by the end of 1963. 

The competition was expected to be 

similar in scale to the 1954 World Championships 

and it was announced that 

plans were already in hand to set up the 

organisation that would be needed. It 

was not to be. 

At that time, Germany was divided in 

two. The western part, known as the 

Federal Republic of Germany, was closely 

associated with western European 

countries and North America, while the 

eastern part, the German Democratic 

Republic, was one of a number of eastern 

European states allied to the Soviet 

Union. Both republics were members of 

the European Table Tennis Union and 

wanted to enter teams and players separately 

for the Championships. 

England’s option to host the event. 

However, by 1965 the situation had 

eased a little and in October of that year 

it was announced that the English Table 

Tennis Association, now confident that 

the necessary assurances on entry to the 

United Kingdom would be given, had 

agreed to organise the 5th European 

Championships in 1966. It was an ambitious 

undertaking; all of the previous 

arrangements had been abandoned and 

there was less than a year for them to be 

replaced. 

The National Recreation Centre was 

now in frequent use and was unlikely 

to be free for the period required, so it 

was decided instead to hold the Championships 

at the same venue as the 

1954 World Championships, the Empire 

Pool and Sports Arena in Wembley. The 

premises had been used on a number 

of subsequent occasions for the English 

Open Championships, so staff members 

were familiar with the requirements of 

table tennis. 

Furthermore, the English Table Tennis 

Association had established a good relationship 

with the management and fortunately, 

it was available in April 1966 

for the necessary 10 days - eight days of 

competition and two days for preparation 

and dismantling. 

However, in 1963 the countries forming 

the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation 

(NATO) took a joint decision not to recognise 

the division of Germany and, as 

a consequence, the British government 

could give no assurance that players 

from the German Democratic Republic 

would be granted entry visas. Free entry 

for all member countries was a requirement; 

the European Table Tennis Union 

had no choice other than to withdraw 

The European Championships followed 

the same sequence as the World Championships, 

starting with men’s and women’s 

team competitions followed, after 

a “rest day”, by the usual range of individual 

events. Both team competitions 

were in three stages. In the first stage, 

teams were drawn into eight groups, 

taking into account their current rankings; 

in the second stage teams were allocated 

into groups on the basis of their 

56 


first stage results, with the third stage 

seeing the first placed teams in the two 

principal groups contesting the title, the 

second placed team competing for third 

place and so on. 

A total of 30 men’s teams and 24 women’s 

teams took part and the 18 tables 

available were in almost continuous 

use throughout three daily sessions; the 

team events occupied almost half of the 

time of the Championships. 

In the first stage, almost all of the group 

winners were undefeated, not losing a 

single individual match. The only men’s 

team without a perfect record was Sweden. 

They lost one match against Switzerland 

and one against England, whose 

sole loss was to the East German team. 

Meanwhile, in the women’s event, the 

Soviet Union and Poland each lost one 

individual match, to Austria and Poland 

respectively. 

The Swedish men won all their matches 

in one of the top two second stage 

groups but in the other the Soviet Union 

and Yugoslavia were level with two wins 

each. The Soviet Union was placed first, 

only as a result of the outcome of the 

contest between the two teams. There 

were similarly close results in both of 

the top two second stage groups in the 

women’s event. 

In one, the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia 

each won two matches; again 

the Soviet Union was placed first as a 

result of winning the match between 

the two teams. In the other group there 

was a triple tie, with Hungary, Romania 

and West Germany each winning two 

matches. The outcome was decided by 

the number of individual matches won 

and lost with Hungary being placed first, 

West Germany second and Romania 

third. In both the men’s and the women’s 

second stage matches, the Soviet 

Union’s defeats resulted from their risky 

decision, after winning two matches, to 

play reserves in their third matches. 

Although ranked only seventh in Europe 

the Soviet Union’s men’s team took an 

early lead in the final against the favourites, 

Sweden, with Sarkis Sarkhojan 

beating Karl-Johan Bernhardt in the 

opening match. The balance was restored 

when Stanislav Gomozkov lost to 

the experienced Hans Alser but the third 

match was in the balance almost to the 

end with Anatoly Amelin taking Kjell 

Johansson to a close third game. The Soviet 

Union then again drew level with 

a victory for Gomozkov over Bernhardt 

and it became clear that the next match 

would be crucial to the outcome. 

To everyone’s surprise, Sarkhojan won 

the first game against Johansson, ranked 

some 20 places higher, and in the second 

he recovered from a 5-11 deficit to reach 

20-all, only to lose 23-25. The deciding 

game was even more dramatic. Sarkhojan 

built up a 13-4 lead and it looked as 

though the Soviet Union was on course 

for the title. However, Johansson staged 

a remarkable recovery to level the scores 

at 15-all. He was again behind at 17-18 

with Sarkhojan serving but held on to 

take the game 21-18. From then on the 

Swedes, their confidence restored, were 

unstoppable and they duly won the 

match five-two. 

The women’s team final between Hungary 

and the Soviet Union was much 

less exciting although, as in the men’s 

event, the first individual match went to 

Russia when Erzsebet Jurik lost to Svetlana 

Grinberg in straight games. Next 

into the action for Hungary came Eva 

Koczian and, playing at her best, she 




Maria Alexandru 

The Women’s Singles winner 


beat both Signe Pajsarv and Grinberg to 

give Hungary a two-one lead and then, 

paired with Jurik, took the doubles. The 

Hungarians always looked the likely 

winners but the result might have been 

different had the Russians not been 

without one of their strongest players, 

Zoja Rudnova. 

An early shock in the men’s singles was 

the first round defeat of the sixth seed, 

Istvan Korpa of Yugoslavia, beaten by 

Czechoslovakia’s Stefan Kollarovits. Kollarovits 

then showed that this was not 

a freak result by advancing three more 

rounds to the semi-final, on the way 

beating another seed, Dorin Giurgiuca 

of Romania. All of the other seeds progressed 

to the quarter-finals, with the 

exception of West Germany’s Eberhard 

Schöler; he was beaten by Peter Roszas 

of Hungary after having established a 

two-nil lead. Kollarovits’ progress was 

finally halted by Johansson but in the 

58 


other half of the draw his compatriot, 

Vladimir Miko, beat Johansson’s fellow 

Swede, Hans Alser. Miko went on to 

defeat Amelin, who in his quarter-final 

had proved too strong for Roszas and 

so qualified to meet Johansson in the 

final. In the final Miko seemed unable 

to maintain the form he had shown earlier 

and Johansson took the title with a 

comfortable three-nil win. 

There were no surprises in the opening 

rounds of the women’s singles but two 

of the seeded players failed to reach 

the quarter-finals. In the third round 

the 1962 champion, Agnes Simon of 

West Germany lost to Pajsarv and Jurik 

was beaten by East Germany’s Gabriele 

Geissler, but neither of the winners 

survived the quarter-finals. Pajsarv lost 

three-nil to Koczian and Geissler suffered 

a similar defeat against Grinberg. 

The other semi-finalists were Romania’s 

Maria Alexandru and Czechoslovakia’s 

Marta Luzova, who beat respectively 

the two English players Diane Schöler 

and Mary Wright. 


Kjell Johansson 

European Men’s Singles Champion 




Play in progress at the 1966 

European Championships 

Photo : ITTF Archives 

In the first semi-finals, Koczian found 

Alexandru’s defence impenetrable, losing 

in straight games, and in the other 

Grinberg outhit Luzova to win threeone. 

In the final, games were won by 

the two players alternately, with Alexandru 

showing the greater staying power 

to win three-two. 

The men’s doubles went more or less 

in accordance with expectations, with 

three of the four seeded pairs progressing 

to the semi-finals without too much 

difficulty. The only seeded pair not to 

do so was Giurgiuca and Reti of Romania. 

They were beaten in the second 

round by the Hungarian pair Roszas and 

Harangi. These promptly lost in the next 

round to Amelin and Gomozkov, who 

then departed at the hands of Czechoslovakia’s 

Miko and Stanek in the semifinal. 

In the other semi-final the top seeds, 

Alser and Johansson, were given a hard 

fight by Korpa and his partner Edvard 

Vecko of Yugoslavia before reaching the 

final. Here, in another closely contested 

match, they trailed Miko and Stanek by 

two games to nil, before winning the 

last three games to secure the title. 

The women’s doubles was even more 

predictable and the only seeded pair 

to have any problem as far as the semifinals 

was the English partnership of 

Diane Schöler (née Rowe) and Mary 

Wright (née Shannon). They had won 

the title at both of the previous two 

Championships. In the quarter-finals 

they faced the formidable Romanians 

Alexandru and Eleanora Mihalca and 

struggled before winning in five games. 

Alas, for the host nation that was their 

last success; they were beaten in the 

semi-finals by the Czechoslovakian pairing 

of Marta Luzova and Irena Mikocziova. 

The other finalists were Koczian 

60 


and Jurik, who defeated the Czech pair 

to add the doubles title to the one they 

had gained in the team event. 

The quarter-finalists in the mixed doubles 

comprised three pairs from Hungary, 

two each from Czechoslovakia and 

Romania and one from England; after 

the strong showing by the Soviet Union 

in other events it was surprising that all 

four of their pairs were eliminated before 

this stage. After the quarter-finals 

each of the remaining pairs was from 

a different country - Roszas and Lukacs 

from Hungary, Giurgiuca and Alexandru 

from Romania, Miko and Luzova from 

Czechoslovakia and England’s Chester 

Barnes and Mary Wright. 

disappointment was that unusually bad 

weather resulted in public attendance 

being less on some days than had been 

anticipated. 

However, it was generally agreed that 

the outcome had justified the English 

Table Tennis Association’s undertaking 

the enterprise at such short notice and 

fully made up for the frustration felt 

when the opportunity had been lost of 

staging the event in 1964. 


Miko and Luzova reached the final by 

beating Giurgiuca and Alexandru threetwo 

while Barnes and Wright gave the 

host Association its only finalists. They 

overcame Rozsas and Lukacs in four 

games and kept English hopes alive by 

taking the first game of the final and 

losing the second only at 20-22 but then 

they seemed to lose their touch and conceded 

the next two games 3-21, 9-21. 

It was the first European Championships 

in which all the member Associations, 

then numbering 30, had entered players. 

Therefore, the tournament was on a 

scale comparable to the last major international 

table tennis competition held 

in London, the 1954 World Championships 

and full advantage was taken of 

the lessons learned from that undertaking. 

Particular attention was paid to good 

communication with spectators and the 

press, keeping them informed promptly 

of results and any changes to the playing 

schedule. There was good television 

coverage by the BBC and the only slight 



ITTF Pro Tour 

Grand Finals 

Thursday 24th - Sunday 27th November 2011 

At the KAL Cup Pro Tour Grand Finals 

staged in the Korean capital city of Seoul 

in December 2010, China was notable 

by its absence; one year later when the 

event was held in London, from Thursday 

24th to Sunday 27th November 2011, 

China was noticeable by its presence. 

The fact that the ExCel Arena was home 

for the tournament and the proposed 

venue for the table tennis events at 

the Olympic Games the following year, 

was the magnet. It was sufficient reason 

for China to make sure that those 

who would potentially play in the prestigious 

quadrennial event were present. 

True to the very best Chinese traditions, 

nothing would be left to chance; 

no stone would be left unturned. 

Following the GAC GROUP 2011 World 

Championships, held in Rotterdam earlier 

in the year in May, the World Ranking 

lists published immediately after 

the event determined the direct entries 

for the London 2012 Olympic Games. 

A maximum of two players from any 

one National Olympic was permitted 

by ranking; Wang Hao and Zhang Jike 

were the Chinese men who occupied 

the respective top two places, for the 

women it was LI Xiaoxia and Guo Yan. 

In June 2011 they were the nominations 

confirmed by the Chinese National Olympic 

Committee. However in May 2012, 

owing to injury, Guo Yan was replaced 

by Ding Ning, very much the player of 

2011. In November she had climbed to 

the top spot on the Women’s World 

Rankings, a position she continued to 

hold, when the seeding for the Olympic 

Games was determined in July 2012. 

However, at the ITTF Pro Tour Grand 

Finals, it was two other Chinese names 

62 


Ma Long 

continued his rich vein of form 


Photo : Rémy Gros 



that stood on the top step of the 

medal podium, when matters concluded 

on a cold London winter’s 

night at the ExCel Arena in the Docklands 

area of England’s capital city. 

Ma Long won the men’s singles event; 

Liu Shiwen captured the counterpart 

women’s singles title. It was for the 

former a continuation of a quite incredible 

run of success. In early June 

he had been beaten in the final of the 

men’s singles event at the Volkswagen 

China Open in Shenzhen by the reigning 

Olympic champion, Ma Lin; since that 

reverse he had not experienced a singles 

defeat on the international scene. 

stretched the full seven games distance, 

maintained his quite incredible form. 

Speed and a mighty forehand ended 

the aspirations of Zhang Jike in five 

games, whilst in the counterpart Women’s 

Singles final the sheer consistency 

of Liu Shiwen’s counter attacking 

play overcame colleague Ding Ning. 

Furthermore, in a similar manner to 

Ma Long, Liu Shiwen never had to endure 

the agonies of a deciding seventh 

game at any stage of proceedings, 

beating Japan’s Sayaka Hirano, 

compatriot Guo Yue and Singapore’s 

Wang Yuegu en route to the final. 

He had won in his native China in Suzhou 

in August at the Harmony China 

Open, before succeeding in Austria and 

Sweden. The outstanding run of form 

had seen Ma Long regain the top spot 

on the Men’s World Rankings, the position 

he had held throughout 2010. 

Similarly, throughout 2010, Liu Shiwen 

had occupied the no.1 spot on the 

Women’s World Rankings but when 

play started in the ExCel Arena, she 

was listed in fifth place and was striving 

to return to the former status. Earlier 

in the year in February, she had 

won on the ITTF Pro Tour in Qatar but 

in both Austria and Sweden, the silver 

medal had been her lot; she had a 

point to prove, the point was proven. 

In fact both Ma Long and Liu Shiwen 

proved a point. At the final hurdle 

their victims were the players who had 

donned the World champion mantle 

earlier in the year in Rotterdam. Ma 

Long, having beaten Korea’s Oh Sang 

Eun, Chinese Taipei’s Chuang Chih- 

Yuan and compatriot Wang Hao en 

route to the final without ever being 

Defeat for Zhang Jike and Ding Ning 

was a somewhat new experience in major 

events in 2011 for the two Chinese 

stars; in addition to succeeding in Rotterdam, 

Ding Ning had won the Volkswagen 

Women’s World Cup title in 

October in Singapore, whilst in November, 

Zhang Jike had secured the Liebherr 

Men’s World Cup crown in Paris. 

In London, Ma Long and Liu Shiwen 

ended their “Grand Slam” aspirations. 

Success for Ma Long in the Men’s Singles 

event but in the men’s doubles 

with Wang Hao he had to settle for 

the silver medal, the pair being beaten 

by colleagues Ma Lin and Zhang Jike 

in the final by the very minimal two 

point margin in the deciding game. 

A closely fought men’s doubles final 

but in the counterpart women’s doubles 

event, one partnership dominated 

proceedings. Guo Yue and Li Xiaoxia, 

the top seeds, added yet another title 

to their collection by beating the 

Japanese combination of Ai Fukuhara 

and Kasumi Ishikawa in the final. 

64 


LIU SHIWEN 

The winner of the women’s singles title 





The Chinese duo recorded a straight 

games victory in the gold medal contest 

and extended their record breaking run 

in international competition. Victory 

meant Guo Yue and Li Xiaoxia had remained 

unbeaten as a doubles pair for 

over three years. On Sunday 14th September 

2008 they had been beaten in 

seven games in the final of the women’s 

doubles event at the Panasonic China 

Open in Shanghai by Hong Jong’s Jiang 

Huajun and Tie Yana, but no pair 

since that date had repeated the feat. 

In the meantime, Guo Yue and Li Xiaoxia 

had won the women’s doubles title 

at the H.I.S. World Championships in 

2009 and earlier in the year at the GAC 

GROUP 2011 World Championships; 

in fact for Guo Yue, with whoever she 

partnered on the ITTF Pro Tour, since 

the defeat in September 2008, she had 

never lost a women’s doubles match. 

Success in London meant that when actually 

competing in a women’s doubles 

event on the ITTF Pro Tour, she had won 

no fewer than 16 consecutive titles! 

Victory for Guo Yue and Li Xiaoxia was 

not unexpected but there were to be 

surprises in the ExCel Arena, with Singapore 

providing the major shocks. 

Gao Ning, the quiet man of world table 

tennis, beat the two most recent Olympic 

men’s singles gold medallists, Ma Lin 

Guo Yue and Li Xiaoxia 

yet another Women’s Doubles title 

Photo:Rémy Gros 

66 


and Korea’s Ryu Seung Min, to reach the 

semi-finals, where Zhang Jike abruptly 

ended his progress. In the women’s singles 

event the charming Wang Yuegu 

reached the same stage by ousting compatriot 

Li Jiawei and top seed, Guo Yan, 

before Liu Shiwen halted aspirations. 

Four titles for China and there was 

one each for Korea and Japan. The 

supremely talented Korean, Kim Min 

Seok won the under 21 men’s singles 

beating Singapore’s Chen Feng in the 

final. Meanwhile, Japan’s Kasumi Ishikawa, 

the busiest player on duty in 

the three days of competition (she 

played also in the women’s singles and 

women’s doubles events), emerged as 

the under 21 women’s singles champion. 

At the final hurdle, she overcame 

Kim Min Seok’s colleague Jeon Ji Hee. 

Matters had progressed without any 

significant hitches, the only major problem 

being in the nearby Crowne Plaza 

Hotel, where a cook set the kitchen on 

fire on the morning of the final day of 

play. Alarm bells rang, evacuation followed 

and the fire brigade arrived. 

Standing outside in the street was not 

the most pleasant experience for the 

umpires but, just in time, they were 

allowed to return into the building to 

don their uniforms and collect the necessary 

materials to fulfil their duties. 

Otherwise, without causing the local fire 

brigade to arrive, the icing needed to be 

applied to the cake, the final touches for 

the ensuing sporting spectacular. The colour 

of the light blue floor may not have 

been to everyone’s choice but the universal 

feeling was the venue had passed 

the test; more ominously, so had China.. 


Kim Min Seok 

Captured the Under 21 Men’s Singles title 




Zhang Jike and Ma Lin 

Zhang Jike (left ) and Ma Lin (right) 

Crowned Men’s Doubles Champions 

crowned Men’s Doubles champions 


68 



KASUMI ISHIKAWA 

The Under 21 Women’s Singles champion and the busiest player on duty 



DING NING 

Denied the “Grand Slam”, 

beaten in the final by Liu Shiwen 


Table Tennis in the Olympic Games 

Table Tennis in the 

OLYMPIC GAMES 

Olympic Games Acceptance 

Seoul Olympic Games 1988 

Barcelona Olympic Games 1992 

Atlanta Olympic Games 1996 

Sydney Olympic Games 2000 

Athens Olympic Games 2004 

Beijing Olympic Games 2008 

Singapore Youth Olympic Games 2010 

70 


OLYMPIC 

ACCEPTANCE 

“I am opposed to the inclusion of table 

tennis in the Olympic Games. Firstly, I 

think the Olympic Games should be restricted 

to athletics and similar events, 

where athletes vie with each other, not 

extend to sports of the football or lawn 

tennis type. Second, I think sports that 

do not have their own world title competitions 

need the Olympic Games.” 

In the Minutes of that meeting it is recorded 

that “Steps are to be taken to secure 

the holding of Table Tennis events 

simultaneously with the winter sports at 

the Olympic Games, Berlin 1936”. 


Ivor Montagu 1946 

The desire for table tennis to be an 

Olympic sport dates back to the early 

days of the International Table Tennis 

Federation. The first mention of the topic 

is in the Minutes of the 1931 Annual 

General Meeting, where it is recorded 

that “A discourse on the Olympic Games 

was received with appreciation . . . and 

it was agreed to explore the possibilities 

outlined.” 

No copies of that discourse have been 

found but a report attached to the Minutes 

of the 1932 Annual General Meeting 

reads: 

“Circular sent to all countries, as per 

AGM instruction, asking for information 

on Olympic Games situation. One 

reply received. Japan has written to Los 

Angeles proposing for Games this year. 

British Olympic Council recommends, if 

any action at all is desired, proposed as 

supplementary (no principal) game, Berlin 

1936.” 

There seems to have been some confusion 

in the minds of the delegates as the 

1936 Winter Games were to be held in 

Garmisch-Partenkirchen, in Bavaria; it 

was the Summer Games that would be 

held in Berlin. Whatever the intention, 

there is no indication in the International 

Table Tennis Federation’s archives 

that there was any outcome to the actions 

taken, if any, and the subject is not 

mentioned again until 1937. 

The Minutes of that year’s Annual General 

Meeting were more specific, saying 

“It was decided to instruct the Advisory 

Committee to get in touch with the 

Preparatory Commission for the forthcoming 

Olympiad at Tokyo with a view 

to the inclusion of table tennis in that 

Olympiad.” All the countries present 

were in favour except England, led by 

Ivor Montagu, who voted against. 

The reason given was the then strict requirement 

for all Olympic participants 

to be amateurs. In 1935 a proposal from 

England to amend the International Table 

Tennis Federation’s Constitution had 

been accepted and under this amend- 



ment all references to “amateurs” and 

“professionals” had been deleted and 

replaced by “players”. 

It meant that those who earned money 

for coaching, writing, exhibitions and so 

on could compete in all events. Thus it 

avoided what was seen as hypocrisy in 

other sports, where so-called amateurs 

were in receipt of generous expenses 

and other allowances and were professionals 

in all but name. England’s view 

was that acceptance of table tennis as 

an Olympic sport would depend on reverting 

to the former discriminatory 

terms and to this they were implacably 

opposed. 

In spite of the clear 1937 instruction it 

appears that the Advisory Committee 

failed to pursue the matter and the Minutes 

of the 1938 Annual General Meeting 

include a reminder that “the Secretaries 

had been instructed to take steps 

towards the inclusion of table tennis in 

the Olympic Games and they were instructed 

to write immediately to the Japan 

TTA on the subject.” 

Whether they then did so is again not 

recorded but it soon ceased to matter, 

as the onset of World War Two ensured 

that there would be no Olympic Games 

in 1940, in Tokyo or anywhere else. After 

the war, the International Table Tennis 

Federation’s main concern was the 

restoration of normal operations but at 

the London Conference held in 1946 the 

President, Ivor Montagu reiterated his 

personal antipathy to the idea of Olympic 

recognition. 

In reply to a question he said: “I am opposed 

to the inclusion of table tennis in 

the Olympic Games. Firstly, I think the 

Olympic Games should be restricted to 

athletics and similar events, where athletes 

vie with each other, not extend 

to sports of the football or lawn tennis 

type. Second, I think sports that do not 

have their own world title competitions 

need the Olympic Games.” 

“We, and similarly Lawn Tennis with the 

Davis Cup, do not need the Olympics. 

For us they are a duplication. Lawn Tennis 

dropped out of the Olympics after, I 

think, 1924. Third, it is not certain that 

if we applied we would be successful. 

If we were refused it would be a rebuff 

and a humiliation to the game.” 

However, he clearly did not see the strict 

Olympic Rules on amateurism as a bar 

to participation, saying “We are assured 

that, so long as no Association selects a 

paid player for this particular event, our 

lack of sharp distinction between professionals 

and amateurs in general rules 

would be no bar to inclusion of table 

tennis at the next Olympic Games”. 

He added “There is a reluctance to add to 

the number of sports already agreed for 

inclusion but if there is a general wish by 

Associations for inclusion of table tennis 

it is up to them to instruct the ITTF and 

ETTA to apply and themselves to press 

their own Olympic Committees.” 

A vote was then taken, resulting in four 

in favour, one against and five, including 

England, undecided. Winding up the 

discussion Ivor said “It is clear we have 

not made up our minds. Let us anyway 

agree each to approach his National 

Olympic Committee on the subject - I believe 

that a big say in deciding the matter 

will depend on how many National 

Olympic Committees support it - and 

inform the ITTF Advisory Council of the 

result. On the information thus gathered, 

the Advisory Council can reach a 

decision". 

72 


This was agreed but very little seems 

to have happened as a result and the 

next recorded mention was some eleven 

years later, when in 1967 the campaign 

was taken up again. Its success was due 

largely to the perseverance of the new 

President of the International Table 

Tennis Federation, Roy Evans, ably supported 

by the General Secretary, Arthur 

Kingsley (Bill) Vint. 

Harold Roy Evans was born in Cardiff in 

1909, and was a player of international 

standard. He represented his native 

Wales in various events from 1931-33, 

including the 1933 World Championships 

but he soon became more interested 

in coaching and in the administrative 

aspects of the sport. 

He was Honorary General Secretary of 

the Welsh Association from 1933 until 

the outbreak of World War Two in 1939, 

when he volunteered for the Royal Air 

Force. There he trained first as a radio 

operator and then as a Fighter Controller, 

ending his service in Burma with the 

rank of Acting Squadron Leader. 

Soon after his return he was appointed 

Chairman of the Welsh Association, later 

becoming its President, a position he 

held until 1989. He became a member 

of the International Table Tennis Federation’s 

Advisory Committee in 1947 

and in 1951 he was appointed Honorary 

General Secretary of the Federation, a 

post he held until his election as its President 

in 1967. 

Roy could be dictatorial and charming, 

blunt and diplomatic and it was the 

combination of these qualities that so 

often brought him success. 

In 1971, on his way to Japan for the 

World Championships, he was invited 

to stop off in China, where he was summoned 

by the Chinese Premier Chou 

En-Lai and asked to ban South Vietnam 

from the event. At the time the 

two countries were sworn enemies. He 

turned the request down on the basis 

that both were members of the International 

Table Tennis Federation and had 

to be dealt with equally. 

In a counter-move he suggested that 

China invite top western countries to 

visit them on their way back from Japan 

and this proved to be a significant step 

in improving relations between China 

and the United States. The Chinese sent 

their request to America and, with the 

agreement of the State Department, the 

visit followed. A year later, in February 

1972, President Nixon visited China, as a 

direct result of what became known as 

“Ping-Pong Diplomacy”. 

In 1972 he was awarded the Order of 

the British Empire (O.B.E.) for services to 

sport. He served on a number of national 

and international sporting bodies, including 

the British International Sports 

Committee and the General Assembly 

of International Sports Federations. 

Also, he was a member of the General 

Purposes and Finance Committee of the 

British Olympic Association. 

On his replacement as President in 1987 

by Ichiro Ogimura of Japan, he was 

made Honorary ITTF Life President and 

until his death in 1998 he continued to 

take an active interest in the affairs of 

the International Table Tennis Federation. 

In 1988 the President of the International 

Olympic Committee, Juan Antonio 

Samaranch, presented him with 

the Olympic Order in recognition of his 

contributions to table tennis and to the 

Olympic Movement. 




PHOTO:ETTA ARCHIVES 

Recognition Confirmation of table tennis as an Olympic sport 

74 


Bill Vint, by contrast with the extrovert 

Roy Evans, was quiet and reserved; he 

was a meticulous organiser and administrator 

and his part in the negotiations 

was to deal with what Roy probably regarded 

as the tiresome details. He was 

born in Hastings in 1906 and he lived 

and worked there throughout his life. 

In 1931 he became Honorary Treasurer 

of the English Table Tennis Association 

(ETTA), a position he held until 1958; 

from 1950-61 he combined this post 

with that of ETTA Honorary General 

Secretary. On relinquishing the Treasurership 

he became Chairman, retiring in 

1962 but in 1970 he was elected for a 

three year term as ETTA President and 

was later made Honorary Life Vice-President 

of the Association. 

His association with the International 

Table Tennis Federation began in 1947, 

when he was appointed its Honorary 

Treasurer; in 1950 he took over also as 

Honorary General Secretary. He was responsible 

for setting up the first professional 

ITTF Secretariat, handing over his 

secretarial duties in 1977; for his services 

to table tennis he was awarded the 

O.B.E. in 1957 and in 1984 he was the 

first recipient of the newly established 

ITTF Merit Award. He died in 1993. 

The first post-war mention of Olympic 

recognition was at the 1967 Biennial 

General Meeting, where a proposal from 

the French Federation that the possibility 

be investigated received strong support. 

A number of Associations stressed 

that recognition would alone be of 

great help to them in seeking support 

from their Governments and National 

Olympic Committees and that participation 

in the Games was not an essential. 

Over the next four years discussions 

were held with various International 

Bill Vint 

ITTF Treasurer 1947-69 

ITTF Secretary 1969-77 

Olympic Committee officials but at the 

1971 Biennial General Meeting there 

was a discouraging report. It had become 

clear that the Constitution of the 

International Table Tennis Federation 

would preclude any chance of Olympic 

recognition, as the International Olympic 

Committee would want a firm declaration 

that the Federation was an amateur 

body. 

However, discussions continued and 

in 1973 it was reported that an official 

from the International Olympic Committee 

had indicated that minor amendments 

to the Constitution concerning 

the amateur status of players should 

make recognition possible. 





Table tennis was not the only sport seeking 

Olympic recognition and in 1975 the 

International Olympic Committee set up 

a committee to examine the situation of 

sports not in the Olympics programme 

and report to the IOC Executive Committee 

at its meeting during the 1976 

Olympiad in Montreal. In the following 

year it was noted that the IOC Programme 

Commission was studying all 

the applications and would be submitting 

its recommendations by mid-1977. 

Olympic Committee in Moscow in 1980, 

both the IOC Executive Board and the 

Programme Commission recommended 

that table tennis be included in the 

Olympic Games programme. However, 

the International Olympic Committee 

was becoming concerned at the everincreasing 

size of the Games and a decision 

was postponed until the next 

meeting of the General Assembly in 

September 1981, when the recommendations 

were unanimously accepted. 

At the ITTF Executive Committee meeting 

held in January 1977, the President 

expressed his concern that the International 

Table Tennis Federation’s application 

would be rejected unless changes 

were made to the Constitution. He proposed 

that suitable amendments be put 

to the 1977 Biennial General Meeting. 

These amendments were accepted by 

a large majority and in November 1977 

the International Table Tennis Federation 

was formally notified that the sport 

of table tennis had been granted Olympic 

recognition. 

Although hitherto it had been emphasised 

that the primary objective was 

recognition and not participation, attention 

now turned to the possible inclusion 

of table tennis in the Games. 

It was first suggested that an application 

be made for table tennis to be included 

in the programme of the 1984 Winter 

Games in Sarajevo but this appears not 

to have been pursued. Many Associations 

supported the International Table 

Tennis Federation by making representations 

through their National Olympic 

Committees and their contacts with 

members of the International Olympic 

Committee. 

At the 83rd Session of the International 

The Organising Committee of the 1984 

Summer Games in Los Angeles then indicated 

that it was willing to include table 

tennis as a demonstration sport but 

the International Olympic Committee 

ruled that it was now too late to amend 

the 1984 programme. Probably this was 

fortunate, as it gave further time for negotiations 

with the International Olympic 

Committee on the numbers of players 

and events. 

The initial agreement had been that the 

table tennis competition would comprise 

only men’s and women’s singles 

events, with 64 players in the former 

and 32 in the latter, but in 1982 it was 

agreed that there could be also men’s 

and women’s doubles. These would consist 

of 32 and 16 pairs respectively, with 

a limit on the total number of players. 

Efforts to increase the quota continued 

and by the time of the Seoul Games in 

1988 the number of players in the women’s 

singles had been raised to 48, with 

a corresponding increase in the number 

of participants. 

Among the conditions set by the International 

Olympic Committee was that 

the competition should include the 

best players in the world and that players 

from as many countries as possible 

76 


Roy Evans (Wales) 

ITTF Secretary 1951-67 

ITTF President 1967-87 

should be able to take part. The International 

Table Tennis Federation had 

to try to reconcile these potentially conflicting 

requirements. 

After lengthy discussions it was decided 

to allocate the places available in stages. 

First, for men’s singles, 16 of the players 

ranked highest on the current list were 

selected, subject to the restriction that 

there would not be more than two from 

the same Association. The next 44 places 

were then allocated to Continental Federations 

in proportion to the numbers 

of their member Associations. 

These Federations could select their 

nominees in any way they chose but to 

achieve the widest possible representation 

the number of players from any 

Association, including those chosen by 

ranking, could not exceed three. The 

final four places were reserved for the 

International Table Tennis Federation, 

to be used for such purposes as ensuring 

that there were at least two players 

from the host Association if they had 

not qualified in any other way. 

to contain at least one player who had 

qualified for the singles, so the doubles 

pairings could not be decided until the 

singles qualification had been completed. 

The places reserved for the International 

Table Tennis Federation were used to 

adjust the number of doubles entries, 

where the number of players qualifying 

from a Continent was odd. Setting up 

and conducting the Continental qualifying 

competitions occupied several 

months but by mid-1988 the process was 

complete. 

Photo: Coloured Pins On A Map 


A similar process was used for women’s 

singles, with the numbers reduced in 

proportion to the lower quota. However, 

for doubles, there was no World 

ranking list and the whole of the selection 

process was undertaken by Continental 

Federations. 

The limit on the total numbers of players 

and the International Olympic 

Committee’s rule that both players of 

a pair must be from the same Association 

meant that each doubles pair had 

In September of that year table tennis 

became a full Olympic Sport, nearly 60 

years after the idea had first been raised. 



78 





OLYMPIC GAMES 

Seoul, Friday 23rd September 

Saturday 1st October 1988 

The agreement finally reached 

with the International Olympic 

Committee was that the 1988 

competition would consist of 

64 players in the men’s singles, 

48 in the women’s singles, 

32 pairs in the men’s doubles 

and 16 pairs in the women’s 

doubles. 

Photo: Colin Clemett 

The agreement finally reached with the 

International Olympic Committee was 

that the 1988 competition would consist 

of 64 players in the men’s singles, 48 

in the women’s singles, 32 pairs in the 

men’s doubles and 16 pairs in the women’s 

doubles. 

However, both players in a doubles pair 

had to represent the same National 

Olympic Committee; thus a National 

Olympic Committee with only one singles 

player would need to bring in an 

extra player for the doubles. The strict 

upper limits on the total number of 

players meant that each doubles pair 

had to include at least one player who 

was qualified for the singles. 

Furthermore, the International Olympic 

80 


Committee had made clear that they expected 

not only that the best players in 

the world would take part but also that 

as many different countries as possible 

would be represented. The first task 

was to find a satisfactory compromise 

between these potentially conflicting 

requirements. 

For the men’s singles, 16 players were 

taken from the top of the World Classification 

List,with not more than two 

from the same National Olympic Committee. 

Another 44 places were allocated 

to Continental Federations in proportion 

to the numbers of their member 

Associations - twelve each to Asia and 

Europe, eight each to Africa and Latin 

America and two each to North America 

and Oceania. 

The remaining four places were reserved 

as “wild cards” to deal with exceptional 

situations, such as to allow the inclusion 

of a strong player who had been unable 

to take part in a Continental qualifying 

competition, or to ensure that the host 

National Olympic Committee was represented 

if none of its players had otherwise 

qualified. The same principle was 

used for the women’s singles, with the 

numbers scaled down appropriately. 

Meanwhile, as there was no doubles 

ranking list, all places other than wildcards 

were filled by Continental selection. 

To broaden the scope of participation, 

the numbers of entries from a 

National Olympic Committee were limited 

to three players in a singles event, 

two pairs in a doubles event and not 

more than four men and four women in 

the competition as a whole. The qualifying 

procedure had to be carried out in 

a particular sequence, as the results of 

one stage could affect the choices available 

at a later stage. 

Firstly the International Table Tennis 

Federation announced the names of 

the players, who had qualified by ranking, 

then Continental Federations made 

their singles selections and after that the 

allocation of the singles wild cards was 

decided. Continents next selected their 

doubles pairs and the process was completed 

by the International Table Tennis 

Federation allocating the doubles wild 

cards. 

The competition was held at the Seoul 

National University Gymnasium, on the 

southern outskirts of the city. With a 

floor area of over 12,000 square metres 

the hall had ample playing space and 

could accommodate up to 5,000 spectators. 

The venue had previously been 

used for the Asian Games and some deficiencies 

which had shown up then, such 

as the intrusion of daylight and a shiny 

floor, had now been corrected. The only 

problem remaining was the light colour 

of the flooring; this made the ball difficult 

to see, especially for spectators in 

the higher seats and, more important, 

for television cameras. The hall was at 

times very warm but it was decided not 

to use the air-conditioning so as to avoid 

its potential effects on the flight of the 

ball. The eight tables were arranged in 

line along the hall, with spectator seating 

at the sides. 

The playing system was designed to provide 

all players with a reasonable number 

of matches rather than their being 

eliminated at the first encounter and it 

was in two stages. 

For the first stage of the singles, players 

were drawn into eight groups, with 

eight in each men’s group and six in 

each women’s group. The players in 

each group all played each other to determine 

a ranking order and the two 




Chen Jing (China) 


highest placed in each group went on 

to the second stage of the competition. 

The same principle was used for the 

doubles, with four groups of eight pairs 

in the men’s event and two groups of 

eight in the women’s. 

The second stage of all events was 

played as a “progressive knock-out”, a 

system in which losing players in each 

round are not eliminated but continue 

to play against other losers to determine 

the lower places of a final ranking 

order. Thus a player who loses in 

the first round of a 16-place progressive 

knock-out cannot end up in a position 

higher than ninth; if he or she loses the 

next match, the highest attainable position 

is then 12th and so on. 

Photo: Monthly World Table Tennis 

The merit of this system was seen as not 

only providing the lower-ranked players 

with as many matches as possible but 

also giving them an incentive to continue 

competing for the final places. The 

main disadvantage was that the number 

of matches required in the group stage, 

28 for a group of eight members, meant 

that these matches took up most of the 

available time. 

Play began on Friday 23rd September 

and the qualifying stage was not completed 

until the following Wednesday, 

though there were up to 12 hours of 

play each day. Moreover, many of the 

group matches were between players of 

82 


vastly different ability and were of little 

interest other than to those directly 

concerned. The knock-out stages of the 

competition were completed in only 

three days and, even here, contests for 

the lower places did not arouse great 

interest either from spectators or from 

players. There were few surprises in the 

men’s singles qualifying groups. In most 

of them the highest ranked player won 

all of his matches and the next highest 

ranked lost only to the group winner 

but in two of them second place had to 

be decided by games ratio. 

In this way Zoran Primorac (Yugoslavia) 

and Seiji Ono (Japan) qualified at the 

expense of Jörg Rosskopf (Federal Germany) 

and Liu Fuk Man (Hong Kong) 

respectively. 

The only really unexpected result was 

the elimination of Andrei Mazunov (Soviet 

Union), who lost to three players 

who were below him in the world ranking 

list. After this stage the numbers 

of Asian and European players were 

roughly equal and this balance continued 

through the first two rounds of the 

knock-out. 

Wei Qingguang, 

Chen Longcan (China) 

In the first round, Erik Lindh (Sweden), 

Yoo Nam Kyu (Korea) and Chen Longcan 

(China) all had easy victories but Kim Ki 

Taek (Korea) was taken to five games by 

Xu Zengcai (China) and Jan-Ove Waldner 

(Sweden) struggled similarly against 

Leszek Kucharski (Poland). 

Photo: ITTF Archives Photo: ITTF Archives Photo: Monthly World Table Tennis 




The quarter-finals were remarkable for 

the fact that each was won by the lower 

ranked player. Tibor Klampar (Hungary) 

defeated Chen Longcan (China) and Yoo 

Nam Kyu beat Jörgen Persson (Sweden) 

but it was the other two results that 

were least expected. The World no.2, 

Jan-Ove Waldner, lost three-two to Kim 

Kai Taek and Erik Lindh beat the current 

World Champion Jiang Jialiang (China) 

three-one. 


In the semi-finals the Korean players asserted 

their superiority, with Yoo Nam 

Kyu beating Erik Lindh and Kim Kai Taek 

overcoming Tibor Klampar, both threenil. 

The final was an entertaining match 

with closely contested games but Yoo 

Nam Kyu always looked the likely winner, 

his powerful loop drive being just 

too good for Kim Kai Taek. The play-off 

match for the bronze medal was won by 

Erik Lindh. The results of the qualifying 

stage in the women’s singles event were 

just as predictable as those in the men’s 

and in only one group was there an upset. 

The group in question was that won 

by the fourth ranked player, Hong Cha 

Ok (Korea), with Olga Nemes (Federal 

Germany) second; among those eliminated 

were two who had been expected 

to do well, Csilla Batorfi (Hungary) and 

Mirjam Kloppenburg (Netherlands). 

Hong Cha Ok continued her success in 

the first knock-out round, easily defeating 

Renata Kasalova (Czechoslovakia) 

but the other two Korean players, Hyun 

Jung Hwa and Yang Young Ja, were 

both beaten by Europeans. The former 

lost to Valentina Popova (Soviet Union), 

the latter to Marie Hrachova (Czechoslovakia). 

Yoo Nam Kyu (Korea) 

In the quarter-finals the strength of 

China became evident, all three of their 

players winning their matches threenil 

to eliminate Hong Cha Ok, Valentina 

Popova and Fliura Bulatova (Soviet 

Union). The sole European survivor was 

Marie Hrachova, with a decisive victory 

over Bettine Vriesekoop (Netherlands). 

The semi-finals were similarly one-sided, 

Liu Huifen (China) beating Jiao Zhimin 

(China) and Chen Jing (China) overcoming 

Marie Hrachova, both without losing 

a single game. 

However, the final was as hard fought 

as the men’s had been, with Chen Jing 

deservedly winning in five games. In the 

match for third place Jiao Zhimin beat 

Marie Hrachova, to give China all three 

medals in this event. 

The qualifiers from the men’s doubles 

groups comprised two Chinese pairs, 

two Korean, two Swedish and one each 

from Poland and Yugoslavia. The only 

non-Asians to reach the semi-finals 

were Zoran Primorac and Ilija Lupulesku 

of Yugoslavia, who beat the Swedish 

partnership of Jan-Ove Waldner and Mikael 

Appelgren. Chen Longcan and Wei 

Qingguang (China) had little difficulty 

in beating Yoo Nam Kyu and Ahn Jae 

Hyung (Korea) in the first semi-final but 

Zoran Primorac and Ilija Lupulesku had 

84 


to battle hard in the second to defeat 

Kim Ki Taek and Kim Wan (Korea) by 

two games to one. 

In the final, Chen Longcan and Wei Qingguang 

lost the first game to Zoran Primorac 

and Ilija Lupulesku but took the 

next two easily to gain the gold medal. 

In the play-off for third place, Yoo Nam 

Kyu and Ahn Jae Hyung beat the other 

Korean pair, to give Yoo Nam Kyu a 

bronze medal to go with his gold for the 

singles. 

Yang Young Ja, 

Hyun Jung Hwa (Korea) 



The 15 pairs in the women’s doubles 

played in two groups, with the top four 

pairs in each group qualifying for the 

quarter-finals. The qualifiers comprised 

three Asian pairs and five Europeans 

but only one of the latter, Jasna Fazlic 

and Gordana Perkucin (Yugoslavia), 

reached the semi-final, where they lost 

to China’s Chen Jing and Jiao Zhimin. 

In the other semi-final, Hyun Jung Hwa 

and Yang Young Ja of Korea beat Mika 

Hoshino and Kyomi Ishida (Japan) and 

in the final they proved too strong 

for Chen Jing and Jiao Zhimin. In the 

bronze medal play-off, Jasna Fazlic and 

Gordana Perkucin played well to defeat 

the Japanese pair in three games. 


In the period leading up to the Olympics, 

there had been some concern that 

the remoteness of the site from the main 

competition venues and the difficulty of 

transport when the roads were crowded 

would discourage spectators but these 

fears proved groundless. 

Throughout the competition the hall 

was full or near full; over 65,000 tickets 

were sold and it was said later that table 

tennis had been the first of all the sports 

in Seoul to fill its seating capacity. 

Notably, this was not due solely to the 

prowess of the home players, as over 

70% of the tickets were sold before it 

was known which players would win 

through to the later stages. Despite 

some problems, the initial Olympics table 

tennis competition was very successful 

and the sport had justified its inclusion 

in the Games. 

Seoul University 

Gymnasium 



86 





88 





90 



Barcelona´92 

Thus both semi-finals saw a European player competing against an Asian player and 

in both cases the European player was successful. Jan-Ove Waldner disposed of Kim 

Taek Soo in straight games but Jean-Philippe Gatien was made to fight all the way 

by Ma Wenge. 




Barcelona´92 


Perhaps in recognition of the success 

of the first Olympics table tennis 

competition in 1988, the International 

Olympic Committee agreed that in 

Barcelona the numbers of places in 

the women’s events could be the same 

as in the men’s, with a corresponding 

increase in the total number of players 

taking part. 

The latter increase was, however, not 

enough to allow relaxation of the condition 

set in Seoul that at least one 

member of each doubles pair must 

be a player who had qualified for the 

singles. The system of allocating places 

by a combination of ranking and Continental 

selection had proved generally 

acceptable, so the same principle was 

used again for this and all subsequent 

Olympics competitions, with only minor 

modifications. 

There had been widespread criticism of 

the groups played in the Seoul competition. 

Eight players in a group, there 

were inevitably wide differences in playing 

ability among its members, with the 

result that many of the matches were 

very one-sided. While it was obviously 

to the benefit of the weaker players to 

have as much competitive play as possible, 

matches that could have no possible 

effect on the outcome of the group 

were of little interest to spectators. 

Lu Lin and Wang Tao (China) 

Also, there had been suggestions that 

group play should be abandoned in 

favour of a knock-out. After consideration, 

it was decided to retain the 

group system but to have twice as many 

groups of half the size, with only group 

winners qualifying for the second stage. 

It meant that the duration of the qualifying 

stage was reduced but by only one 

day. The progressive knock-out system 

for places in each event had not been 

popular with players or with spectators 

and it was clear that it was only the potential 

medal positions that were of interest. 

The second stage was, therefore, 

made a straight knock-out but this time 

with no play-off for the bronze medals. 

The International Olympic Committee 

had accepted the argument that it was 

customary in ITTF World Championships 

for both losing semi-finalists to be given 

equal third ranking; a similar arrangement 

had already been agreed for lawn 

tennis. However, while it meant that the 

number of medals awarded was great- 

92 



Barcelona´92 


Jean-Philippe Gatien (France) 

er, there were some who felt that it 

also diminished the value of the bronze 

medals and would have preferred them 

to be more clearly won. 

The competition was held in a converted 

railway station, the former Estacio 

del Nord, and one of its great assets was 

that it was just about within walking 

distance of where players and officials 

were staying. The building had already 

been used for meetings and rallies but 

it was completely refurbished for the 

Olympics table tennis competition. 

Throughout the work there had been 

frequent discussions between the architect 

and representatives of the International 

Table Tennis Federation, with 

the object of meeting the particular requirements 

of table tennis; this proved 

very successful. It was found possible 

to provide within the building playing 

space for up to eight tables, seating for 

5,000 spectators and a good-sized practice 

hall, as well as the usual offices and 

rest areas. 

The summer temperature in Barcelona 

made it necessary to use air-conditioning. 

There was an initial problem with 

draughts but eventually a setting was 

found which kept the hall at a tolerable 

temperature and did not unduly 

affect the ball. Extensive use was made 

of electrical score indicators, although 

there were criticisms that they tried to 

show too much information; the digits 

were consequently rather small and difficult 

to read. The quartz halogen lighting 

was excellent but, when a generator 

failed one day, the break was extended 

by about twenty minutes owing to the 

need to let the lights cool down before 

being switched on again. 

An experimental innovation for the final 

stages was the use of ball-boys and 

ball-girls stationed at the four corners 

of the playing area. Their function was 

to retrieve the ball when it ended up a 

long way from the table and return it 

to the next server, so as to avoid delays 

and save players the trouble and effort 




Barcelona´92 



Jan-Ove Waldner (Sweden) 

of doing so. This did not prove entirely 

successful. 

Not only did it make the playing area 

appear crowded but many players felt 

that they were being unnecessarily 

rushed and preferred the opportunity 

of a slight pause between rallies, so it 

was not repeated. 

The reduction in the size of groups 

raised somewhat the level of play during 

the qualifying stages, with a greater 

proportion of entertaining matches. In 

the men’s singles, most of the players, 

whose entry had been determined by 

their World ranking, had little difficulty 

in winning their groups but two notable 

exceptions were Ilija Lupulesku (Yugoslavia) 

who lost to Li Gung San (North 

Korea) in the decisive match and Kim 

Song Hui (North Korea), who was beaten 

by Steffen Fetzner (Germany). 

The only group winner who had not 

qualified for entry either by ranking 

or by Continental selection was Paul 

Haldan (Netherlands), he had received 

one of the “wild cards”. The main opposition 

in his group came from Mikael 

Appelgren (Sweden), whom he beat in 

three games. 

In the first round of the knock-out, 

Jean-Philippe Gatien (France) beat the 

1988 champion Yoo Nam Kyu (Korea) in 

a match of five closely contested games, 

winning the last 21-19. 

94 


Kim Taek Soo (Korea) came close to 

defeat. He lost the first two games to 

Zoran Primorac, who competed as an 

Independent Olympic Participant owing 

the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, 

and reached 20-20 the third, before 

winning that game and then taking the 

last two more easily. 

Ma Wenge (China) and Jan-Ove Waldner 

(Sweden) won their respective 

quarter-finals against Jörgen Persson 

(Sweden) and Jörg Rosskopf (Germany) 

fairly comfortably but Kim Taek Soo had 

another difficult match against Wang 

Tao (China), who was leading for most 

of the fifth game but failed to win the 

last few crucial points. Jean-Philippe Gatien’s 

quarter-final against Ding Yi (Austria) 

also went to five games but Ding Yi 

seemed to give up in the fifth game and 

Jean-Philippe Gatien won 21-5. 

Barcelona´92 

Thus both semi-finals saw a European 

player competing against an Asian player 

and in both cases the European player 

was successful. Jan-Ove Waldner disposed 

of Kim Taek Soo in straight games 

but Jean-Philippe Gatien was made to 

fight all the way by Ma Wenge. 

Notably, the finalists had reached that 

stage with very different records. Jan- 

Ove Waldner had not been seriously 

challenged, having dropped only one 

game, to Jörg Rosskopf in the semi-final, 

whereas Gatien had won only narrowly 

in each round. 

In the final, this difference was apparent. 

Jan-Ove Waldner, full of confidence, 

swept aside a hesitant Jean-Philippe Gatien 

to win the first game 21-10. The 

Frenchman then staged something of 

a revival and the next two games were 

progressively closer but there was little 

doubt who would win and Jan-Ove 

Waldner duly took the gold medal, to 

the obvious delight of the King and 

Queen of Sweden who were among the 

spectators. 



Early stages in progress 



Barcelona´92 

The outcome of the women’s singles 

groups was similar to that of the men’s 

in that most of the players who had 

qualified by World ranking progressed 

to the knock-out. Two who did not were 

Chan Tan Lui (Hong Kong), beaten easily 

by Emilia Ciosu (Romania) and France’s 

Wang Xiaoming, who lost in three 

games to Kim Hye Yong (North Korea). 

However, unlike the men’s event, at this 

stage all but three of the sixteen qualifiers 

were from Asian countries and their 

dominance increased further in the first 

round of the knock-out. Of the Europeans 

only Emilia Ciosu reached the quarter-finals, 

with a decisive victory over 

Kim Hye Yong. Meanwhile, of the others, 

Bettine Vriesekoop (Netherlands) 

was beaten by Hyun Jung Hwa (Korea), 

Otilia Badescu (Romania) lost a hard 

match to Li Bun Hui (North Korea) and 

Csilla Batorfi had no answer to Deng 

Yaping (China). Both Japanese players, 

Fumiyo Yamashita and Mika Hoshino, 

also were eliminated in this round. 

At the quarter-final stage Deng Yaping 

continued her winning way by defeating 

Yu Sun Bok (North Korea) and her 

compatriot Qiao Hong beat Chai Po 

Wa (Hong Kong) but the third Chinese 

player Chen Zihe, lost to Korea’s Li Bun 

Hui. Emilia Ciosu’s progress ended when 

she lost a long match against Hyun Jung 

Hwa, although she had led at one stage 

by two games to one. 

In the semi-finals, Hyun Jung Hwa never 

looked likely to oust Deng Yaping and 

Qiao Hong was never in real trouble 

against Li Bun Hui. In the final Qiao 

Hong was suffering from an ankle injury 

she had sustained, which somewhat 

impaired her mobility, but it is impossible 

to say whether this affected the 

outcome. Deng Yaping won the first 

two games 21-6 and 21-8 but then, surprisingly, 

lost the third. It was the only 

game she lost throughout the event. 

She won the next game 25-23 to take 

the first of her gold medals. 

As there was no World doubles ranking, 

the entries for these events were 

seeded using lists specially prepared by 

the ITTF Ranking Committee. The results 

of the group stage were generally 

in accordance with this order but there 

were a few surprises, the main one in 

the men’s event being that neither of 

the two Swedish pairs qualified for the 

knock-out. Erik Lindh and Jörgen Persson 

(Sweden), the no.1 seeds, lost to the 

16th-ranked Kang Hee Chan and Lee 

Chul Seung (Korea) while Mikael Appelgren 

and Jan-Ove Waldner, ranked 

fifth, were beaten by Slobodan Grujic 

and Ilija Lupulesku (Independent). 

In one quarter-final Kang Hee Chan 

and Lee Chul Seung went on to defeat 

Ma Wenge and Yu Shentong (China), 

seeded seven places above them, but 

Slobodan Grujic and Ilija Lupulesku 

were unable to repeat their success in 

the group and were beaten comprehensively 

by the former World champions 

Steffen Fetzner and Jörg Rosskopf (Germany). 

In the other quarter-finals, Yoo Nam 

Kyu and Kim Taek Soo (Korea) defeated 

the Mazunov brothers Andrei and Dmitrij, 

who were classified as representing 

the Union of Independent States; 

it was a time when the Soviet Union 

was breaking up. Lu Lin and Wang Tao 

(China) overcame Daniel Eloi and Jean- 

Philippe Gatien (France). 

Both Korean pairs lost their semi-finals, 

Kang Hee Chan and Lee Chul Seung 

to Steffen Fetzner and Jörg Rosskopf, 

96 



Barcelona´92 


Estacio del Nord 

Yoo Nam Kyu and Kim Taek Soo to Lu 

Lin and Wang Hao. In the first game of 

the final the German pair led 20-15 but 

eventually lost 24-26. They did win two 

games in a high-quality match which 

lasted over an hour but the determination 

of the Chinese pair prevailed and 

they took the gold medal. 

The only unexpected result in the women’s 

doubles groups was the defeat of 

the sixth ranked pair, Jasna Fazlic and 

Gordana Perkucin (Yugoslavia) by the 

Netherlands’ Bettine Vriesekoop and 

her partner Mirjam Hooman. However, 

this was their last win and they were 

knocked out in the quarter-final by 

Deng Yaping and Qiao Hong (China). 

The other Chinese pair, Chen Zihe and 

Gao Jun beat Chai Po Wa and Chan 

Tan Lui (Hong Kong) with the remaining 

semi-final places going to Li Bun Hui 

and Yu Sun Bok (DPR Korea) and Hong 

Cha Ok and Hyun Jung Wa (Korea). 

The Chinese pairs won both of the semi- 

finals three-one and in the final Deng 

Yaping and Qiao Hong, the no.2 seeds, 

defeated the no.1 seeds Chen Zihe and 

Gao Jun, giving Deng Yaping her second 

gold medal of the 1992 Games. 

The first Olympics table tennis competition 

had been an entirely new venture 

for the International Table Tennis Federation. 

Experience in Seoul had shown 

that organising a competition within 

the structure of the Olympics presented 

difficulties that were unlikely to be encountered 

in the organisation of, for 

example, a World Championships and 

that, despite the difference in scale between 

the two competitions, could be 

equally difficult to overcome. 

In Barcelona, the organisers took full 

advantage of the lessons that had been 

learned in Seoul, particularly in relation 

to presentation to the public and 

the media. Once again table tennis was 

widely seen to stand comparison with 

the longer-established Olympic sports. 



98 





100 





102 



Women’s Doubles Final 




OLYMPIC GAMES 

ATLANTA 1996 

Monday 23rd July – Wednesday 1st August 1996 

104 


The scene 

for the final 



The table tennis competition was held in 

the Georgia World Congress Center, the 

second largest convention centre in the 

United States, located in downtown Atlanta. 

Transport between the venue and 

the places where players and officials 

were staying was a problem throughout 

the Games, in spite of the fact that 

many of the roads had dedicated lanes 

for Olympics vehicles. As the hall was 

below ground level with no natural ventilation, 

air conditioning was essential. 

Bearing in mind the problems with air 

currents at the Barcelona Games, it was 

decided to use an airlock system to restrict 

the flow of air and this proved 

very successful. The temperature was 

generally maintained at a comfortable 

level both for players and for spectators, 

while air movement over the field of 

play was negligible. 

There was ample room for up to eight 

tables in line and seating for 4,000 spectators. 

The existing lighting was adequate 

by international table tennis standards 

but it had to be increased to meet 

the level agreed by the International 

Olympic Committee for press photographers 

and this caused some problems. 

Careful positioning of the additional 

light sources was needed to avoid their 

shining directly into the faces of the players 

and this was not entirely achieved. 

During the men’s singles quarter-finals 

the lights failed when someone elsewhere 

in the centre switched off the 

supply by mistake and, as in Barcelona, 

there was a 20 minute interval before 

they had cooled enough for the lighting 

to be restored. 

The competition was well supported by 

the public and, again, table tennis was 

one of the first sports to sell out all of its 

tickets, although not all seats were occupied 

at all sessions. 

The total attendance of over 53,000 

would probably have been even higher 

had there not been what proved to be 

an unnecessarily generous allocation of 



seats for players and officials. 

Seldom were these fully used and the 

resulting empty spaces gave a slightly 

misleading impression of the level of 

spectator interest. 

A feature of the organisation was the 

information system, claimed to be the 

most comprehensive ever provided at 

a table tennis event. It made continually 

updated details of match progress, 

scores and results available to spectators 

and the media; it was very well received. 

The playing system was essentially the 

same as in previous Olympics. The qualifying 

stage consisted of groups of four 

players or four pairs, sixteen in the singles 

and eight in the doubles, with all 

matches the best of three games. Group 

winners progressed to the knock-out, in 

which matches were best of five games 

for both singles and doubles. 

Once again there were comments that 

the qualifying stage, in which many 

matches clearly would have no effect on 

the outcome of the competition, was of 

little interest to spectators, occupied far 

too much of the time available and detracted 

from the status of the sport. 

was obtained and this clearly did not enhance 

the presentation. However, even 

after the delays the whole process was 

completed in less than an hour, a considerable 

improvement over the time 

taken by previous manual draws. 

The group stage of the men’s singles 

produced a few shock results, with two 

former World Champions failing to 

qualify. The 1991 winner Jörgen Persson 

(Sweden) was beaten by Hugo Hoyama 

(Brazil) and the 1993 winner Jean- 

Philippe Gatien (France) lost to Petr Korbel 

(Czech Republic). Another strong 

Swedish player, Peter Karlsson, was also 

eliminated, losing to Dmitrij Mazunov 

(Russia). 

Meanwhile, in one group Johnny Huang 

(Canada) beat two other former Chinese 

players, David Zhuang (U.S.A.) and Chen 

Xinhua (Great Britain) and he went on 

to achieve another unexpected result in 

the first round of the knock-out, when 

he beat the 1992 Olympic champion, 

Jan-Ove Waldner (Sweden) three-one. 

The outstanding win of the stage was 

by Kim Taek Soo (Korea), who defeated 

the incumbent World no.1 Kong Linghui 

(China) four-one. 

For the first time in the Olympics, the 

initial draw was made entirely by computer 

with the results being shown on 

a video screen but this was not entirely 

successful. Although the program had 

been extensively tested and there had 

been a thorough dress rehearsal the 

previous day, when it came to the actual 

draw the computer insisted on drawing 

the same player into two different 

groups in the men’s singles. 

Unfortunately, this event had to be redrawn 

twice before a legitimate result 

Johnny Huang’s progress ended in the 

quarter-finals, when he lost in four 

games to Liu Guoliang (China) but Petr 

Korbel reached the semi-final with a 

three-nil win over Jean - Michel Saive 

(Belgium). The other two quarter-final 

matches were much closer, with Wang 

Tao defeating Vladimir Samsonov (Belarus) 

three - two and Jörg Rosskopf 

(Germany) overcoming Kim Taek Soo 

26-24 in the fifth. 

From then on it became an all-Chinese 

event, when Liu Guoliang and Wang 

106 



WOMEN´S SINGLES AND DOUBLES MEDALLISTS 



Chen Jing (Chinese Taipei) 

Photo: ITTF Archives Photo: ITTF Archives 

Deng Yaping (China) 



Deng Yaping / Qiao Hong (China) 





Kong Linghui and 

Liu Guoliang 

(China) 

Tao proved too strong for Jörg Rosskopf 

and Petr Korbel respectively in the semifinals. 

In the final the first four games saw the 

two players equally matched but in the 

fifth Liu Guoliang seemed to gain new 

strength and he won 21-6. In the playoff 

for third place, Jörg Rosskopf beat 

Petr Korbel to gain his second Olympic 

medal. 

There were fewer surprises in the women’s 

singles qualifying stage but Sweden’s 

women players fared no better 

here than their men had done; both 

Åsa Svensson and Marie Svensson failed 

to win their respective groups. Other 

World ranked players who were eliminated 

before the knock-out included 

Rika Sato (Japan), Jie Schöpp (Germany) 

and Irina Palina (Russia), as well as Emilia 

Ciosu (Romania), who had reached 

the quarter-finals in Barcelona. 

In the first round of the knock-out, all 

three Chinese players had easy victories 

but Chire Koyama (Japan) only just managed 

to beat Tu Jong Sil (DPR Korea). 

There was another close contest that 

ended controversially, between Kim 

Hyon Hui (DPR Korea) and Chai Po Wa 

(Hong Kong), Early in the match Chai Po 

Wa had been formally warned for striking 

the table with her free hand when 

she lost an important point. Losing 20- 

21 in the fourth game she did this again; 

the umpire awarded a penalty point to 

Kim Hyon Hui, who thereby won the 

match three-one. 

All of the quarter finals were won in 

three straight games. Deng Yaping (China) 

beat Nicole Struse (Germany), Qiao 

Hong (China) overcame Chire Koyama, 

Liu Wei (China) defeated Kim Hyon 

Hui and Chen Jing, now representing 

Chinese Taipei, eliminated the second 

Hong Kong player, Chan Tan Lui. 

In the first semi-final Deng Yaping 

dropped her only game to date in the 

event in beating Liu Wei with Chen Jing 

experiencing a comfortable victory over 

108 



Deng Yaping (China) 


Qiao Hong. Therefore, the final was 

between the 1988 and 1992 Olympic 

Champions. 

Deng Yaping started strongly and won 

the first two games but narrowly lost 

the next two, to set up what was expected 

to be a closely contested final 

game. However, it turned out to follow 

the same pattern as the men’s singles final; 

Deng Yaping captured the title with 

an easy 21-6 win, leaving Chen Jing the 

consolation of a silver medal to add to 

her gold from Seoul. 

During the final there was a disturbance 

when two of Chen Jing’s supporters began 

waving the flag of the Republic of 

China, which was contrary to International 

Olympic Committee rules. There 

was a delay before the offenders were 

arrested by the police and taken away. 

The all-Chinese contest for the bronze 

medal was won three-one by Qiao 

Hong. 

Sweden’s disappointing results continued 

in the men’s doubles. In the qualifying 

stage Jan-Ove Waldner and Jörgen 

Persson progressed only after narrow 

wins over Danny Heister and Trinko 

Keen (Netherlands) followed by success 

in opposition to Toshio Tasaki and Ryo 

Yuzawa (Japan). Meanwhile, the second 

Swedish pair, Peter Karlsson and Thomas 

von Scheele, could finish no higher 

than third in their group. 

Damien Eloi and Jean-Philippe Gatien 

(France) were decisive winners of their 

group as were Steffen Fetzner and Jörg 

Rosskopf (Germany), who had been the 

losing finalists in Barcelona. The two European 

pairs were drawn against each 




Wang Tao and Lu Lin (China) 

other in the quarter-finals; the result 

was a clear win for the Germans. 

In the other quarter-finals, Kong Linghui 

and Liu Guoliang (China) beat Koji Matsushita 

and Hiroshi Shibutani (Japan) 

three-nil, Lu Lin and Wang Tao (China) 

were two-one down against Kang Hee 

Chan and Kim Taek Soo (Korea) before 

winning the last two games and Sweden’s 

interest in the event ended. Jan- 

Ove Waldner and Jörgen Persson lost 

three-nil to the other Korean pair, Lee 

Chul Seung and Yoo Nam Kyu. 

Lu Lin and Wang Hao put an end to Germany’s 

hopes of another final place by 

beating Steffen Fetzner and Jörg Rosskopf 

three-nil, whilst Kong Linghui and 

Liu Guoliang disposed of Lee Chul Sung 

and Yoo Nam Kyu by the same score. 

In the final the Barcelona gold medallists, 

Lu Lin and Wang Tao had to be content 

this time with silver. Yoo Nam Kyu 

and Lee Chul Seung beat Steffen Fetzner 

and Jörg Rosskopf in the bronze medal 

match; thus Yoo Nam Kyu achieved the 

remarkable feat of winning the bronze 

medal in this event on three successive 

occasions, each time with a different 

partner. 

Unusually, there were three-way ties 

in two of the women’s doubles groups 

and the winners had to be determined 

by the ratio of games won to games 

lost. Both Chai Po Wa and Chan Tan Lui 

(Hong Kong) and Chen Chiu-Tan and 

Chen Jing (Chinese Taipei) qualified in 

this way. The losing pairs involved Csilla 

Batorfi and Krisztina Toth (Hungary) 

plus Åsa Svensson and Marie Svensson 

(Sweden). 

The only non-Asian pair to win a women’s 

doubles group was the Russian partnership 

of Irina Palina and Elena Timina, 

who went on to win one game in the 

quarter-final before losing to Park Hae 

Jung and Ryu Ji Hye (Korea). 

Kim Moo Kyo and Park Young Ae (Korea) 

and Liu Wei and Qiao Yunping 

110 


(China) both won their quarter finals 

three-nil and the only close match in this 

round was between Deng Yaping and 

Qiao Hong (China) against Chen Chiu- 

Tan and Chen Jing (Chinese Taipei). 

The Chinese pair won but only after surviving 

match points in both the fourth 

and fifth games. 

The semi-finals saw the two Korean pairs 

eliminated three-one, leaving the winners 

of this event in Barcelona to defend 

their title against their team-mates. 

They did so successfully in one of the 

best finals of the tournament, watched 

by an enthusiastic crowd. The play-off 

match for the bronze medal was won by 

Park Hae Jung and Ryu Ji Hye. 

However the officials from the International 

Table Tennis Federation, who 

stayed in the hotel nearest the venue 

may remember these Games for an incident 

unconnected with table tennis. 

The daily route to the Congress Center 

was through the Centennial Olympic 

Park, which had been designed as 

the “town centre” of the Olympics. At 

1.20am on Saturday 27th July a bomb 

placed there by a political extremist exploded, 

killing one person and injuring 

over 100 others. There was even a suggestion 

that the Games should be cancelled 

but this was dismissed and there 

was no further trouble. 

The perpetrator, Eric Rudolph, was not 

caught until five years later. He is now 

serving a life sentence with no possibility 

of parole. 


The Georgia World Congress Center 




112 





114 





116 


Photo : Colin Clemett 




OLYMPIC GAMES 

SYDNEY 2000 

Sydney, Saturday 16th – Monday 25th September 2000 

Jan-Ove Waldner and Liu Guoliang, were also previous Olympic gold 

medallists. To add to the interest, they represented the two countries which 

had dominated world table tennis in recent years, China and Sweden. 


118 


The table tennis competition was held 

in the State Sports Centre, one of the 

buildings in the Olympic Park, situated 

in the Homebush Bay area about 15 

kilometres west of the city. 

In the 1980s and 1990s it had been 

used mainly as a basketball arena and 

it later became the home venue of a 

professional netball team. 

A total of 5,000 spectator seats were 

situated round all sides of the hall 

with the front rows coming to within 

a few metres of the field of play; this 

proved very popular with spectators. 

As in Atlanta, careful control of access 

ensured efficient air-conditioning 

without unwanted air currents and the 

hall was never too warm even when the 

outside temperature was in the thirties. 

A further step was taken in reducing the 

proportion of competition time taken 

Kong Linghui 

Photo: John Oros 

by the qualifying stage. In both singles 

events the 16 highest-ranked players 

were given direct entry to a 32-place 

knock-out, while the other 48 played 

in groups of three for the remaining 

16 places; a similar arrangement was 

used for the doubles, with the numbers 

halved. 

This offered two possible advantages. 

First, the reduction in the size of the 

groups would mean there were fewer 

matches to be played; second, with 

less disparity in playing strength within 

a group, matches should be more 

evenly contested and therefore more 

interesting to watch. 

There were few unexpected results in 

the qualifying stage but there were 

several in the first round of the knockout. 

Lucjan Blasczyzk (Poland) easily 

beat Jean-Philippe Gatien (France), 

whose father and keenest supporter, 






lost only narrowly to Werner Schlager 

(Austria). Jörg Rosskopf defeated 

Toshio Tasaki in five games but Vladimir 

Samsonov (Belarus) was much too strong 

for Christophe Legout. 

Meanwhile Jan-Ove Waldner 

(Sweden), who had experienced such 

a disappointing time in Atlanta, beat 

Jean-Michel Saive (Belgium) threeone 

to reach the quarter-finals. Here 

he won a long match against Vladimir 

Samsonov, taking the fifth game 21-19. 

His fellow Swede, Jörgen Persson, joined 

him in the semi-finals by defeating Liu 

Guozheng (China). In the other quarterfinals 

Kong Linghui and Liu Guoliang 

of China reached that stage with wins 

over Werner Schlager and Jörg Rosskopf 

respectively. 

Yan Sen and Wang Liqin 

René, had died recently. Unsurprisingly, 

he did not seem to be in the right frame 

of mind for competitive play. 

More surprisingly, neither of the 

Korean players survived this round, Kim 

Taek Soo being beaten by Timo Boll 

(Germany) and Ryu Seung Min losing a 

five game match to Christophe Legout 

(France). Jörg Rosskopf (Germany), 

who had taken part in every Olympics 

table tennis competition, had a good 

win over Sweden’s Peter Karlsson but 

Zoran Primorac (Croatia), another longtime 

competitor, lost three-nil to Toshio 

Tasaki (Japan). 

The next round saw some close matches. 

Lucjan Blasczyzk showed that his win 

against Jean-Philippe Gatien was not 

due entirely to his opponent’s lack of 

form, when he took the no.1 seed Kong 

Linghui to five games, while Timo Boll 

Wang Liqin and Yen Sen 

celebrate victory over Kong 

Linghui and Liu Guoliang 


120 


Photo:Monthly World Table Tennis 


The Olympic Park 

The quality of the event was shown by 

the fact that all four semi-finalists were 

past World champions and two of them, 

Jan-Ove Waldner and Liu Guoliang, were 

also previous Olympic gold medallists. 

To add to the interest, they represented 

the two countries which had dominated 

world table tennis in recent years, China 

and Sweden. 

In the first semi-final, Jörgen Persson 

could win only one game against Kong 

Linghui but in the other, Jan-Ove 

Waldner beat Liu Guoliang comfortably 

in three games. Thus the stage was set 

for what would be a worthy Olympic 

final. 

Kong Linghui and Jan-Ove Waldner 

had played each other on a number of 

occasions, with fairly even results but 

Kong Linghui’s recent form had been 

slightly more impressive. He won the first 

two games but then Jan-Ove Waldner 

staged a recovery to take the next two 

before falling away in the fifth to give 

Kong Linghui a 10-1 lead. He fought 

back but did not quite recover from this 

poor start and lost 13-21. His compatriot 

The Sydney Scene 

The State Sports Centre 

Photo:ITTF Archives Photo: John Oros 



Photo: Monthly World Table Tennis Photo: Colin Clemett 

Chang Yen-Shu versus Vladimir Samsonov 

Other Chinese emigrants did better 

against higher-ranked opponents, 

Geng Lijuan (Canada) defeated Tamara 

Boros (Croatia) and Qianhong Gotsch 

(Germany) accounted for Rinko Sakata 

(Japan). By the end of this round the 

strength of Asian women in world table 

Carl XVI Gustaf, the King of tennis was beginning to show, with only 

Sweden, with wife Silvia 

two of the last 16 not being of Asian 

watching, greets Jan-Ove Waldner origin. 

Jörgen Persson was equally unsuccessful 

in the play-off for the bronze medal, 

which went to Liu Guoliang. 

In the women’s singles, it was not until 

the first round of the knock-out that 

there were any surprises, perhaps the 

biggest being the three-nil defeat of the 

World no.4, Sun Jin (China), by Jing Jun 

Hong (Singapore). Two former Chinese 

players, now representing Germany, 

were also unexpectedly eliminated 

at this stage, Jie Schöpp losing in five 

games to Tong Feiming (Chinese Taipei) 

and Jing Tian-Zörner falling similarly to 

Åsa Svensson (Sweden). 

The balance swung even further in 

Asia’s favour in the next round, where 

Krisztina Toth (Hungary) lost threenil 

to Chen Jing (Chinese Taipei) and 

Ni Xia Lian was beaten by the same 

margin by Li Ju (China). Meanwhile, in 

an all-European match Mihaela Steff 

(Romania) beat Åsa Svensson three-two, 

the only other European representative 

to survive being Qianhong Gotsch who 

beat Suk Eun Mi (Korea) three-two. 

Wang Nan (China) won a difficult match 

against Li Jiawei (Singapore), having 

122 




Li Ju and Wang Nan Celebrate 

and Li Ju beating Jing Jun Hong, in each 

case by three games to one. 

Once again, the final lived up to its 

promise. Wang Nan won the first game 

but then Li Ju rallied to take the next 

two before Wang Nan’s persistence 

finally gave her victory. In the play-off 

for third place, Chen Jing beat Jing Jun 

Hong to complete her set of Olympic 

medals, having won gold in Seoul and 

silver in Atlanta. 

As in the men’s singles, the results of 

the men’s doubles qualifying stage were 

fairly predictable, the winning pair in 

each group being undefeated and all 

but six of the 24 matches being decided 

two-nil. 


lost two games and being 16-20 down 

in the fourth. Two other quarter-final 

matches were decided after the score 

had reached 20-20 in the fifth game. In 

one, Ryu Ji Hye (Korea) beat An Konishi 

(Japan) and in the other Jing Jun Hong 

beat Geng Lijuan, both players having 

won 20-20 games earlier in that match. 

After the quarter-finals the Asian 

dominance was complete. Wang Nan 

had a fairly easy victory over Chire 

Koyama (Japan) as did Li Ju (China) 

against Ryu Ji Hye, Jing Jun Hong had 

to fight hard against Mihaela Steff and 

Chen Jing beat Qianhong Gotsch only 

after trailing two-one. Both Chinese 

players were successful in the semifinals, 

Wang Nan defeating Chen Jing 

One of the closest matches was between 

Damien Eloi and Christophe Legout 

(France) against Kurt Liu and Johnny 

Huang (Canada). The French pair lost the 

first game 11-21 and were level 20-20 in 

the second before they went on to win 

that and the deciding game. In another 

group, Danny Heister and Trinko Keen 

(Netherlands) were in a similar position 

against Kazeem Nosiru and Segun 

Toriola (Nigeria), losing the first game 

and taking the second only at 21-19. 

In the first round of the knock-out there 

were only two close matches. Kong 

Linghui and Liu Guoliang (China) beat 

Lucjan Blaszczyk and Tomas Krzeszewski 

(Poland) 21-18 in the fifth game; while 

Lee Chul Seung and Ryu Seung Min 

(Korea) were two-one down to Cheung 

Yuk and Leung Chu Yan (Hong Kong) 

before they, too, rallied to win the last 

two games. 

The quarter-final matches were more 

evenly balanced. Patrick Chila and Jean- 

Philippe Gatien (France) qualified for 




Men’s Doubles Podium 

the semi-finals by beating Karl Jindrak 

and Werner Schlager (Austria) 22-20 in 

the fifth game and Lee Chul Seung and 

Ryu Seung Min were taken to 21-18 in 

the fifth game by Chang Yen-Shu and 

Chiang Peng-Lung (Chinese Taipei). 

Only Wang Liqin and Yan Sen (China) 

had an easy passage into the next round, 

overcoming Damien Eloi and Christophe 

Legout in straight games. 

The last European pair, Patrick Chila and 

Jean-Philippe Gatien, was eliminated 

three-one in their semi-final by Kong 

Linghui and Liu Guoliang; in the other 

Wang Liqin and Yan Sen beat Lee Chul 

Seung and Ryu Seung Min by the same 

margin, to produce another all-Chinese 

final. The contest was won three-one by 

Wang Liqin and Yan Sen, so that Kong 

Linghui was unable to add a doubles 

gold medal to that of his singles title. 

There was consolation for Patrick Chila 

and Jean-Philippe Gatien. They narrowly 

won the play-off match for the bronze 

medal, in which three of the four games 

were decided only after the score had 

reached 20-all. 

Most of the Asian women’s doubles pairs 

were seeded and thus did not take part 

in the qualifying stage, with the result 

that six of the eight qualifiers were from 

Europe. However, even here the strength 

and depth of Asian women’s table 

tennis was again apparent; seven of the 

24 pairs consisted of Chinese expatriate 

players and in one group, comprising 

entries from Canada, Germany and the 

U.S.A., all of the players were of Chinese 

origin. 

Only two of the European qualifiers 

survived the first round of the knockout. 

Otilia Badescu and Mihaela Steff 

(Romania) beat Chen Jing and Xu Jing 

(Chinese Taipei) in straight games. 

However but the most exciting match 

was between Eldijana Aganovic and 

Tamara Boros (Croatia) and Jing Jun 

Hong and Li Jiawei (Singapore). 

Having won the first game and lost 

the next two, the Croatian pair fought 

back to take the next two 27-25 and 

25-23. In the only other five-game 

match Miao Miao and Shirley Zhou 

(Australia) beat Ni Xi Lian and Peggy 

124 




Men’s Singles Podium 

Regenwetter (Luxembourg) to give the 

host Association a pair in the quarterfinals. 

Here the seeded Hungarian pair, Csilla 

Batorfi and Krisztina Toth, who in the 

previous round had eliminated the 

German qualifiers, Qianhong Gotsch 

and Jie Schöpp, won again, beating 

Lee Eun Sil and Suk Eun Mi (Korea). Li 

Ju and Wang Nan (China) lost only one 

game to Eldijana Aganovic and Tamara 

Boros while the other Chinese pair, Sun 

Jin and Yang Ying put an end to the 

progress of Miao Miao and Shirley Zhou. 

Also reaching the semi-finals were Kim 

Moo Kyo and Ryu Ji Hye (Korea), who 

took five games to beat Otilia Badescu 

and Mihaela Steff. 

In the first of the semi-finals Sun Jin and 

Yang Ying lost only one game against 

Csilla Batorfi and Krisztina Toth but Li 

Ju and Wang Nan had a much harder 

match against Kim Moo Kyo and Ryu 

Ji Hye in the other, winning the fifth 

game only 24-22. 

In the final Li Ju and Wang Nan never 

appeared to be in any difficulty and 

they won three-nil but the result of the 

play-off for the bronze medal was in 

doubt until the very end. Csilla Batorfi 

and Krisztina Toth took the first two 

games before losing the third 22-24 and 

the last two 19-21. 

The decision to reduce the size of the 

qualifying groups had been a step in 

the right direction but the benefits 

were not as great as had been hoped. 

Certainly the reduction in the total 

number of matches had helped in the 

organisation of the playing schedule 

but the qualifying groups had still not 

provided the close competition that 

spectators expected. 

Even with greater equality of playing 

strength every group was won two-nil, 

the winner almost invariably being the 

highest ranked player. The argument 

for a direct knock-out system from the 

start looked even stronger. 



126 





128 





130 



OLYMPIC GAMES 

ATHENS 2004 

Athens, Saturday 14th – Monday 23rd August 2004 

For the first time, the competition was held in a purpose-built 

sports hall, the Galatsi Olympic Hall, located in a north-western 

suburb of Athens about eight kilometres from the city centre. 




132 


For the first time, the competition was 

held in a purpose-built sports hall, the 

Galatsi Olympic Hall, located in a northwestern 

suburb of Athens about eight 

kilometres from the city centre. 

The floor area was about 32,000 square 

metres and there was seating for 6,000 

spectators, ranged around all four sides. 

During the Games it was used in turn 

for table tennis and rhythmic gymnastics 

and it was hoped that afterwards 

it would become a major indoor sports 

facility for Athens. For a while it was the 

home court for the AEK Basketball Club 

but after they left in 2006 it was little 

used and it was eventually taken over 

by a private developer to be converted 

into a shopping mall and entertainment 

complex. 

There were two substantial changes to 

the playing system, the first being that 

games were now of 11 points instead 

of 21. The second, and more important, 

was that the system of qualifying 

groups was abandoned and all events 

were played on the knock-out principle 

throughout. 

However, it was recognised that the early 

rounds of a simple draw could bring 

together players of widely different 

strengths and that some way must be 

found of ensuring closer and more interesting 

matches. It was decided, therefore, 

to give the players ranked 1-16 

byes in the first two rounds and those 

ranked 17-33 byes in the first round. In 

this way players would be more closely 

matched from the outset and in successive 

rounds there should be a steady 

progression in the level of play. 



Chen Qi and Ma Lin (China) 





Greek Supporters 

inevitably be from different National 

Olympic Committees, even though they 

might not be the strongest pairs. 

It was recognised that this was not entirely 

fair but it was believed to be in 

the best interests of the competition. 

Moreover, it was hoped that it would 

be a one-off expedient and that at the 

next Games the doubles events would 

be replaced by team events, with only 

one entry from any one National Olympic 

Committee. 


Kim Taek Soo hugs Ryu Seung 

Min after beating Wang Hao 

A similar system was used for the doubles 

but here there was also a more controversial 

change. In order to ensure a wider 

distribution of medals it was decided 

that, where there were two pairs from 

the same National Olympic Committee, 

they would deliberately be drawn into 

opposite quarters of the same half. Thus 

the gold and silver medal winners would 

The first full round of the men’s singles 

included four players who had competed 

in every Olympics from 1988: 

Jörgen Persson and Jan-Ove Waldner 

of Sweden, Zoran Primorac of Croatia 

and Jean-Michel Saive of Belgium. Jörgen 

Persson had a fairly easy win over 

Kalinikos Kreanga (Greece) but Jan-Ove 

Waldner had a harder time in defeating 

Alexandar Karakasevic (Serbia) in 

six games. The other two were less fortunate; 

Zoran Primorac won only one 

game against Ma Lin (China) and Jean- 

Michel Saive succumbed in six games to 

Lin Ju (Dominican Republic). 

Round three was not a good round for 

European players, with only five out of 

17 going forward to round four. In that 

round the European representation was 

further diminished. Vladimir Samsonov 

(Belarus) was narrowly beaten by Leung 

Chu Yan (Hong Kong), Jörgen Persson 

lost to Ko Lai Chak (Hong Kong) and, 

in one of the longest matches of the 

round, the all-European clash saw Werner 

Schlager (Austria) narrowly beaten 

by Timo Boll (Germany). 

The most memorable contest of the 

round was probably that between Jan- 

Ove Waldner and Ma Lin (China). Ma 

Lin had won all six of their most recent 

134 



Ryu Seung Min 



encounters and many people expected 

that this would be the occasion for Jan- 

Ove Waldner, who had suffered several 

injuries in recent years, to make a graceful 

exit. 

Jan-Ove Waldner clearly did not share 

this view and, after defeating Ma Lin 

with the loss of only one game, he went 

on to achieve a similar result against 

Timo Boll to reach the semi-finals. The 

other successful quarter-finalists were 

Wang Liqin and Wang Hao of China and 

Ryu Seung Min of Korea, who defeated 

the Hong Kong player, Leung Chu Yan. 

In the semi-finals the two Chinese players 

met and victory went to Wang Hao 

but it was the match between Jan- 

Ove Waldner and Ryu Seung Min that 

aroused greater interest. 

After his outstanding performance 

against Ma Lin and Timo Boll, Jan-Ove 

Waldner’s many supporters hoped that 

their hero would once again reach the 

final but, sadly, their expectations were 

not realised. Ryu Seung Min’s amazing 

speed proved too much for him and he 

managed to win only one game, perhaps 

his only consolation being that he 

lost to the eventual winner. 

Ryu Seung Min easily won the first game 

of the final but Wang Hao just managed 

to take the second. When Ryu Seung 

Min won the next two and led by 8-4 in 

the fifth it seemed the match was over 

but Wang Hao fought back to 9-all and 

then took the next two points to reduce 

the deficit to one game. 

However, that was the end of the recovery 

and Ryu Seung Min won the next 

game to become the second Korean 

gold medal winner. In the play-off for 

the bronze medal Wang Liqin, who had 

been below his best in the semi-final, 

beat an obviously tired Jan-Ove Waldner 

in five games. 




The Galatsi Stadium 

Most of the matches in the first two 

rounds of the women’s singles were 

more closely fought than those in the 

men’s event. In one of the longest Csilla 

Batorfi, the only woman to have played 

in all the previous Olympics, lost 10-12 

to Petra Cada (Canada) in the seventh 

game, after having held two match 

points. 

Round three followed a now familiar 

pattern, with all but three of the non- 

Asian players being eliminated and after 

the fourth round only Tamara Boros 

(Croatia) survived among the representatives 

of China, Hong Kong, Singapore 

and the two Koreas. One of the surprises 

of round four was the performance of 

Kim Hyang Mi (DPR Korea), who easily 

defeated the world no.3, Niu Jianfeng 

(China). Japan’s three players Ai Fukuhara, 

Ai Fujinuma and Aya Umemura were 

also beaten in this round, the first losing 

to Kim Kyung Ah (Korea) and the others 

to Singapore’s Zhang Yueling and Li 

Jiawei respectively. 

There was another shock in the quarterfinals 

when Li Jiawei beat the defending 

champion Wang Nan (China) fourone 

but the other remaining Chinese 

player, Zhang Yining, had little difficulty 

in defeating Tamara Boros. Kim Hyang 

Mi continued her successful run with a 

four-two win over Zhang Yueling while 

Kim Kyung Ah (Korea) qualified for the 

semi-finals at the expense of Tie Yana 

(Hong Kong). 

In the first semi-final Zhang Yining’s forehand 

proved too strong for Kim Hyung 

Ah and she won fairly comfortably but 

the second was a struggle between Kim 

Hyang Mi and Li Jiawei which was decided 

in Kim Hyang Mi’s favour at 11-9 

in the seventh game. It was to be her last 

136 



Wang Nan and Zhang Yining (China) 

success and Zhang Yining was a convincing 

winner of the title, having lost only 

two games throughout the event. The 

bronze medal went to Kim Kyung Ah. 

The results in the first two rounds of the 

men’s doubles were generally in accordance 

with form but there were several 

unexpected outcomes in the third round. 

Lucjan Blaszczyk and Tomas Krzeszewski 

(Poland) played well to beat the strong 

Chinese Taipei pair Chiang Peng-Lung 

and Chuang Chih-Yuan, while Kong Linghui 

and Wang Hao (China) lost in five 

games to Jörgen Persson and Jan-Ove 

Waldner. 

Perhaps the most surprising winners 

were Michael Maze and Finn Tugwell of 

Denmark; their opponents, Karl Jindrak 

and Werner Schlager (Austria), had for 

several years been one of the best doubles 

pairs in the world but on this occasion 

they were overwhelmed four-nil. 

In the quarter-finals the Danes showed 

that this had not been just a lucky result, 

when Jörgen Persson and Jan-Ove Waldner 

could win only one game against 

them. 

The other three quarter-finals were decided 

by the same margin, Chen Qi and 

Ma Lin (China) beat Lucjan Blaszczyk 

and Tomasz Krzeszewski (Poland), Dmitrij 

Mazunov and Alexey Smirnov (Russia) 

overcame Lee Chul Seung and Ryu 

Seung Min (Korea) and Ko Lai Chak and 

Li Ching (Hong Kong) accounted for Slobodan 

Grujic and Aleksandar Karakasevic 

(Serbia). 

However reaching the semi-finals was 

the limit for the two European pairs; 

the final was between China and Hong 

Kong. Both pairs consisted of a righthanded 

and a left-handed player and 

both excelled in fast, attacking play but 

the Chinese showed the greater consistency. 

The match ended disappointingly for 

Hong Kong when in the sixth game of 

the final; Li Ching, trying to serve as 

short as possible, failed twice to clear the 

net. In the bronze medal match Michael 

Maze and Finn Tugwell had the satisfaction 

of defeating Dmitrij Mazunov and 

Alexey Smirnov to gain Denmark’s first 

Olympic medal. 

With most of the strong Asian pairs being 

given byes in the early rounds of the 

women’s doubles there was an opportunity 

for pairs from other continents to 

reach the third round but few did. 

All three African entries and both Latin 

American pairs were beaten in round 

one and Oceania was unfortunate in 

having its two pairs drawn against each 

other. The match was won by sisters 

Karen Li and Li Chunli (New Zealand), 

who beat Australia’s Jian Fang Lay and 

Miao Miao four-two; they progressed 

to defeat Nicole Struse and Elke Wosik 

(Germany) in the following round. One 

of the two North America pairs, Tawny 

Banh and Gao Jun, also reached round 

two but then lost to the Koreans Kim 

Bok Rae and Kim Kyung Ah. 





Zhang Yining the model of consistency 



Zhang Yining acknowledges 

the crowd 



Zhang Yining tastes success 

138 


Photo:Colin Clemett 

The scene for the final 


Photo:Colin Clemett 

The Women’s Doubles Final – Wang Nan and Zhang Yining 

(China) versus Lee Eun Sil and Suk Eun Mi (Korea 

Almost the last hope for non-Asians vanished 

in round three. The New Zealanders 

were beaten by Kim Hyang Mi and 

Kim Hyon Hui (DPR Korea) and of the 

Europeans only Tamara Boros and Cornelia 

Vaida (Croatia) survived, albeit at 

the expense of another European pair, 

Csilla Batorfi and Krisztina Toth (Hungary). 

However, this was as far as they 

went and in the quarter-finals they were 

swept aside three-nil by Kim Bok Rae 

and Kim Kyung Ah (Korea). 

Guo Yue and Niu Jianfeng (China) had 

a little more difficulty against Ai Fujinuma 

and Aya Umemura (Japan), as did 

Wang Nan and Zhang Yining in beating 

Song Ah Sim and Tie Yana (Hong Kong), 

both matches ending at 11-8 in the fifth 

game. In the semi-finals Wang Nan and 

Zhang Yining beat their compatriots, 

owing largely to Wang Nan’s return to 

form after her disappointing performance 

in the singles. In the other, all- 

Korean, semi-final, Lee Eun Sil and Suk 

Eun Mi showed how to deal with defensive 

players, recording a convincing win 

over Kim Bok Rae and Kim Kyung Ah. 

The final was a rather one-sided match, 




The Men’s Doubles Podium 


Women’s Singles Podium 


Michael Maze and Finn Tugwell (Denmark) 

140 


with the Koreans never really coming to 

terms with the Chinese pair’s fierce topspin 

attack and failing to win a game. 

However, the bronze medal match was 

much closer but here again the Chinese 

pairing of Guo Yue and Niu Jianfeng 

prevailed, thus preserving China’s remarkable 

record in the Olympic women’s 

doubles. 


Since table tennis was first played in the 

Olympics, they had lost only one match 

to a non-Chinese pair and that was in 

the 1988 final. If their pairs in this event 

had not been deliberately drawn into 

the same half they might well have won 

both the gold and silver medals. 


The early stages 


Chinese fans 



142 





144 





146 



OLYMPIC GAMES 

BEIJING 2008 

Beijing, Monday 13th – Thursday 23rd August 2008 

The table tennis competition was held in the Gymnasium 

of the Peking University and, as in Athens, the building 

had been designed specifically to meet the requirements of 

table tennis. It was situated in the south-east quarter of the 

University campus, about eight kilometres from the Olympic 

village and within easy travelling distance of the city centre. 




148 


The table tennis competition was held in 

the Gymnasium of the Peking University 

and, as in Athens, the building had 

been designed specifically to meet the 

requirements of table tennis. It was 

situated in the south-east quarter of 

the University campus, about eight 

kilometres from the Olympic village and 

within easy travelling distance of the 

city centre. 

Situated on the first floor, the playing 

area was almost 2,000 square metres 

and provided room for eight tables with 

seating for up to 8,000 spectators. The 

air-conditioning system operated at a 

very low flow-rate so as not to produce 

draughts which might affect the flight 

of the ball; also, it was supplemented 

by air-replacement vents under the 

spectator seats. 

Other refinements included a doublelayer 

roof which provided heat 

insulation and eliminated noise from 

rainfall; in addition the walls were 

sound-absorbing. 

The 2004 Games had seen the first 

major change in the competition format 

since 1988, with the total elimination 

of qualifying rounds for the individual 

events, the 2008 Games were to see the 

second. The change was the replacement 

of the men’s and women’s doubles 

events by team competitions, which the 

International Table Tennis Federation 

had first requested in 1995. 

The agreement from the International 

Olympic Committee was subject to there 

being no increase in the total number 

of players and it was agreed to limit the 

number of teams to 16 for each event, 

with a team comprising three players. 

Each team match consisted of two 

singles followed by a doubles and then 

one or two more singles, until one team 

had won three individual matches. The 

doubles pairing and the players in the 

final two singles were chosen so that 

no player took part in more than two 

individual matches, to avoid the outcome 

being determined by one strong player. 

Teams competed in four groups of four, 

with the group winners playing semi- 



China Winners of the Men’s Team Event 



Early stages 



Peking University 

finals and a final to determine the gold 

and silver medal winners. The losing 

semi-finalists and the second placed 

teams from the groups then competed 

in a knock-out for the bronze medal. 

As might have been expected, the results 

of the groups were strongly reminiscent 

of those previously seen in individual 

events, with every group dominated by 

one team. In the men’s event, both China 

and Japan won their groups without 

conceding an individual match; of the 

other group winners, Germany lost 

only one and Korea two. There were, 

however, some very close individual 

matches, notably that between Wang 

Liqin (China) and William Henzell 

(Australia). 

150 




Chinese fans 

China’s Women’s Team: Zhang 

Yining, Guo Yue, Wang Nan 

Guo Yue (China) 

Ma Lin, the moment of victory 






Peking University Gymnasium 

Swedish fans 




Wang Hao (China) 

game of the doubles, it looked as though 

the German team was comfortably on its 

way to the final. However, the Japanese 

pair staged a come-back to win that 

match and in the following singles Kan 

Yo recovered from a two games to nil 

deficit to beat Christian Süss, leaving the 

outcome to be decided by the match 

between Timo Boll and Seiya Kishikawa. 

This match also lasted the full five 

games, with Timo Boll the winner. 

William Henzell won the first game and 

led 11-10 in the second, when Wang 

Liqin just managed to save the next point 

with a lucky mis-hit return. He went on 

to win that game and the match. 

The Chinese men’s team maintained 

its record throughout the competition, 

although in the semi-final Oh Sang Eun 

(Korea) nearly spoiled it. He led Ma Lin 

two-one and was level at 10-all in the 

fourth game before Ma Lin managed to 

regain control. 

In the other semi-final Germany went 

two-nil ahead against Japan with singles 

victories from Dimitrij Ovtcharov and 

Timo Boll and, when Dimitrij Ovtcharov 

and his partner Christian Süss, beat Seiya 

Kishikawa and Jun Mizutani in the first 

The final was more predictable and 

though the Germans played well there 

was little doubt that China would 

be champions. In the play-off for the 

bronze medal Korea, one of the losing 

semi-finalists in the gold medal knockout, 

beat Hong Kong and then Austria, 

both three-one. 

In the women’s team event China, Hong 

Kong, Korea and Singapore all won 

their matches three-nil and the semifinals 

bore some similarity to those in 

the men’s competition. In the first China 

had little difficulty in beating Hong 

Kong three-nil; in the other, individual 

matches were won in turn by Korea 

and Singapore, before Feng Tianwei 

(Singapore) beat Park Mi Young (Korea) 

to secure her team’s place in the final by 

three matches to two. 



Wang Liqin (China) 

152 



Zhang Yining (China) 

(Belgium), Zoran Primorac (Croatia) and 

Jörgen Persson (Sweden). 

Jean-Michel Saive was beaten in his first 

match, losing to Segun Toriola (Nigeria) 

but both Zoran Primorac and Jörgen 

Persson went on to reach the quarterfinals. 

William Henzell (Australia) continued to 

show the form he had displayed in the 

team event by beating Jens Lundqvist 

(Sweden) in the first round, before 

losing narrowly in the next to Yoon Jae 

Young (Korea). Meanwhile, of the three 

French players in the first round only 

Damien Eloi was successful but in the 

second round he, too, was eliminated 

in a seven games match by Jun Mizutani 

(Japan). 


At the final stage, they faced the 

formidable Chinese trio of Wang Nan, 

Zhang Yining and Guo Yue, who duly 

secured the title that they had been 

expected to win. Meanwhile, as in the 

men’s event, it was one of the losing 

semi-finalists from the gold medal 

knock-out who won the bronze medal, 

when Korea beat successively the United 

States and Japan. 

The Polish women’s team included 19 

year-old Natalia Partyka, who was born 

without a right hand and forearm. In 

spite of this disability she has reached 

international level and this year became 

the first table tennis player to qualify in 

the same year for both the Olympic and 

the Paralympic Games. 

The men’s singles included three players 

who were taking part in their sixth 

Olympic Games: Jean-Michel Saive 

The third round saw the first appearance 

of the strongest seeded players. The 

three Chinese players Wang Hao, Wang 

Liqin and Ma Lin all had easy victories, 

only Ma Lin conceding a game, but the 

2004 Olympic champion, Ryu Seung Min 

(Korea), was surprisingly beaten by Ko 

Lai Chak (Hong Kong). 

After their successes in the team 

competition the German players were 

hopeful of further good results in the 

singles but in the third round Christian 

Süss lost to Vladimir Samsonov (Belarus). 

However, both Dimitrij Ovtcharov and 

Timo Boll of Germany secured their 

places in the last 16 but failed to reach 

the quarter-finals, losing to Oh Sang Eun 

(Korea) and Ko Lai Chak (Hong Kong) 

respectively. 

Zoran Primorac and Jörgen Persson 

fought their way through long matches 

in the third and fourth rounds to 

qualify for places in the quarter-finals, 

with Jörgen Persson’s victory over 




Chen Weixing celebrates after, in partnership with Robert Gardos, 

beating Jun Mizutani and Seiya Kishikawa in the semi-final bronze 

medal contest between Austria and Japan. 

Vladimir Samsonov being especially 

hard won. That match included one of 

the few controversial incidents of the 

competition. 

There was doubt whether the ball 

returned by Vladimir Samsonov had hit 

the side of the table or the top edge; 

furthermore, the video replay was 

inconclusive. Vladimir Samsonov offered 

to concede the point to Jörgen Persson 

but he was reluctant to accept it and 

suggested instead that the rally be replayed 

and although this was not strictly 

in accordance with the Laws it was 

agreed to be the simplest solution. 

In the next round Jörgen Persson had 

to play Zoran Primorac and here Jörgen 

Persson showed that at the age of 42 

he still had the skill and stamina to 

compete at this level, winning fourone. 

In the semi-final, however, he was 

unable to contain Wang Hao, while in 

the other semi-final Ma Lin overcame 

Vladimir Samsonov and Jörgen 

Persson find a solution; they 

agree to replay the point 


154 



Kim Kyung Ah and Park Mi Young celebrate after securing the 

bronze medal for Korea in the women’s team event 




Wang Hao (China) versus Dimitrij Ovtcharov (Germany) 

Zhang Yining en route to victory over Li Jiawei 




In the longest match of round two, 

Georgina Pota (Hungary) beat Dana 

Hadacova (Czech Republic) four-three, 

after winning both of the last two games 

12-10. However, these were to be the 

last successes for all three, when they 

came up against some of the stronger 

seeded players in the round of 32. 

Every match in this round was won by a 

player of Asian origin, albeit that some 

were now representing other National 

Olympic Committees. Among these were 

Gao Jun and Wang Chen, both of them 

formerly World Championships title 

holders for China but now representing 

the United States. 

Jörgen Persson (Sweden) 

the challenge of Wang Liqin, to ensure 

another all-Chinese final. 

Here Ma Lin added an individual gold 

medal to the ones he had already won 

in the 2008 team competition and the 

2004 men’s doubles. In the play-off for 

the bronze medal Jörgen Persson was 

unable to maintain the form he had 

showed previously, losing in straight 

games to Wang Liqin. However, it had 

been a remarkable performance from 

a player who was eligible for veteran 

events. 

In the women’s singles, the only first 

round winners to progress beyond 

the second round were Kim Jong (DPR 

Korea) and Hu Melek (Turkey). After 

initial victories over Fabiola Ramos 

(Venezuela) and Pan Li-Chun (Chinese 

Taipei) respectively, they both beat 

seeded players in the next round, Kim 

Jong winning four-one against Daniela 

Dodean (Romania) and Hu Melek 

eliminating Elke Schall (Germany). 

Having beaten Eva Odorova (Slovakia) 

and Sayaka Hirano (Japan), Gao Jun 

lost in round four to another Chinese 

expatriate, Wu Xue, now of the 

Dominican Republic. Wang Chen, 

however, beat Kim Kyung Ah (Korea) 

The moment of victory Zhang 

Yining beats Wang Nan 


156 




Natalia Partyka (Poland) 

four-three to reach the quarter-finals 

but there she was eliminated by Li Jiawei 

(Singapore). 

Li Jiawei’s winning run came to an end 

in the first semi-final, where she put 

up a strong fight before losing to the 

eventual winner, Zhang Yining. In the 

second, Wang Nan defeated Guo Yue 

four-two to set up a final between the 

champions from the 2000 and 2004 

Games, holders between them of no 

fewer than seven Olympic gold medals. 

Wang Nan started well and won the 

first game but lost the second at 11- 

13. From then on it was Zhang Yining 

who dictated the progress of the match, 

winning her fourth gold medal to 

equal the record of the legendary Deng 

Yaping. The bronze medal was won by 

Guo Yue so that, as in Athens, Li Jiawei 

ended the competition in a creditable 

fourth place. 

Thus the Chinese women had emulated 

the achievement of their male compatriots 

by winning all three medals and, 

with the successes in the two team 

events, it meant that at the 2008 Olympics, 

Chinese players had won every 

medal that was available to them. For 

some of them this may have marked the 

end of their international career but it 

seems that as one generation of Chinese 

players retires they are replaced by others 

of equal ability. 

In previous Olympics, table tennis had 

consistently attracted a high level of 

spectator attendance throughout the 

competition and it was to be expected 

that this would be the case in a country 

where the sport is so highly regarded 

and its players so successful. 

However, a more significant indicator of 

the widening popularity of table tennis 

as a spectator sport was the result of 

the post-Olympic survey carried out on 

the extent of television coverage in 48 

territories, which showed that it was 

ranked fifth of the 28 sports making up 

the 2008 Olympics programme. 



158 





160 





162 



YOUT H OLYMPIC GAMES 

OLYMPIC GAMES 

SINGAPORE 2010 

Singapore, Saturday 21st August - Thursday 26th August 

The Singapore Indoor Stadium was the venue for the table 

tennis events at the inaugural Youth Olympic Games, the 

tournament commencing on Saturday 21st August and concludingon 

Thursday 26th August. 


Y 

OUT H 

OLYMPIC GAMES 




Olga Bliznet (Moldova) 

The Singapore Indoor Stadium was the 

venue for the table tennis events at the 

inaugural Youth Olympic Games, the 

tournament commencing on Saturday 

21st August and concluding on Thursday 

26th August. 

Opened in 1989, the building proved an 

ideal venue, with table tennis following 

the badminton competition; a multipurpose 

building, the premises had previously 

hosted several sporting events in 

addition to concerts featuring the Rolling 

Stones, Robbie Williams, Tina Turner, 

Sarah Brightman and Luciano Pavarotti. 

Eight tables were used for the tournament 

with a further six to eight in a 

nearby hall being accessible for practice. 

A total of 32 places were available for 

boys and the same number for girls, 

Clarence Chew (Singapore) 

with three events being held: Boys’ Singles, 

Girls’ Singles and Team. 

Each National Olympic Committee was 

limited to a maximum of one boy and 

one girl representative born between 

Saturday 1st January 1994 and Sunday 

31st December 1995, with the team 

event being a mixed competition. Each 

team comprised one boy and one girl, 

who had qualified for the singles. In instances 

where a National Olympic Committee 

only had either only one boy or 

only one girl qualified, continental and 

intercontinental teams were formed. 

The fact that young people from different 

ethnic and cultural backgrounds 

joined forces, very much endorsed a 

theme of the Youth Olympic Games, one 

of promoting understanding and co-operation 

between nations. 

164 


Y 

OUT H 

OLYMPIC GAMES 

Qualifying for the Youth Olympic Games 

was a different procedure than had been 

adopted for any of the preceding Olympic 

Games. In each of the singles events 

27 places were obtainable by qualification, 

four were named National Olympic 

Universality places and one was reserved 

for the hosts. 

Following the policy throughout of a 

maximum of one boy and one girl from 

a National Olympic Committee, the ITTF 

Cadet Challenge staged in Tokyo in October 

2009 was the starting point for 

qualification: the top four players in 

each of the singles events gaining the 

first places on offer. Four players qualified, 

the following step was by ranking. 

The highest four named boys and girls 

on the Under 15 World Ranking list on 

Thursday 31st December 2009, who had 

not qualified via the ITTF Cadet Challenge 

in Tokyo, gained the next places 

available. 

Continental tournaments, held between 

Sunday 1st November 2009 and Monday 

31st May 2010, provided the next 14 

places in each of the singles events. Europe 

and Asia both received four places, 

North America and Latin America joined 

forces to make three places available for 

Pan America; Africa was awarded two 

places with one being allocated to Oceania. 

A further five places for boys and the 

same number for girls were awarded 

to the winner or the first eligible player 

in the singles events at five ITTF Junior 

Circuit tournaments staged between 

Friday 1st January and Thursday 10th 

June 2010. The tournaments, decided by 


An enthusiastic crowd 



Y 

OUT H 

OLYMPIC GAMES 



In addition to the qualification process 

for players, there was a similar procedure 

for umpires, with the ITTF Young 

Umpires Project being introduced. The 

Games focused on youth; therefore it 

was logical that when selecting officials, 

young officials should be considered. 

Targeting umpires under 30 years of age 

was the policy and when applications 

closed on Sunday 10th January 2010, the 

response was quite staggering. No less 

than 184 applications from 54 countries 

had been received; a total of 23 names 

was short listed to follow an on-line 

course in cyberspace organised by the 

University of Catalonia. 

Simon Gauzy (France) 

the ITTF Junior Commission, were those 

staged in Bahrain, Egypt, Italy, New Zealand 

and Venezuela; thus all five continents 

were covered. 

The places by qualification complete; 

the four Universality places in each 

event were determined by the ITTF Junior 

Commission A full quota of entries 

was the end result in the boys’ singles 

but as a result of Singapore’s Isabelle Siyun 

Li qualifying by virtue of her world 

ranking on Thursday 31st December 

2009, there was one unused place in the 

girls’ event. 

The place was awarded to Portugal’s 

Maria Xiao being the next named eligible 

player on the world rankings in 

question. 

Tamas Lakatos (Hungary) 


166 


Y 

OUT H 

OLYMPIC GAMES 



Gu Yuting (China) 

Eventually nine young umpires were selected 

as part of a 36 strong team with 

18 of the total being from Singapore, Interest 

in officiating was high, competing 

was a unique opportunity and following 

the success gained by Singapore earlier 

in the year, when sensationally beating 

China in the final of the women’s event 

at the Liebherr World Team Championships 

in Moscow; interest in table tennis 

was high. 

Even before the competition had started 

table tennis was recognised. On Friday 

13th August, six Singapore Youth Olympic 

Games Scholarships were announced; 

no less than three went to table tennis; 

the awards being presented to Malaysia’s 

Angeline Tang An Qi, Peru’s Janina 

Nieto and Singapore’s An Wang Qi. The 

other three recipients were swimmers 

Botswana’s Beryl Ebineng Seabe and 

Thailand’s Phiangkhwan Pawapotako, 

with Guyana’s track and field athlete, 

Jevina Raydon completing the line-up. 

Awards presented, officials names and 

players decided; proceedings commenced 

with a very comprehensive 

practice schedule. Training facilities 

were organised in Hall Five of the National 

University of Singapore. Practice 

facilities were available from Tuesday 

10th August with an ITTF Youth Olympic 

Games Training Camp being held from 

Sunday 15th August to Tuesday 16th August, 

an event which proved a most successful 

venture. 

Present was Jean-Philippe Gatien, the 

winner of the Men’s Singles title at the 

1993 World Championships and in 2000 

in Sydney, a Men’s Doubles bronze medallist 

with French compatriot, Patrick 

Chila. He was present in the capacity 

of role model, a feature of the Youth 

Olympic Games; each sport was required 


Y 

OUT H 

OLYMPIC GAMES 


to nominate an athlete who exemplified 

Olympic values both on and off the field 

of play. 

In addition to advising within their own 

sport, the role model was required to 

take part in a range of educational activities 

organised at the Youth Olympic 

Games. Jean-Philippe Gatien proved the 

perfect choice and certainly his attendance 

at the ITTF Youth Olympic Games 

Training Camp was well received by 

players and coaches alike. 


The specially organised training camp 

over, it was final preparation time for 

the players; further opportunities for 

pre-tournament practice were available 

in Hall Five of the National University of 

Singapore on Thursday 19th and Friday 

20th August, immediately prior to the 

start of competition. 

Adem Hmam (Tunisia) 

Play began with the singles events, the 

event being organised in a series of 

stages: matches in the first two stages 

being best of five games, in the third 


Adem Hmam and Gu Yuting (Tunisia / China) versus Emilien 

Vanrossomme and Maria Xiao (Belgium / Portugal) 

168 


Y 

OUT H 

OLYMPIC GAMES 



Konrad Kulpa (Poland) versus Clarence Chew (Singapore) 

stage best of seven games. In both the 

Boys’ Singles and Girls’ Singles events, 

the players were initially draw into eight 

groups, each group comprising four 

players; the players finishing in first and 

second places in each group progressed 

to compete from places 1 to 16, those 

in third and fourth place, for positions 

17 to 32. 

In the second stage of proceedings the 

top 16 players were drawn into four 

groups with four players in each group, 

as were those competing for the lower 

places. Two group stages completed 

the knock-out principle was followed in 

stage three; the players finishing in first 

and second places in the four groups 

which involved the top 16 players, progressed 

to compete for the medals with 

a bronze medal match being held between 

the two losing semi-finalists. 

in August 2010 but immediately there 

were two casualties. China’s Yin Hang, 

the top seed in the Boys’ Singles, withdrew 

shortly before the tournament 

was due to start owing to injury and was 

replaced by Tunisia’s Adem Hmam. Similarly, 

Germany’s Petrissa Solja, the no.3 


The remaining places were determined 

on the same principle. Seeding was according 

to the world ranking list in place 

Hung Tzu-Hsiang (Chinese Taipei) 


Y 

OUT H 

OLYMPIC GAMES 


seed in the Girls’ Singles event had to 

withdraw through illness on the opening 

day. 

Koki Niwa (Japan), Hung Tzu-Hsiang 

(Chinese Taipei), Simon Gauzy (France) 

and Hampus Soderlund (Sweden), the 

respective top four seeds all progressed 

safely to the quarter-final stage, as did 

Chiu Chung-Hei (Hong Kong), the no.5 

seed and Tamas Lakatos (Hungary), the 

no.8 seed. However, there were two 

surprise appearances in the round of 

the last eight. Emilien Vanrossomme 

(Belgium), the no.9 seed and Ojo Onaolapo 

(Nigeria), the no.11 seed, both 

progressed to the quarter-finals. 

Relatively comfortable successes and in 

the matches to determine the medals, 

none went the full distance; Koki Niwa 

beat Hung Tzu-Hsiang in six games to 

secure gold; whilst in one game less, Simon 

Gauzy defeated Tamas Lakatos to 

clinch bronze. 

Similarly in the Girls’ Singles event the 

top four seeds all reached the quarterfinal 

stage but their progress was not 

as straightforward as the boys. Yang Ha 

Eun (Korea), the no.2 seed and Suthasini 

Sawettabut (Thailand), who became the 

no.3 seed following the withdrawal of 

Petrissa Solja, advanced to the round of 

the last eight without a single defeat. 

Notably, in the first stage of proceedings 

Ojo Onaolapo had beaten Kim Dong 

Hyun (Korea), the no.6 seed and Emilien 

Vanrossomme had overcome Leonardo 

Mutti (Italy), the no.7 seed. 

A place in the last eight but for the 

two interlopers there was no further 

progress. Emilien Vanrossomme lost to 

Simon Gauzy with Ojo Onaolapo experiencing 

defeat at the hands of Koki 

Niwa, the champion elect. Defeat for 

the Nigerian but he had been one of the 

players to attract attention; at the ITTF 

Youth Olympic Games Training Camp 

he had been totally committed, whilst 

against Koki Niwa, he won the first two 

games before narrowly losing the next 

four. 

In the two remaining quarter-final duels 

Tamas Lakatos defeated Hampus 

Soderlund in six games, whilst in a full 

distance seven games duel, Hung Tzu- 

Hsiang overcame Chiu Chung Hei. Places 

in the semi-finals reserved, Koki Niwa recorded 

a straight games win over Simon 

Gauzy as did Hung Tzu-Hsiang in opposition 

to Tamas Lakatos. 

However, for Gu Yuting (China), the 

no.1 seed and for Bernadette Szocs (Romania), 

the no.4 seed, both suffered 

defeats in the opening stage before 

progressing unhindered. Gu Yuting was 

beaten by Kim Song I (DPR Korea), the 

no.14 seed, who duly progressed to the 

quarter finals; whilst Bernadette Szocs 

suffered defeat at the hands of Britt Eer- 

Isabelle Siyun Li (Singapore) 


170 


Y 

OUT H 

OLYMPIC GAMES 



Isabelle Siyun Li (Singapore) versus Olga Bliznet (Moldova) 

land of the Netherlands, the no.11 seed. 

Equally, Isabelle Siyun Li (Singapore), 

the no.6 seed, on her route to the quarter-finals 

had experienced problems in 

the first stage of affairs; she had lost to 

Ayuka Tanioka (Japan), the no.9 seed, 

the Japanese teenager maintaining her 

form to reach stage three. 

A place in the quarter-final for Ayuka 

Tanioka was a minor surprise; the appearance 

of Olga Bliznet (Moldova) in 

the round of the last eight was a greater 

surprise. She was the no.16 seed and her 

quarter-final appearance meant that 

four of the eight girls’ singles quarterfinalists 

were defensive players; an unusual 

situation in the modern era. In addition 

to Olga Bliznet, Kim Song I, Isabelle 

Li and Ayuka Tanioka are also defenders. 

Four backspin artistes in the round of the 

last eight but only one was to survive; 

urged on by a passionate local crowd, 

Isabelle Siyun Li recorded a five games 

win over Bernadette Szocs, for the other 

three it was defeat. 

Aykua Tanioka was beaten in four 

straight games by Suthasini Sawettabut, 

Gu Yuting gained revenge over Kim 

Song I for her first stage defeat but only 

just; she needed the full seven games to 

secure victory, whilst more convincingly, 

in four straight games, Yang Ha Eun defeated 

Olga Bliznet. 

In form and relishing the fact she was 

playing on home soil, Isabelle Siyun Li 

maintained her momentum at the semifinal 

stage. She beat Suthasini Sawettabut 

in four straight games to book 

her place in the final, where she faced 

Gu Yuting; the Chinese teenager having 

overcome Yang Ha Eun in five games in 

her penultimate round encounter. 

Now fully recovered from her opening 

stage defeat against Kim Song I, Gu Yuting 

was not to be denied. She beat Isabelle 

Siyun Li in four straight games to 

secure the gold medal. Success for Gu 

Yuting and in the bronze medal match 

it was success for Yang Ha Eun, she accounted 

for Suthasini Sawettabut in five 

game to clinch third place. 





Ojo Onaolapo (Nigeria) 

Junior Boys’ Singles Podium: 

Hung Tzu-Hsiang (Chinese 

Taipei), Koki Niwa (Japan), 

Simon Gauzy (France) 

The singles events over, focus turned to 

the Team event. Each fixture consisted of 

three matches; the girls confronted each 

other followed by the boys and a mixed 

doubles to end proceedings. Similar to 

the singles, in the first instance matters 

were organised on a group basis. 

Eight groups in the first stage, the teams 

who finished in first and second places 

in each group progressed to the main 

draw, the teams finishing in third and 

fourth places continued to compete for 

the lower places. In the second stage of 

proceedings, the teams competing for 

the lower places saw matters conclude 

in the quarter-finals. The four successful 

teams were placed 17th equal, the beaten 

quarter-finalists were placed 21st 

equal, with the first round losers sharing 

25th place. 

In the contest for the higher places, the 

only play-off match was for the bronze 

medal; the losing quarter-finalists shared 

fifth place, those beaten in the opening 

round were named joint ninth. 

Several days prior the start of proceedings 

the teams had been decided but the 

withdrawal of Yin Hang and Petrissa Solja 

did present a problem; the end result 

was that there was no German team, 

thus 31 teams actually participated but 

a solution for Gu Yuting, the intended 

partner of Yin Hang, was found. 

All parties concerned agreed she could 

partner Adem Hmam (Tunisia); named 

Intercontinental I, they concluded proceedings 

with bronze medals to their 

credit. They reached the semi-final stage 

by winning every match two-one with 

Gu Yuting remaining unbeaten and 

partnering Adem Hmam to doubles success 

on each occasion. Similarly, at the 

172 


Photo: Monthly World Table Tennis Photo: Monthly World Table Tennis Photo: Monthly World Table Tennis 

Suthasini Sawettabut 

(Thailand) 

Bernadette Szocs 

(Romania) 

Ayuka Tanioka (Japan) 

Hmam in opposition to Koki Niwa and a 

doubles reverse, meant that a bronze 

medal contest against DPR Korea ensued. 

The duo emerged successful following 

the same winning pattern as before; 

Gu Yuting overcame Kim Song I in 

three straight games, the player against 

whom she had experienced defeat on 

the opening day, Adem Hmam lost to 

Kim Hwang Song by the minimal two 

point margin in the fifth game but then 

joined forces with Gu Yuting to secure 

the doubles in four games. 

Gold and bronze was thus the eventual 

medal haul for Gu Yuting; as for Koki 

Niwa it was gold and more gold. 

Partnering Ayuka Tanioka he reached 

the quarter-finals without the loss of 

a single match but in the round of the 

last eight, life became more exacting. 

Against the host association, Ayuka 

Tanioka lost to Isabelle Siyun Li in the 

opening contest, Koki Niwa levelled by 

beating Clarence Chew in four games 

before the Japanese duo clinched victory 

in thrilling full distance five games 

double duel. 

Victory over Adem Hmam and Gu Yuting 

duly booked a place in the final, 

where they met the Korean partnership 

of Kim Dong Hyun and Yang Ha Eun. En 

route to the final the Koreans had never 

been in serious danger. First place in 

their group without the loss of a single 

individual match, they maintained that 

form in the second stage of proceedings. 


semi-final stage, Gu Yuting was unbeaten; 

she accounted for Ayuka Tanioka 

in three straight games in the contest 

against Japan but defeat for Adem 

They reached the final, posting twonil 

wins in every round; notably in the 

quarter-finals beating Tanapol Santiwattanatarm 

and Suthasini Sawttabut 

of Thailand before overcoming DPR Ko- 





Yang Ha Eun (Korea) 

Koki Niwa (Japan) 

rea’s Kim Kwang Song and Kim Song I to 

reach the final. 

In the final it was a much different story; 

every match went the full five games 

distance. Korea made the better start. 

Yang Ha Eun beat Ayuka Tanioka but 

then Japan levelled with Koki Niwa 

overcoming Kim Dong Hyun, before a 

doubles success by the minimum two 

point margin in the fifth game, secured 

a Japanese victory. 


It was the top step of the podium for 

Koki Niwa and Ayuka Tanioka, it was 

gold for Japan and for all the players 

concerned a memorable experience; 

once in a lifetime. 

Girls Singles Podium 

Isabelle Siyun Li, Gu Yuting, 

Yang Ha Eun 

174 





The Youth Olympic Games 

Players and coaches at the training camp 



176 





Africa 1: ONAOLAPO Ojo, LAID Islem 

Africa 2: LI KAM WA Warren, MAFUTA IVOSO Jolie 

Brazil: JOUTI Eric, KUMAHARA Caroline Chinese 

Taipei: HUNG Tzu-Hsiang, HUANG Hsin 

Croatia: FUCEC Luka, JEGER Mateja 

DPR Korea: KIM Kwang Song, KIM Song I 

Egypt: BEDAIR Omar, MESHREF Dina 

Europe 1: SODERLUND Hampus, SZOCS Bernadette 

Europe 2: VANROSSOMME Emilien, XIAO Maria 

Europe 3: MUTTI Leonardo, LOVERIDGE Alice 

Europe 4: KULPA Konrad, BLIZNET Olga 

Europe 5: BAJGER Ondrej, BARAVOK Katsiaryna 

Europe 6: LEITGEB Stefan, GALIC Alex 

France: GAUZY Simon, PANG Celine 

Germany: WAGNER Florian, SOLJA Petrissa 

Hong Kong: CHIU Chung Hei, NG Ka Yee 

Hungary: LAKATOS Tamas, NAGYVARADI Mercedes 

India: DAS Avik, BHANDARKAR Mallika 

Intercontinental 1: HMAM Adem, GU Yuting 

Intercontinental 2: HOLIKOV Elmurod, NOSKOVA Yana 

Intercontinental 3: MEJIA Luis, PHAN Lily 

Intercontinental 4: MASSAH Patrick, GIARDI Letizia 

Japan: NIWA Koki, TANIOKA Ayuka 

Korea: KIM Dong Hyun, YANG Ha Eun 

Netherlands: HAGERAATS Koen, EERLAND Britt 

New Zealand: WU Kevin, WU Julia 

Pan America 1: GAVILAN Axel, HSING Ariel 

Pan America 2: SARAGOVI Pablo, CORDERO Carelyn 

Pan America 3: TAPIA Rodrigo, ROSHEUVEL Adielle 

Singapore: CHEW Zhe Yu Clarence, LI Isabelle Siyun 

Sri Lanka: ARSA MARAKKALA Hasintha, VITHANAGE Nuwani 

Thailand: SANTIWATTANATARM Tanapol, SAWETTABUT Suthasini 

178 




Olympic Gold Medallists Women 

Olympic Gold Medallists 

Women 


180 




CHEN JING 

National Association: China (to 1992), Chinese 

Taipei (from 1993) 

Date of Birth: 20th September 1968 

Place of Birth: Wuhan, Hubei Province, China 

First Played Table Tennis: Aged seven 

Greatest Influence on Career: Feng Mengya, 

former Vice-Administrator of Hubei Sports 

Administration 

Greatest Olympic Memory: Becoming the 1988 

Olympic Games women’s singles champion. 

Style: Left-handed attacking player, shakehands 

grip 

Playing Strength: Wide range of services 

combined with speed 

First Entered World Ranking: January 1987 

Highest World Ranking: No. 2 (March, June 

1989 & 1990) 

Olympic Games Medals 

1988 Seoul WS Gold WD Silver 

1996 Atlanta WS Silver 

2000 Sydney WS Bronze 

World Championships Medals 

1987 New Delhi WT Gold 

1989 Dortmund WT Gold WS Bronze 

WD Silver XD Bronze 

1993 Gothenburg WS Silver 

1997 Manchester XD Bronze 

2000 Kuala Lumpur WT Silver 

Other Major Title 

1999 WS ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals, Sydney 

ITTF Pro Tour 

1996-2000 Winner of four Women’s Singles 

and four Women’s Doubles titles 



DENG YAPING 

National Association: China 

Date of Birth: 6th February 1973 

Place of Birth: Zhengzhou, Henan Province, 

China 

First Played Table Tennis: Aged six 

Greatest Influence on Career: Zhang Xielin, 

Coach of National Table Tennis Team 

Greatest Olympic Memory: Winning the 1996 

Women’s Singles title in Atlanta 

Style: Right-handed, shake-hands grip; used 

long pimples on backhand 

Playing Strength: Very quick to change from 

backhand to forehand, strong forehand 


Highest World Ranking: No. 1 (from May 

1991 to December 1998) 


1992 Barcelona WS Gold WD Gold 

1996 Atlanta WS Gold WD Gold XD Silver 


1989 Dortmund WD Gold 

1991 Chiba WT Silver WS Gold WD Silver 

1993 Gothenburg WT Gold WD Silver 

1995 Tianjin WT Gold WS Gold WD Gold 

1997 Manchester WT Gold WS Gold 

WD Gold XD Silver 

Other Major Titles 

1988 WS Asian Cup, Philippines 

1990 WS Asia Top 8, Huangshi 

1990 WT, WS, XD Asian Games, Beijing 

1990 WT World Team Cup, Hokkaido 

1991 WT World Team Cup, Barcelona 

1992 WS Asian Cup, Hong Kong 

1992 WD World Doubles Cup, Las Vegas 

1994 WT, WS Asian Championships, Tianjin 

1994 WT, XD Asian Games, Hiroshima 

1995 WT World Team Cup, Atlanta 

1996 WS Women’s World Cup, Hong Kong 

1996 WS, WD ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals, 

Tianjin 

ITTF Pro Tour 

1996-1997 Winner of four Women’s 

Singles and three Women’s 

Doubles titles 


182 


GUO YUE 


Date of Birth: 17th July 1988 

Place of Birth: Anshan, Liaoning Province, 

China 

First Played Table Tennis: Aged five 

Greatest Influence on Career: Kong Linghui, 

Coach of National Table Tennis Team 

Greatest Olympic Memory: Winning the gold 

medal in the Women’s Team event at the 2008 

Beijing Games 

Style: Left-handed attacking player, 

shake-hands grip 

Playing Strength: Service and speed, fast 

forehand top spin 

First Entered World Ranking: March 2001 

Highest World Ranking: No. 1 (January 2008) 


2004 Athens WD Gold 

2008 Beijing WT Gold WS Bronze 


2003 Paris WD Silver 

2004 Doha WT Gold 

2005 Shanghai WS Bronze WD Silver 

XD Gold 

2006 Bremen WT Gold 

2007 Zagreb WS Gold WD Silver XD Gold 

2008 Guangzhou WT Gold 

2009 Yokohama WS Silver WD Gold 

2010 Moscow WT Silver 

2011 Rotterdam WS Bronze WD Gold 

2012 Dortmund WT Gold 




2001 JGT, JGD Asian Youth Championships, 

Hong Kong 

2003 WT Asian Championships, Bangkok 

2003 WD ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals, 

Guangzhou 

2004 WS ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals, Beijing 

2005 WT, XD Asian Championships, Jeju-do 

2006 WT Asian Championships, Doha 

2006 WS Asian Games, Doha 

2007 WT Asian Championships, Yangzhou 

2007 WD ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals, Beijing 

2009 WT World Team Cup, Linz 

2010 WT World Team Cup, Dubai 

2010 WT, WD Asian Games, Guangzhou 

2011 WT World Team Cup, Magdeburg 

2011 WD ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals, London 

2012 WT Asian Championships, Macau 

ITTF Pro Tour 

2002-2011 Winner of 11 Women’s Singles, 

35 Women’s Doubles and two 

Women’s titles 



HYUN JUNG HWA 

National Association: Korea 

Date of Birth: 6th October 1969 

Place of Birth: Busan, Korea 

First Played Table Tennis: Aged nine. At 

elementary school, she watched pupils playing 

table tennis through the window and then was 

curious. She was interested to learn to play 

table tennis so asked the teacher if she could 

learn. 

Greatest Influence on Career: Mother always 

supported her ambitions 

Greatest Olympic Memory: Receiving the gold 

medal at the Seoul Olympic Games in front of 

Korean spectators; everybody was pleased and 

she became a sports star. 

Style: Right-handed attacking player, 

penholder grip 

Playing Strength: Aggressive forehand 

attacking play 

First Entered World Ranking: 1986 

Highest World Ranking: No. 3 (May 1991 and 

from October 1991 to February 1994) 


1988 Seoul WD Gold 

1992 Barcelona WS Bronze WD Bronze 


1987 New Delhi WD Gold 

1989 Dortmund WT Silver WS Silver XD Gold 

1991 Chiba WT Gold 

1993 Gothenburg WT Bronze WS Gold XD Silver 


1986 JGS Asian Youth Championships, 

Nagoya 

1986 WT Asian Games, Seoul 

1988 WT, WD, XD Asian Championships, 

Niigata 

1990 WT, XD Asian Championships, 

Kuala Lumpur 

1990 WD Asian Games, Beijing 


184 


Photo: Manfred Schillings 



2000 Sydney WS Silver WD Gold 

LI JU 


Date of Birth: 22nd January 1976 

Place of Birth: Nantong, Jiangsu Province 


Greatest Influence on Career: Jin Lufang, the 

Chief Coach of Jiangsu Province Team. 

Greatest Olympic Memory: Winning the 

women’s doubles gold medal at the 2000 

Sydney Olympic Games 

Style: Right-handed attacking player, shakehands 

grip 

Playing Strength: Service and heavy topspin 

play 

First Entered World Ranking: December 1991 

Highest World Ranking: No. 2 (August 1997 to 

March 1998, May 1998 to June 1998, August 

1998 to January 1999, October 1999 to June 

2000, August 2000 to December 2000, February 

2001 to June 2001) 


1997 Manchester WT Gold WS Bronze 

WD Bronze 

1999 Eindhoven WD Gold 

1999 Kuala Lumpur WT Gold 

2001 Osaka WT Gold WD Gold 

2003 Paris WS Bronze WD Bronze 




1996 WT, WD Asian Championships, Osaka 


Hong Kong 

1998 WT, WS Asian Championships, Osaka 

1998 WD ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals, Paris 

1998 WT, WD Asian Games, Bangkok 

1999 WD ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals, Sydney 

2000 WS Women’s World Cup, Phnom Penh 

ITTF Pro Tour 

1996-2004 Winner of seven Women’s Singles 

and six Women’s Doubles titles 




QIAO HONG 


Date of Birth: 21st November 1968 

Place of Birth: Wuhan, Hubei Province, China 


Greatest Influence on Career: Feng Mengya, 

the former Vice-Administrator of Hubei Sports 

Administration 


medal in the women’s doubles at the 1992 

Barcelona Olympic Games 



Playing Strength: Service, and consistency in 

rallies 

First Entered World Ranking: March 1989 

Highest World Ranking: No. 1 (June 1989, 

1990 and April 1991) 


2000 Sydney WS Silver WD Gold 


1992 Barcelona WS Silver WD Gold 

1992 Atlanta WS Bronze WD Gold 


1989 Dortmund WS Gold WD Gold 

1991 Chiba WT Silver WD Silver 

1993 Gothenburg WT Gold WS Bronze 

WD Silver 

1995 Tianjin WT Gold WS Silver WD Gold 


1990 WT Asian Games, Beijing 

1990 WT World Team Cup, Hokkaido 

1990 WS, WD Asian Championships, 

Kuala Lumpur 

1991 WT World Team Cup, Barcelona 

1992 WD World Doubles Cup, Las Vegas 

1994 WS Asian Cup, Shanghai 

1994 WT Asian Games, Hiroshima 

1994 WT Asian Championships, Tianjin 

1995 WT World Team Cup, Atlanta 

ITTF Pro Tour 

1996 Winner of one Women’s Singles title 

186 


Photo: An Sung Ho 


YANG YOUNG JA 


Date of Birth: 6th July 1964 

Place of Birth: Iksan, Korea 

First Played Table Tennis: Aged nine 

Greatest Influence on Career: Her mother 

always encouraged and supported her 


gold medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games 

against the Chinese, who were the strongest 

players at the time 

Style: Right-handed attacking player, penholder 

grip 

Playing Strength: Attacking from the forehand 


Highest World Ranking: No. 2 (June 1983 and 

June 1987) 


1988 Seoul WD Gold 


1983 Tokyo WS Silver 

1985 Gothenburg WT Bronze 

1987 New Delhi WT Silver WS Silver 

WD Gold XD Bronze 



1988 WT, WD Asian Championships, Niigata 



Photo: Tamasu Butterfly 


2000 Sydney WS Gold WD Gold 

2004 Athens WD Gold 

2004 Beijing WT Gold WS Silver 


1997 Manchester WT Gold WS Silver 

WD Silver XD Bronze 

1999 Eindhoven WS Gold WD Gold 

XD Bronze 


2001 Osaka WT Gold WS Gold WD Gold 

2003 Paris WS Gold WD Gold XD Gold 


2005 Shanghai WD Gold 


2007 Zagreb WD Gold XD Silver 


WANG NAN 


Date of Birth: 1st December 1983 

Place of Birth: Fushun, Liaoning Province, 

China 


Greatest Influence on Career: Zeng 

Chuanqiang 


medal in the women’s singles event at the 

2000 Sydney Olympic Games 

Style: Left -handed attacking player, 


Playing Strength: Topspin play close to the 

table 


Highest World Ranking: No. 1 (January 1999 

to November 2002) 


1994 JGS Asian Youth Championships, Niigata 

1996 WT, WD Asian Championships, Kallang 

1997 WS Women’s World Cup, Shanghai 


Hong Kong 

1998 WS Women’s World Cup, Taipei City 

1998 WT, WD, XD Asian Games, Bangkok 

1998 WS Asia Top 12, Kish Island 

1998 WT Asian Championships, Osaka 

1998 WS, WD ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals, Paris 

1999 WD ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals, Sydney 

2001 WS ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals, Hainan 

2003 WS Women’s World Cup, Hong Kong 


2006 WS Asian Cup, Kobe 

2006 WT Asian Games, Doha 


Hong Kong 


2007 WT Asian Championships, Yangzhou 

ITTF Pro Tour 

1996-2008 Winner of 16 Women’s Singles,16 

Women’s Doubles and two Women’s 

Team titles 

188 




2004 Athens WS Gold WD Gold 

2004 Beijing WT Gold WS Gold 


1999 Eindhoven WS Silver WD Bronze 


2001 Osaka WT Gold WS Bronze WD Bronze 

2003 Paris WS Silver WD Gold 


2005 Shanghai WS Gold WD Gold 


2007 Zagreb WS Bronze WD Gold 


2008 Yokohama WS Gold 


ZHANG YINING 



Place of Birth: Beijing, China 


Greatest Influence on Career: Li Sun, Chinese 

national team coach 


women’s singles title at two consecutive 

Olympic Games 

Style: Right-handed all-round player, 


Playing Strength: The complete player, 

technically correct in every aspect 



to December 2007, February 2008 to October 

2008, December 2008 to December 2009) 


1997 JGT Asian Youth Championships, 

Sanagi Goa 

1998 WT Asian Championships, Osaka 

2000 WS ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals, Kobe 

2001 WS Women’s World Cup, Wuhu 

2002 WS Women’s World Cup, Singapore 

2002 WS Asian Games, Busan 


Guangzhou 

2004 WS Women’s World Cup, Hangzhou 


2005 WS Women’s World Cup, Guangzhou 

2005 WS ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals, Fuzhou 

2006 WT, WS Asian Championships, Yangzhou 


Hong Kong 


TTF Pro Tour 

1999-2000 Winner of 29 Women’s Singles, 21 

Women’s Doubles and two Women’s 

Team titles 


Olympic Gold Medallists Men 

Olympic Gold Medallists 

Men 


190 



Date of Birth: 21st March 1965 

Place of Birth: Xindu, Sichuan Province, 

China 


Greatest Influence on Career: Xiao 

Yangzong, President of the Sichuan Sports 

Institute 


men’s doubles title at the 1988 Olympic 

Games 



Playing Strength: Service and first attack, 

forehand notably strong 


Highest World Ranking: No. 2 (May 1985, 

1986, June 1987) 



CHEN LONGCAN 


1988 Seoul MD Gold 


1988 Seoul MD Gold 


1985 Gothenburg MT Gold MS Silver 

1987 New Delhi MT Gold MD Gold 

1989 Dortmund MT Silver MD Bronze 

XD Bronze 


1984 MT Asian Championships, Islamabad 

1985 MS Asian Cup, Singapore 

1986 MS Men’s World Cup, Port of Spain 

1988 MT, MS, MD Asian Championships, 

Niigata 





2004 Athens MD Gold 

CHEN QI 


Date of Birth: 15th April 1984 

Place of Birth: Nantong, Jiangsu Province, 

China 


Greatest Influence on Career: Liu Guoliang, 

Head Coach Chinese National Men’s Team 

Greatest Olympic Memory: Winning the men’s 

doubles title at the 2004 Olympic Games 



Playing Strength: Service and first attack, fast 

forehand topspin 

First Entered World Ranking: October 2003 

Highest World Ranking: No. 5 (March 2004 to 

June 2004, October 2004 to November 2004) 


2005 Shanghai MD Bronze 

2006 Bremen MT Gold 

2007 Zagreb MD Gold 

2008 Guangzhou MT Gold 

2009 Yokohama MD Gold 

2011 Rotterdam MD Silver 


2003 MD ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals, 

Guangzhou 

2004 MD ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals, Beijing 

2007 MT World Team Cup, Magdeburg 


ITTF Pro Tour 

2003-2011 Winner of four Men’s Singles 

and 13 Men’s Doubles titles 

192 





1996 Atlanta MD Gold 

2000 Sydney MS Gold MD Silver 

KONG 

LINGHUI 



Place of Birth: Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, 

China 


Greatest Influence on Career: Cai Zhenhua, 

Vice-Administrator of General Administration 

of Sport in China 


singles title at the 2000 Olympic Games 



Playing Strength: The complete player with 

speed a key to success 

First Entered World Ranking: October 1992 


to November 1997, March 1999, May 1999, 

May 2000 to June 2000, September 2000 to 

November 2000) 


1995 Tianjin MT Gold MS Gold XD Silver 

1997 Manchester MT Gold MS Bronze 

MD Gold XD Silver 

1999 Eindhoven MD Gold 

2000 Kuala Lumpur MT Silver 

2001 Osaka MT Silver MS Silver MD Silver 

2003 Paris MS Bronze MD Silver 

2004 Doha MT Gold 

2005 Shanghai MD Gold Medal 

Other Major Titles Other Major Titles 

1994 MT, MS Asian Championships, Tianjin 

1994 MT, XD Asian Games, Hiroshima 

1994 XD Asian Championships, Tianjin 

1995 MS Men’s World Cup, Nîmes 

1996 MS, MD Asian Championships, Kallang 

1996 MS ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals, Tianjin 


Hong Kong 

1998 MT, MD Asian Games, Bangkok 

1999 MS Asia Top 12, Kish Island 

1999 MD ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals, Kobe 

2002 MT Asian Games, Busan 


Stockholm. 

ITTF Pro Tour 

2003-2011 Winner of eight Men’s Singles 

and 19 Men’s Doubles titles 





1996 Atlanta MS Gold MD Gold 

2000 Sydney MS Bronze MD Silver 

LIU GUOLIANG 


Date of Birth: 10th January 1976 

Place of Birth: Xinxiang, Henan Province, 

China 






singles gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic 

Games 


grip 

Playing Strength: Service in particular and 

speed of play 

First Entered World Ranking: July 1992 

Highest World Ranking: No. 1 (November 

1996, December 1996, November 1998, January 

1999, February 1999, August 1999, September 

1999) 


1993 Gothenburg MT Gold MD Bronze 

1995 Tianjin MT Gold MS Silver 

MD Bronze 

1995 Manchester MT Gold MD Gold 

XD Gold 

1999 Eindhoven MS Gold MD Gold 


2000 Osaka MT Gold MD Silver XD Bronze 


1992 MT, XD Asian Championships, New Delhi 

1994 MT, MD Asian Championships, Tianjin 

1994 MT World Team Cup, Nîmes 

1996 MS Men’s World Cup, Nîmes 

1996 MD Asian Championships, Kallang 


Hong Kong 

1998 MT, MD Asian Championships, Osaka 

1998 MT, MD Asian Games, Bangkok 

ITTF Pro Tour 

2003-2002 Winner of six Men’s Singles and 

10 Men’s Doubles titles 

194 


LU LIN 


Date of Birth: 6th April 1969 

Place of Birth: Wenling, Zhejiang Province, 

China 






doubles gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona 

Olympic Games 




powerful forehand 

First Entered World Ranking: July 1992 

Highest World Ranking: No. 18 (December 

1993, March 1995) 




1992 Barcelona MD Gold 

1996 Atlanta MD Silver 


1991 Chiba MD Silver 

1993 Gothenburg MT Silver MD Gold 

1993 Tianjin MD Gold 


1990 MT Asian Championships, Kuala Lumpur 

1994 MT Asian Championships, Tianjin 

1994 MT Asian Games, Hiroshima 



Photo:Rémy Gros 

Olympic Games 

2004 Athens MD Gold 

2008 Beijing MT Gold MS Gold 


1999 Eindhoven MS Silver XD Gold 


2001 Osaka MT Gold MS Bronze 

2003 Paris MD Bronze XD Gold 


2005 Shanghai MS Silver MD Bronze 


2007 Zagreb MS Gold MD Gold XD Silver 


2009 Yokohama MS Bronze 

2010 Moscow MT Gold 

2011 Rotterdam MD Silver 

2012 Dortmund MT Gold 

MA LIN 


Date of Birth: 19th February 1980 

Place of Birth: Shenyang, Liaoning, China 


Greatest Influence on Career: Mr Wu 

Jingping, Chinese National Team Coach 


singles gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympic 

Games 


grip 

Playing Strength: Expert at service and first 

attack, powerful 

First Entered World Ranking: November 1996 


2002, July 2003, October 2003 to May 2004, 

March 2007 to May 2007, July 2007 to September 

2007) 


1996 MS Asian Cup, New Delhi 

1996 XD Asian Championships, Kallang 

1998 MT, MD Asian Championships, Osaka 

1999 MD ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals, Sydney 

2000 MT Asian Championships, Doha 

2001 MS ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals, Hainan 



Stockholm 

2000 MS Men’s World Cup, Yangzhou 

2003 MS Men’s World Cup, Jiangyin 


Guangzhou 

2004 MS Men’s World Cup, Hangzhou 


2006 MS Men’s World Cup, Paris 

2006 MT, XD Asian Games, Doha 

2007 MT Asian Championships, Yangzhou 


2007 MS ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals, Beijing 

2010 MT Asian Games, Guangzhou 

2011 MD ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals, London 

2012 MT Asian Championships, Macau 

ITTF Pro Tour 

1996-2011 Winner of 20 Men’s Singles, 39 

Men’s Doubles and two Men’s 

Team titles 

196 


RYU 

SEUNG MIN 


Date of Birth: 5th August 1982 

Place of Birth: Seoul, Korea 

First Played Table Tennis: Aged eight 

Greatest Influence on Career: Father always 

encouraged and supported 


singles gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympic 

Games 



Playing Strength: Speed and a powerful 

forehand 

First Entered World Ranking: May 1997 

Highest World Ranking: No. 2 (August 2004) 



2004 Athens MS Gold 

2008 Beijing MT Bronze 



1999 Doha MT Bronze 

2006 Bremen MT Silver 

2007 Zagreb MS Bronze 

2008 Guangzhou MS Silver 

2010 Moscow MT Bronze 

2012 Dortmund MT Bronze 


1997 JBT Asian Youth Championships, 

Sanagi Goa 

1999 JBS, JBD Asian Youth 

Championships, Chennai 

1998 MT Asian Championships, Osaka 

2002 MD Asian Games, Busan 

ITTF Pro Tour 

1997-2011 Winner of three Men’s Singles 

and seven Men’s Doubles titles 




JAN-OVE 

WALDNER 

National Association: Sweden 

Date of Birth: 3rd October 1965 

Place of Birth: Stockholm, Sweden 


Greatest Influence on Career: His brother 

Kjell-Åke, later Mikael Appelgren at the 

Spärvägen Club and in the Swedish national 

team - “He was like an elder brother” 


singles gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona 

Olympic Games. “At the end of the match I 

was greeted by the King and Queen of 

Sweden who had watched the match” 




doing the unexpected 


Highest World Ranking: No. 1 (June 1989, 

January 1990 to December 1990, April 1991, 

August 1992, December 1993, June 1995, May 

1997 to October 1997) 

Olympic Games 

1992 Barcelona MS Gold 

2000 Sydney MS Silver 


1983 Tokyo MT Silver 

1985 Gothenburg MT Silver 

1987 New Delhi MT Silver MS Silver 

1989 Dortmund MT Gold MS Gold 

1991 Chiba MT Gold MS Silverl 

1993 Gothenburg MT Gold MS Bronze 

1995 Tianjin MT Silver 

1997 Manchester MS Gold MD Silver 

1999 Eindhoven MS Bronze 

2000 Kuala Lumpur MT Gold 

2001 Osaka MT Bronze 


1980 JBD, CBT European Youth (Cadet) 

Championships, Poznan 

1981 JBT, JBS, JBD European Youth 

(Junior) Championships, Topolcany 

1982 JBT, JBS, JBD European Youth 

(Junior) Championships, Hollabrunn 

1983 JBS European Youth Championships, 

Malmö 

1984 MS Europe Top 12, Bratislava 

1986 MT European Championships, Prague 

1986 MS Europe Top 12, Sodertalje 

1988 MT, MD European Championships, Paris 

1988 MS Europe Top 12, Ljubljana 

1989 MS Europe Top 12, Charleroi 

1990 MS Men’s World Cup, Chiba 

1990 MT European Championships, 

Gothenburg 

1990 MT World Team Cup, Hokkaido 

1992 MT European Championships, Stuttgart 

1993 MS Europe Top 12, Copenhagen 

1995 MS Europe Top 12, Dijon 

1996 MS Europe Top 12, Charleroi 

1996 MS, MD European Championships, 

Bratislava 

1996 MT European Championships, Bratislava 

2000 MT European Championships, Bremen 

2002 MT European Championships, Zagreb 

ITTF Pro Tour 

1996-2005 Winner of four Men’s Singles 

and one Men’s Doubles titles 

198 



Olympic Games 

2004 Athens MS Silver 

2008 Beijing MT Gold MS Silver 


WANG HAO 


Date of Birth: 3rd October 1965 

Place of Birth: Changchun, Jilin Province, China 

First Played Table Tennis: Aged five years 


the Chinese National Men’s Team Coach 

Greatest Olympic Memory: Winning gold in 

the men’s team event at the 2008 Olympic 

Games 



Playing Strength: Counter-topspin 

attacking play 

First Entered World Ranking: September 1999 

Highest World Ranking: No. 1 (December 

2004, October 2007 to December 2009, April 

2011, June 2011 to August 2009) 


2003 Paris MD Silver XD Bronze 


2005 Doha MD Gold Medal 


2007 Zagreb MS Bronze MD Silver 


2009 Yokohama MS Gold MD Gold 

2010 Moscow MT Gold 

2011 Rotterdam MS Silver MD Gold 

2012 Dortmund MT Gold 



Chennai 

2003 MT, MS Asian Championships, Bangkok 

2003 MS ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals, 

Guangzhou 

2005 MT Asian Championships, Jeju-do 

2005 MS Asian Cup, New Delhi 

2006 MT, MS Asian Games, Doha 

2006 MS Asian Cup, Kobe 

2006 MS ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals, 

Hong Kong 

2007 MS Men’s World Cup, Barcelona 

2007 MT, MS Asian Championships, Yangzhou 


2008 MS Men’s World Cup, Liège 

2010 MT World Team Cup Classic, Dubai 

2010 MT Asian Games, Guangzhou 

2010 MS Men’s World Cup, Magdeburg 

2010 MD Asian Games, Guangzhou 

2012 MT Asian Championships, Macau 

ITTF Pro Tour 

2003-2002 Winner of 12 Men’s Singles, 22 

Men’s Doubles and two Men’s 

Team titles 




Olympic Games 

2000 Sydney MD Gold 

2004 Athens MS Bronze 

2008 Beijing MT Gold MS Bronze 


1997 Manchester XD Bronze 

1999 Eindhoven MD Silver XD Bronze Medal 


2001 Osaka MT Gold MS Gold MD Gold 

2003 Paris MD Gold 

2004 Qatar MT Gold 

2005 Shanghai MS Gold MD Bronze XD Gold 


2007 Zagreb MS Gold MD Silver XD Gold 


2009 Yokohama MS Silver 

WANG LIQIN 


Date of Birth: 18th June 1978 

Place of Birth: Shanghai, China 



the Chinese National Men’s Team Coach 


doubles gold at the 2000 Olympic Games 



Playing Strength: Counter topspin attacking 

play, powerful forehand 


Highest World Ranking: No.1 (August 2000, 

December 2000 to October 2002, June 2004 to 

February 2007, May 2007) 


1994 JBS Asian Youth Championships, Niigata 

1996 MD ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals, Tianjin 

1998 MT, MS, XD Asian Championships, Osaka 

1998 MT, XD Asian Games, Bangkok 

1998 MS, MD ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals, Paris 

2000 MT Asian Championships, Doha 

2000 MS, MD ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals, Kobe 

2002 MT, MS Asian Games, Busan 

2004 MS ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals, Beijing 

2005 MT, MS, XD Asian Championships, Jeju-do 


2009 MT Asian Championships, Lucknow 

2010 MT World Team Cup Classic, Dubai 

ITTF Pro Tour 

1996-2011 Winner of 21 Men’s Singles, 

24 Men’s Doubles and two Men’s 

Team titles 

200 




WANG TAO 


Date of Birth: 13th December 1967 

Place of Birth: Beijing, China 





Greatest Olympic Memory: Winning men’s 





strong forehand 

First Entered World Ranking: June 1989 

Highest World Ranking: No. 1 (September 


Olympic Games 

1992 Barcelona MD Gold 

1996 Atlanta MS Silver MD Silver 


1991 Chiba MD Silver 

1993 Gothenburg MT Silver 

MD Gold XD Gold 

1995 Tianjin MT Gold MS Bronze 

MD Gold XD Gold 

1997 Manchester MT Gold 


1990 MT, MS Asian Championships, 

Kuala Lumpur 

1991 MT World Team Cup, Barcelona 

1993 MS Asian Top Eight Huangshi 

1994 MT Asian Championships, Tianjin 

1994 MT, MS Asian Games, Hiroshima 

ITTF Pro Tour 

1996 Winner of one Men’s Doubles title 



Photo: Manfred Schillings 

WEI QINGGUANG (Seiko Iseki) 

National Association: China (before 2000), 

Japan (from 2000 known as Seiko Iseki) 

Date of Birth: 2nd July 1962 

Place of Birth: Nanning, Guangxi Province, 

China 


Greatest Influence on Career: Mr Xu Shaofa 







First Entered World Ranking: June 1989 

Highest World Ranking: No. 1 (September 


Olympic Games 

1988 Seoul MD Gold Medal 


1987 New Delhi MD Gold 

1989 Dortmund MD Bronze 

2000 Kuala Lumpur MT Bronze 


1986 MS Asian Cup, Karachi 

1988 MS Asian Cup, Manila 

1988 MT Asian Championships, Niigata 

1990 XD Asian Games, Beijing 

202 


YAN SEN 


Date of Birth: 16th August 1975 

Place of Birth: Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, China 













1988) 


Olympic Games 

2000 Sydney MD Gold 


1997 Manchester MS Bronze 

1999 Eindhoven MD Silver 

2001 Osaka MD Gold 

2003 Paris MD Gold 

2005 Shanghai MD Bronze XD Bronze 


1990 XD Asian Games, Beijing 

1996 MD ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals, Tianjin 

1998 MT Asian Championships, Osaka 

1998 MT Asian Games, Bangkok 

1998 MD ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals, Paris 

2000 MT Asian Championships, Doha 2000 

MD ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals, Kobe 



ITTF Pro Tour 

1996-2004 Winner of 12 Men’s Doubles titles 




Olympic Games 

1988 Seoul MS Gold MD Bronze 

1992 Barcelona MD Bronze 

1996 Atlanta MD Bronze 

YOO NAM KYU 


Date of Birth: 4th June 1968 

Place of Birth: Busan, Korea 

First Played Table Tennis: Aged eleven, 

before then it was football but table tennis 

was more exciting 

Greatest Influence on Career: Parents 






speed of play 


Highest World Ranking: No. 3 (March 1989) 


1987 New Delhi MS Bronze 

1989 Dortmund XD Gold 

1993 Gothenburg MD Bronze XD Gold 

1995 Tianjin MT Bronze 

1997 Manchester MT Bronze 


1983 JBT, JBD Asian Youth Championships, 

Manama 


Nagoya 

1986 MT, MS Asian Games, Seoul 

1988 XD Asian Championships, Niigata 

1990 XD Asian Championships, 

Kuala Lumpur 

1990 MD World Doubles Cup, Seoul 

1992 MD World Doubles Cup, Las Vegas 

1995 MT World Team Cup, Atlanta 

204 



Olympians 

1988 Seoul Olympic Games 

1992 Barcelona Olympic Games 

1996 Atlanta Olympic Games 

2000 Sydney Olympic Games 

2004 Athens Olympic Games 

2008 Beijing Olympic Games 

2010 Singapore Youth Olympic Games 

1988 - 2008 Gold Medallists 


SEOUL OLYMPIC GAMES 1988 - MEN 

Olympians 

Name NOC MS MD 

ADEYEMO Fatai 

AHN Jae Hyung 

ALVAREZ Mario 

ANDREW Skylet 

APPELGREN Mikael 

BANKOLE Yome 

BAR Gottfried 

BELTAIEF Sofiane 

BIROCHEAU Patrick 

BOHM Georg-Zsolt 

CHAN Chi Ming 

CHEN Longcan 

CHIH Chin-Long 

CHIH Chin-Shui 

CHOO Choy Alain 

COOKE Alan 

COSTANTINI Massimo 

DING Yi 

DOUGLAS Desmond 

EL-SAKET Sherif 

FERMIN Raymundo 

FETZNER Steffen 

GAMBRA Jorge 

GATIEN Jean-Philippe 

GHORPADE Sujay 

GRIFFITHS Barry 

GRUBBA Andrzej 

HABERL Gary 

HARCZI Zolt 

HELMY Ashraf 

HOSNANI Gilani 

HUANG Huei-Chieh 

HUSSEIN Abdulwahab Ali 

JACKSON Peter 

JIANG Jialiang 

JONES Garfield 

KALINIC Zoran 

KANO Claudio 

KAWAI Carlos 

KIM Ki Taek 

KIM Wan 

KLAMPAR Tibor 

NGR 

KOR 

DOM 

GBR 

SWE 

NGR 

AUT 

TUN 

FRA 

FRG 

HKG 

CHN 

TPE 

TPE 

MRI 

GBR 

ITA 

AUT 

GBR 

EGY 

DOM 

FRG 

CHI 

FRA 

IND 

NZL 

POL 

AUS 

HUN 

EGY 

MRI 

TPE 

IRQ 

NZL 

CHN 

JAM 

YUG 

BRA 

BRA 

KOR 

KOR 

HUN 

Lost 1st stage 




6th place 





Round of 16 

Round of 16 







Round of 16 







5th place 





Silver medal 


4th place 


Bronze medal 



8th place 







Gold medal 













6th place 




5th place 



4th place 

4th place 


206 


SEOUL OLYMPIC GAMES 1988 - MEN 


KRISTON Zsolt 

KUCHARSKI Leszek 

LINDH Erik 

LIU Fuk Man 

LO Chuen Tsung 

LOFTI Joudi 

LOPEZ Francisco 

LUKOV Mariano 

LUPULESKU Ilija 

MAZUNOV Andrei 

MEHTA Kamlesh 

MERINGGI Tonny 

MIYAZAKI Yoshihito 

MOLENDA Piotr 

MUSA Atanda 

NG Joe Gideon 

NUÑEZ Marcos 

OMOTARA Titus 

O’NEILL Sean 

ONO Seiji 

PANSKY Jindrich 

PERSSON Jörgen 

PINTEA Horatio 

PREAN Carl 

PRIMORAC Zoran 

REBEL Jürgen 

ROSSKOPF Jörg 

ROZENBERG Boris 

SAIF Farjad 

SAITO Kiyoshi 

SAIVE Jean-Michel 

STA Mourad 

VONG Lu Veng 

WALDNER Jan-Ove 

WATANABE Takehiro 

WEI Qingguang 

WU Wen-Chia 

XU Zengcai 

YOO Nam Kyu 

HUN 

POL 

SWE 

HKG 

HKG 

TUN 

VEN 

BUL 

YUG 

URS 

IND 

INA 

JPN 

POL 

NGR 

CAN 

CHI 

NGR 

USA 

JPN 

TCH 

SWE 

CAN 

GBR 

YUG 

FRG 

FRG 

URS 

PAK 

JPN 

BEL 

TUN 

HKG 

SWE 

JPN 

CHN 

TPE 

CHN 

KOR 

Round of 16 

Bronze medal 







Round of 16 









Round of 16 


7th place 


Round of 16 







8th place 


Round of 16 

Gold medal 


6th place 

7th place 



Silver medal 









7th place 



Silver medal 







8th place 


Gold medal 


5th place 

Bronze medal 

Olympians 


Olympians 

SEOUL OLYMPIC GAMES 1988 - WOMEN 

Name NOC WS WD 

ABBATE-BULATOVA Fliura 

AKANMU Iyabo 

AL-DUKUM Jackline 

ALEJO Blanca 

BATORFI Csilla 

BEN AISSA Feyza 

BHUSHAN In Sook 

BISIACH Nadia 

BOGAERTS Karien 

CHANG Hsiu-Yu 

CHEN Jing 

DIAZ Jackelin 

DOMONKOS Mariann 

FAZLIC Jasna 

GEE Diana 

GUERGUELTCHEVA Daniela 

HONG Cha Ok 

HOSHINO Mika 

HRACHOVA Marie 

HUI So Hung 

HYUN Jung Hwa 

ISHIDA Kiyomi 

JIAO Zhimin 

KASALOVA Renata 

KIM Hae Ja 

KLOPPENBURG Mirjam 

KOVTUN Elena 

LAU Wai Cheng 

LEONG Mee Wan 

LI Huifen 

LIN Li-Zu 

LIYAU HO Monica 

MESHREF Nihal 

MOK Ka Sha 

NEMES Olga 

URS 

NGR 

JOR 

DOM 

HUN 

TUN 

USA 

AUS 

BEL 

TPE 

CHN 

CHI 

CAN 

YUG 

USA 

BUL 

KOR 

JPN 

TCH 

HKG 

KOR 

JPN 

CHN 

TCH 

ARG 

NED 

URS 

MAS 

MAS 

CHN 

TPE 

PER 

EGY 

HKG 

FRG 

5th place 










Gold medal 





Round of 16 

8th place 

Round of 16 

4th place 


Round of 16 


Bronze medal 

Round of 16 






Silver medal 




Round of 16 

Round of 16 

6th place 


8th place 




Silver medal 

Bronze medal 


4th place 

5th place 


Gold medal 

4th place 

Silver medal 

5th place 

7th place 

6th place 






208 


SEOUL OLYMPIC GAMES 1988 - WOMEN 


Olympians 

NOLTEN Katja 

OFFEI Patricia 

OWOLABI Kubrat 

PERKUCIN Gordana 

POPOVA Valentina 

POPPER Elisabeth 

ROY-SHAH Niyati 

SAFAROVA Alena 

TEPPER Kerri 

UCHIYAMA Kyoko 

URBAN Edit 

VRIESEKOOP Bettine 

YANG Young Ja 

FRG 

GHA 

NGR 

YUG 

URS 

VEN 

IND 

TCH 

AUS 

JPN 

HUN 

NED 

KOR 





6th place 






Round of 16 

7th place 

Round of 16 



Bronze medal 


8th place 

7th place 

Gold medal 



BARCELONA OLYMPIC GAMES 1992 - MEN 

Olympians 


AL-HAMDAN Raid 

ALIDOKHT Ebrahim 

AMPLATZ Erich 

APPELGREN Mikael 

ARADO Ruben 

BABOOR Chetan 

BANKOLE Yome 

BOTHA Louis 

BOWER Hagen 

BUTLER James 

CASARES Roberto 

CHATELAIN Nicolas 

CHILA Patrick 

CHOI Gyong Sop 

COOKE Alan 

DING Yi 

EL-MAHJUB Taher 

ELOI Damien 



GHORPADE Sujay 


GRUJIC Slobodan 

HALDAN Paul 

HELMY Ashraf 

HOYAMA Hugo 

HYATT Michael 

JACKSON Peter 

JANCI Tomas 

KALINIC Zoran 

KANG Hee Chan 

KANO Claudio 

KIM Jin Myong 

KIM Song Hui 

KIM Taek Soo 

KORBEL Petr 

KUCHARSKI Leszek 

LEE Chul Seung 

LEGDALI Adel Hadi 

LI Gun Sang 

LINDH Erik 


LU Lin 

KSA 

IRI 

AUT 

SWE 

CUB 

IND 

NGR 

RSA 

NZL 

USA 

ESP 

FRA 

FRA 

PRK 

GBR 

AUT 

LBA 

FRA 

GER 

FRA 

IND 

POL 

YUG 

NED 

EGY 

BRA 

JAM 

NZL 

TCH 

YUG 

KOR 

BRA 

PRK 

PRK 

KOR 

TCH 

POL 

KOR 

MAR 

PRK 

SWE 

HKG 

CHN 













Quarter-final 


Round of 16 

Silver medal 

Round of 16 

Round of 16 










Bronze medal 



Round of 16 














Quarter-final 

Silver medal 

Quarter-final 



Quarter-final 



Bronze medal 




Bronze medal 


Bronze medal 



dnp 

Gold medal 

210 


BARCELONA OLYMPIC GAMES 1992 - MEN 



MA Wenge 

MATSUSHITA Koji 


MAZUNOV Dmitrij 

MEHTA Kamlesh 

MORALES Augusto 

MUSA Atanda 

NAKAMURA Kinjiro 

NATHAN Walter 

NATHAN Yair 

NG Joe Gideon 

NUÑEZ Marcos 

OLALEYE Sule 

O’NEILL Sean 

PALES Jose Maria 


PREAN Carl 


ROQUE Santiago 



SAIVE Philippe 

SHIBUTANI Hiroshi 

SKIERSKI Piotr 

SOLOPOV Igor 

STA Mourad 

SURBEK Dragutin 

SUSENO Anton 

SYED Matthew 

TORIOLA Segun 

VIMI Roland 


WANG Tao 

WATANABE Takehiro 

YOO Nam Kyu 

YU Shentong 

YUG 

CHN 

JPN 

EUN 

EUN 

IND 

CHI 

NGR 

JPN 

PER 

PER 

CAN 

CHI 

NGR 

USA 

ESP 

SWE 

GBR 

CRO 

CUB 

GER 

BEL 

BEL 

JPN 

POL 

EST 

TUN 

CRO 

INA 

GBR 

NGR 

TCH 

SWE 

CHN 

JPN 

KOR 

CHN 



Bronze medal 






Scratched 






Quarter-final 

Round of 16 

Round of 16 


Quarter-final 

Rd of 16 








Gold medal 

Quarter-final 


Round of 16 
















Silver medal 







Gold medal 


Bronze medal 

Quarter-final 

Olympians 


Olympians 

BARCELONA OLYMPIC GAMES 1992 - WOMEN 


AL-HINDI Nadia 

AMANKWA Helen 

ARISI Alessia 

BADESCU Otilia 


BEN AISSA Feyza 

BHUSHAN In Sook 

BOGOSLOV Maria 

CABRERA Maria 

CHAI Po Wa 

CHAN Suk Yuen 

CHAN Tan Lui 

CHEN ZIHE 

CHIU Barbara 

CIOSU Emilia 

COUBAT Emmanuelle 

DENG Yaping 

DIPOYANTI PRATIWI Rossi 

DOTI Monica 

ERLMAN Lotta 

FAZLIC Jasna 

FRELIH Polona 

GABAGLIO Alejandra 

GAO Jun 

GAUCHIA Gloria 

GEE Diana 

GODES Ana-Maria 

GONZALEZ Eliana 

GORDON Alison 

GUERGUELTCHEVA Daniela 

HOLT Andrea 

HONG Cha Ok 

HONG Soon Hwa 

HOOMAN Mirjam 

HOSHINO Mika 

HRACHOVA Marie 

HYUN Jung Hwa 

KAFFO Bose 

KIM HAE JA 

KIM Hye Yong 

KOSAKA Lyanne 

KWOK Catherine 

LEE Jung Im 

JOR 

GHA 

ITA 

ROM 

HUN 

TUN 

USA 

ROM 

ECU 

HKG 

HKG 

HKG 

CHN 

CAN 

ROM 

FRA 

CHN 

INA 

BRA 

SWE 

YUG 

SVN 

ARG 

CHN 

ESP 

USA 

ESP 

PER 

GBR 

BUL 

GBR 

KOR 

KOR 

NED 

JPN 

TCH 

KOR 

NGR 

ARG 

PRK 

BRA 

AUS 

KOR 




Round of 16 

Round of 16 




Quarter-final 



Quarter-final 


Gold medal 











Round of 16 


Round of 16 

Round of 16 

Bronze medal 



Round of 16 







Quarter-final 

Quarter-final 

Silver medal 



Gold medal 






Silver medal 






Bronze medal 

Quarter-final 

Quarter-final 



Bronze medal 






Quarter-final 

212 


BARCELONA OLYMPIC GAMES 1992 - WOMEN 


Olympians 

LI Bun Hui 

LI Chunli 

LOMAS Lisa 

MATSUMOTO Yukino 

MELNIK Galina 

MESHREF Nihal 

MIHOCKOVA Jaroslava 

MINANGMOJO Ling Ling 

MUSOKE Mary 

NASTASE Adriana 

NEMES Olga 

OBREGON Magaly 

ODUMOSU Abiola 

OPOKUAH Patience 

PALINA Irina 

PERKUCIN Gordana 


QIAO Hong 

RAMIREZ Maricel 

ROBERTS Cheryl 

RODRIGUEZ Yolanda 

SATO Rika 

SCHALL Elke 

SHAH Niyati 

STRUSE Nicole 

SVENSSON Marie 

TEPES Sofija 

TEPPER Kerri 

TIMINA Elena 

TOUATI Sonia 


WANG Xiaoming 

WI Bok Sun 

YAMASHITA Fumiyo 

YIP Lily 

YU Sun Bok 

PRK 

NZL 

GBR 

JPN 

EUN 

EGY 

TCH 

INA 

UGA 

ROM 

GER 

PER 

NGR 

GHA 

EUN 

YUG 

EUN 

CHN 

CUB 

RSA 

CUB 

JPN 

GER 

IND 

GER 

SWE 

CHI 

AUS 

EUN 

TUN 

NED 

FRA 

PRK 

JPN 

USA 

PRK 

Bronze medal 











Silver medal 











Round of 16 


Round of 16 


Quarter-final 

Bronze medal 










Quarter-final 



Gold medal 








Quarter-final 


Quarter-final 





Bronze medal 


ATLANTA OLYMPIC GAMES 1996 - MEN 

Olympians 


ADDY Winfried 

AL-HABASHI Dukhail 

AL-HAMMADI Hamad 

ATIKOVIC Damir 

BABOOR Chetan 

BATORFI Zoltan 

BLASZCZYK Lucjan 

BUTLER James 

CHAN Kong Wah 

CHEN Xinhua 

CHIANG Peng-Lung 

CHILA Patrick 

CHOI Gyong Sop 

CHTCHETININE Evgueni 

DING Yi 

ELOI Damien 


FLOREA Vasile 

FRANZ Peter 




HEISTER Danny 

HODZIC Tarik 

HOYAMA Hugo 

HUANG Johnny 

HYATT Michael 

HYLTON Stephen 

JINDRAK Karl 

KANG Hee Chan 

KARAKASEVIC Aleksandar 

KARLSSON Peter 

KEEN Trinko 

KIM Song Hui 

KIM Taek Soo 

KONG Linghui 

KORBEL Petr 

KREANGA Kalinikos 

LANGLEY Paul 

LAVALE Russell 


LEGOUT Christophe 

LI Gun Sang 

GHA 

KUW 

QAT 

CRO 

IND 

HUN 

POL 

USA 

HKG 

GBR 

TPE 

FRA 

PRK 

BLR 

AUT 

FRA 

GER 

ROM 

GER 

FRA 

POL 

YUG 

NED 

BIH 

BRA 

CAN 

JAM 

JAM 

AUT 

KOR 

YUG 

SWE 

NED 

PRK 

KOR 

CHN 

CZE 

GRE 

AUS 

AUS 

KOR 

FRA 

PRK 








Round of 16 










Round of 16 

Quarter-Final 






Quarter-Final 

Round of 16 

4th place 















Quarter-final 

4th place 

Quarter-final 









Quarter-final 



Quarter-final 

Gold medal 




Bronze medal 



214 


ATLANTA OLYMPIC GAMES 1996 - MEN 


LIU Guoliang 


LU Lin 






MUÑOZ Guillermo 

MUTAMBUZE Paul 

NEMETH Karoly 

NG Joe Gideon 

OLALEYE Sule 

OPOKU Isaac 

OSAMA Ahmed 

PEIXOTO Giuliano 


PLACHY Josef 

PREAN Carl 


QIAN Qianli 




SALAMANCA Juan 

SAMSONOV Vladimir 

SCHLAGER Werner 


SMYTHE Mark 

ST LOUIS Dexter 


SWEERIS Todd 

TASAKI Toshio 

TORIOLA Segun 

TSIOKAS Ntaniel 

VON SCHEELE Thomas 


WANG Tao 

WU Wen-Chia 

YOO Nam Kyu 

YUZAWA Ryo 

ZHUANG David 

CHN 

HKG 

CHN 

YUG 

JPN 

RUS 

RUS 

CHI 

MEX 

UGA 

HUN 

CAN 

NGR 

GHA 

SUD 

BRA 

SWE 

CZE 

GBR 

CRO 

AUT 

GER 

BEL 

BEL 

CHI 

BLR 

AUT 

JPN 

AUS 

TRI 

INA 

USA 

JPN 

NGR 

GRE 

SWE 

SWE 

CHN 

TPE 

KOR 

JPN 

USA 

Gold medal 



Round of 16 


Round of 16 











Round of 16 

Bronze medal 

Quarter-Final 


Quarter-Final 









Round of 16 

Silver medal 

Round of 16 


Gold medal 


Silver medal 


Quarter-final 








Quarter-final 




4th place 




Quarter-final 





Quarter-final 

Silver medal 


Bronze medal 


Olympians 


ATLANTA OLYMPIC GAMES 1996 - WOMEN 

Olympians 


ABBATE-BULATOVA Fliura 

AGANOVIC Eldijana 

ALEJO Blanca 

ARISI Alessia 


BAI Huei-Yin 


BOROS Tamara 

CADA Petra 

CHAI Po Wa 

CHAN Tan Lui 

CHEN Chiu-Tan 

CHEN Jing 

CHIU Barbara 

CHOUAIB Larissa 

CIOSU Emilia 

COJOCARU Georgeta 

COUBAT Emmanuelle 

DENG Yaping 

DIPOYANTI PRATIWI Rossy 

DOBESOVA Jana 

DOTI Monica 

FENG Amy 

GARKAUSKAITE Ruta 

GENG Lijuan 

GONZALEZ Eliana 

GORRITTI Milagros 

HOLT Andrea 

HOOMAN Mirjam 

JING Jun Hong 

KAFFO Bose Olateju 

KAIZU Fumiyo 

KEEN Gerdie 

KIM Hyang Mi 

KIM Hyon Hui 

KIM Moo Kyo 

KOSAKA Lyanne 

KOYAMA Chire 

KYAKOBYE June 

LI Chunli 

LIU Wei 

LOMAS Lisa 

MUSOKE Mary 

ITA 

CRO 

DOM 

ITA 

ROM 

TPE 

HUN 

CRO 

CAN 

HKG 

HKG 

TPE 

TPE 

CAN 

LIB 

ROM 

ROM 

FRA 

CHN 

INA 

CZE 

BRA 

USA 

LTU 

CAN 

PER 

PER 

GBR 

NED 

SIN 

NGR 

JPN 

NED 

PRK 

PRK 

KOR 

BRA 

JPN 

UGA 

NZL 

CHN 

GBR 

UGA 




Round of 16 

Round of 16 



Round of 16 

Quarter-final 


Silver medal 



Gold medal 






Round of 16 



Round of 16 




Quarter-final 


Quarter-final 



4th place 








Quarter-final 

Quarter-final 

Quarter-final 

Quarter-final 

Lost 1st round 




Gold medal 












4th place 


Quarter-final 


Silver medal 



216 


ATLANTA OLYMPIC GAMES 1996 - WOMEN 


NEGRISOLI Laura 

NEMES Olga 

NOOR Emily 

OKENLA Kehinde 

OSHONAIKE Olufunke 

OWOH Atisi 

PALINA Irina 

PARK Hae Jung 

PARK Kyung Ae 

PETTERSSON Pernilla 


QIAO Hong 

QIAO Yunping 

RADHIKA Ambika 

RAMOS Fabiola 

RODRIGUEZ Berta 

RYU Ji Hae 

SATO Rika 

SCHALL Elke 

SCHÖPP Jie 

SIMION Adriana 

SON Mi Suk 

STESHENKO Aida 

STRUSE Nicole 

SVENSSON Åsa 


TEPES Sofija 

TIMINA Elena 

TODO Taeko 

TOTH Krisztina 

TOUATI Sonia 

TU Jong Sil 

TU Yong 


WANG Wei 

WANG-DRECHOU Xiaoming 

XU Jing 

YIP Lily 

ZHOU Shirley 

ZHOU Stella 

ITA 

GER 

NED 

NGR 

NGR 

NGR 

RUS 

KOR 

KOR 

SWE 

SVK 

CHN 

CHN 

IND 

VEN 

CHI 

KOR 

JPN 

GER 

GER 

ROM 

PRK 

TKM 

GER 

SWE 

SWE 

CHI 

RUS 

JPN 

HUN 

TUN 

PRK 

SUI 

NED 

USA 

FRA 

TPE 

USA 

AUS 

AUS 


Scratched 



Round of 16 



Bronze medal 









Quarter-final 







Round of 16 

Round of 16 









Scratched 


Scratched 

Quarter-final 

Bronze medal 

4th place 


Gold medal 

Silver medal 


Bronze medal 








Quarter-final 

Quarter-final 










Olympians 


SYDNEY OLYMPIC GAMES 2000 - MEN 

Olympians 


AL-HAMMADI Hamad 

ARADO Francisco 

ARADO Ruben 

BABOOR Chetan 


BOLL Timo 

CHANG Yen-Shu 

CHENG Yinghua 

CHEUNG Yuk 


CHILA Patrick 

CHTCHETININE Evgueni 

CLARKE Brett 

CRISAN Adrian 

DING Yi 

EHTESHAMZADEH Majid Reza 

ELOI Damien 

FRANZ Peter 

GAMBRA Jorge 


GERADA Simon 


HÅKANSSON Fredrik 

HAMAM Gdara 

HARINTO Ismu 

HEISTER Danny 

HELMY Ashraf 

HOYAMA Hugo 

HUANG Johnny 

ISEKI Seiko 

JACKSON Peter 

JINDRAK Karl 

KACI David 


KAWAI Carlos 

KEEN Trinko 

KIM Taek Soo 

KONG Linghui 

KORBEL Petr 


KRZESZEWSKI Tomasz 

LASHIN El-Sayed 


QAT 

CUB 

CUB 

IND 

POL 

GER 

TPE 

USA 

HKG 

TPE 

FRA 

BLR 

AUS 

ROM 

AUT 

IRI 

FRA 

GER 

CHI 

FRA 

AUS 

YUG 

SWE 

TUN 

INA 

NED 

EGY 

BRA 

CAN 

JPN 

NZL 

AUT 

ALG 

SWE 

BRA 

NED 

KOR 

CHN 

CZE 

GRE 

POL 

EGY 

AUS 




Round of 16 

Round of 16 

Round of 32 


Round of 32 

Round of 16 





Round of 16 

Round of 32 


Round of 32 




Round of 32 



Round of 32 

Round of 32 


Round of 32 

Round of 32 

Round of 32 

Gold medal 

Round of 32 

Round of 32 







Round of 16 


Quarter-final 


Round of 16 

Quarter-final 

Bronze medal 



Quarter-final 


Bronze medal 


Round of 16 

Round of 16 


Round of 16 




Round of 16 

Quarter-final 


Round of 16 


Round of 16 

Quarter-final 

Silver medal 



Round of 16 


218 


SYDNEY OLYMPIC GAMES 2000 - MEN 




LEUNG Chu Yan 

LIU Guoliang 

LIU Guozheng 

LIU Kurt 

LIU SONG 



MAZE Michael 


NGUYEN KHOA Dinh 

NOSIRU Kazeem 

OH SANG Eun 

OULAMI Farid 


PLACHY Josef 

PLUMB Jeffrey 


RAMAN Subramanian 


RYU Seung Min 

SAHAJASSEIN Jean-Patrick 






SMYTHE Mark 

SOSA Reinier 


SWEERIS Todd 

SYED Matthew 

TABACHNIK Pablo 

TASAKI Toshio 

TORIOLA Segun 


TUGWELL Finn 


WANG Liqin 

YAN Sen 

ZHUANG David 

KOR 

FRA 

HKG 

CHN 

CHN 

CAN 

ARG 

YUG 

JPN 

DEN 

CHI 

USA 

NGR 

KOR 

ALG 

SWE 

CZE 

AUS 

CRO 

IND 

GER 

KOR 

MRI 

BEL 

BEL 

BLR 

AUT 

JPN 

AUS 

CUB 

INA 

USA 

GBR 

ARG 

JPN 

NGR 

GRE 

DEN 

SWE 

CHN 

CHN 

USA 

Round of 32 

Round of 16 


Bronze medal 

Quarter-final 



Round of 16 


4th place 


Round of 32 

Quarter-final 

Round of 32 


Round of 16 

Round of 32 

Quarter-final 

Quarter-final 





Rd of 16 



Silver medal 


4th place 

Quarter-final 

Round of 16 

Silver medal 



Round of 16 


Round of 16 




Quarter-final 


Round of 16 





4th place 




Quarter-final 






Round of 16 



Round of 16 

Round of 16 

Gold medal 

Gold medal 


Olympians 


SYDNEY OLYMPIC GAMES 2000 - WOMEN 

Olympians 

NOC 

Name WS WD 

ABDUL-AZIZ Shaimaa 

AGANOVIC Eldijana 

AL-NAGAR Tatiana 


BAKULA Andrea 

BANH Tawny 


BOILEAU Anne 

BOROS Tamara 

CHEN Jing 

DO Michelle 

EL-ALFY Shahira 

FUJINUMA Ai 

GAO Jun 

GARKAUSKAITE Ruta 

GENG Lijuan 

GHATAK Poulomi 

GOTSCH Qianhong 

HERCZIG Judit 

JING Jun Hong 

KAFFO Bose 

KIM Moo Kyo 

KOMWONG Nanthana 

KONISHI An 

KOSTROMINA Tatsiana 

KOVTUN Elena 

KOYAMA Chire 

KUSCH Oxana 

LAY Jian Fang 

LEE Eun Sil 

LI Chunli 

LI Jiawei 

LI Ju 

LI Karen 

LIU Jia 

MELNIK Galina 

MIAO Miao 

MOLNAR Zita 

MOREL Silvia 

MUSOKE Mary 

NAITO Kazuko 

NI Xia Lian 

OKENLA Kehinde 

EGY 

CRO 

JOR 

ROU 

CRO 

USA 

HUN 

FRA 

CRO 

TPE 

USA 

EGY 

JPN 

USA 

LTU 

CAN 

IND 

GER 

AUT 

SIN 

NGR 

KOR 

THA 

JPN 

BLR 

UKR 

JPN 

RUS 

AUS 

KOR 

NZL 

SIN 

CHN 

NZL 

AUT 

RUS 

AUS 

HUN 

CHI 

UGA 

JPN 

LUX 

NGR 




Round of 32 



Round of 32 

Round of 32 

Round of 32 

Bronze medal 


Round of 32 


Round of 16 


Quarter-final 

4th place 



Round of 16 



Quarter-final 


Round of 32 

Round of 32 

Round of 16 

Silver medal 


Round of 32 

Round of 32 




Round of 16 


Quarter-final 

Quarter-final 


4th place 

Quarter-final 

Round of 16 


Round of 16 


Round of 16 


Round of 16 


Round of 16 


Bronze medal 

Round of 16 

Round of 16 



Quarter-final 


Round of 16 

Gold medal 




Quarter-final 



Round of 16 


220 


SYDNEY OLYMPIC GAMES 2000 - WOMEN 



OSMAN Bacent 

OWOH Atisi 

PALINA Irina 

PAVLOVICH Veronika 

PAVLOVICH Viktoria 

PEREZ Luisana 

PRUSIENE Jolanta 

RAMIREZ Maricel 

RAMOS Fabiola 

REED Jasna 

REGENWETTER Peggy 


ROUSSY Marie-Christine 

RYU Ji Hae 

SAKATA Rinko 

SCHALL Elke 

SCHÖPP Jie 

SILVA Ligia 

SONG Ah Sim 

STEFF Mihaela 

STESHENKO Aida 

STRUSE Nicole 

SUAREZ Leticia 

SUK Eun Mi 

SUN Jin 

SVENSSON Åsa 


TEPES Sofija 

TIAN-ZORNER Jing 

TONG Feiming 


TSUI Hsui-Li 

WANG Nan 

WANG Wenxiao 

WONG Ching 

XU Chris 

XU Jing 

YANG Ying 

YU Feng-Yin 

ZHOU Shirley 

ZHOU Stella 

NGR 

EGY 

NGR 

RUS 

BLR 

BLR 

VEN 

LTU 

CUB 

VEN 

USA 

LUX 

CHI 

CAN 

KOR 

JPN 

GER 

GER 

BRA 

HKG 

ROU 

TKM 

GER 

CUB 

KOR 

CHN 

SWE 

SWE 

CHI 

GER 

TPE 

HUN 

TPE 

CHN 

CAN 

HKG 

CAN 

TPE 

CHN 

TPE 

AUS 

AUS 


Round of 32 







Quarter-final 

Round of 32 

Round of 32 



Quarter-final 


Round of 16 

Round of 32 

Round of 16 

Round of 32 


Round of 32 

Round of 16 

Round of 16 

Gold medal 



Round of 32 






Round of 16 


Round of 16 




Round of 16 


Bronze medal 


Round of 16 

Round of 16 


Quarter-final 

Round of 16 


Quarter-final 

Silver medal 




4th place 


Gold medal 




Round of 16 

Silver medal 


Quarter-final 


Olympians 


ATHENS OLYMPIC GAMES 2004 - MEN 

Olympians 


ACHANTA Sharath Kamal 

AKHLAGHPASAND Mohammadreza 

AKINLABI Peter 

AL-HARBI Khaled 

ARAI Shu 

BABUNGU Bomboko Momo 


BOLL Timo 

BOUDJADJA Mohamed Sofiene 

BROWN Trevor 

CHEN Qi 

CHEN Weixing 

CHEUNG Yuk 


CHILA Patrick 

CHUANG Chih-Yuan 

CRISAN Adrian 

DJAZIRI Abdelhakim 

DOAN Kien Quoc 

FEJER-KONNERTH Zoltan 

GIONIS Panagiotis 

GONZALES Oscar Enrique 


GUEYE Mohamed 

HANASHIRO Hugo 

HAZINSKI Mark 

HE Zhiwen 

HEISTER Danny 

HENZELL William 

HIELSCHER Lars 

HOYAMA Hugo 

HUANG Johnny 

JINDRAK Karl 

JOO Se Hyuk 



KASSAM Faazil 

KEEN Trinko 

KITO Akira 

KO Lai Chak 

KONG Linghui 

KORBEL Petr 


IND 

IRI 

NGR 

KSA 

JPN 

COD 

POL 

GER 

ALG 

AUS 

CHN 

AUT 

HKG 

TPE 

FRA 

TPE 

ROM 

ALG 

VIE 

GER 

GRE 

ARG 

SRB 

SEN 

BRA 

USA 

ESP 

NED 

AUS 

GER 

BRA 

CAN 

AUT 

KOR 

SRB 

SWE 

CAN 

NED 

JPN 

HKG 

CHN 

CZE 

GRE 

Round of 64 

Round of 128 

Round of 128 

Round of 128 

Round of 128 

Round of 32 

Quarter-Final 

Round of 128 

Round of 128 

Round of 32 

Round of 16 

Round of 32 

Quarter-Final 

Round of 32 

Round of 128 

Round of 128 

Round of 64 

Round of 128 

Round of 64 

Round of 64 

Round of 64 

Round of 128 

Round of 64 

Round of 16 

Round of 32 

Round of 32 

Round of 32 

Quarter-Final 

Round of 32 

Round of 32 

Round of 32 

Round of 32 

Round of 64 

Quarter-Final 

Round of 16 

Round of 64 

Round of 64 

Gold medal 

Round of 16 

Round of 16 

Round of 16 

Round of 64 

Round of 16 

Round of 32 

Round of 64 

Quarter-Final 

Round of 64 

Round of 32 

Round of 16 

Round of 32 

Round of 32 

Round of 64 

Round of 32 

Round of 16 

Round of 16 

Quarter-Final 

Round of 32 

Round of 16 

Round of 16 

Silver medal 

Round of 16 

Round of 32 

Round of 32 

222 


ATHENS OLYMPIC GAMES 2004 - MEN 


KRZESZEWSKI Tomasz 



LEUNG Chu Yan 

LI Ching 

LIN Ju 

LIU Song 


LUYINDULA Jose 

MA Lin 


MAZE Michael 


MEROTOHUN Monday 

MILICEVIC Srdan 

MONDELLO Massimiliano 

MONTEIRO Thiago Farias Monte 

NGUYEN Khoa Dinh 

NOSIRU EKUNDAYO Kazeem 

O Il 

OH Sang Eun 

PAPIC VILCA Juan 

PERSSON Jorgen 


RODRIGUEZ Alejandro 

ROSSKOPF Jorg 

RYU Seung Min 




SMIRNOV Alexey 

TABACHNIK Pablo Ariel 

TASAKI Toshio 

TORIOLA Segun Moses 

TUGWELL Finn 

VYBORNY Richard 


WANG Hao 

WANG Liqin 

WOSIK Torben 

YANG Min 

YUZAWA Ryo 

ZALCBERG David 

POL 

AUS 

KOR 

HKG 

HKG 

DOM 

ARG 

USA 

COD 

CHN 

JPN 

DEN 

RUS 

NGR 

BIH 

ITA 

BRA 

USA 

NGR 

PRK 

KOR 

CHI 

SWE 

CRO 

CHI 

GER 

KOR 

BEL 

BLR 

AUT 

RUS 

ARG 

JPN 

NGR 

DEN 

CZE 

SWE 

CHN 

CHN 

GER 

ITA 

JPN 

AUS 

Round of 64 

Round of 128 

Quarter-Final 

Round of 32 

Round of 16 

Round of 32 

Round of 64 

Round of 128 

Round of 16 

Round of 32 

Round of 32 

Round of 64 

Round of 64 

Round of 64 

Round of 128 

Round of 64 

Round of 16 

Round of 128 

Round of 16 

Round of 32 

Round of 32 

Gold medal 

Round of 32 

Round of 16 

Round of 16 

Round of 64 

Round of128 

Round of 64 

4th place 

Silver medal 

Bronze medal 

Round of 64 

Round of 64 

Round of 128 

Quarter-Final 

Round of 64 

Quarter-Final 

Round of 16 

Silver medal 

Round of 32 

Round of 64 

Gold medal 

Bronze medal 

4th place 

Round of 64 

Round of 64 

Round of 32 

Round of 16 

Round of 64 

Quarter-Final 

Round of 64 

Round of 32 

Quarter-Final 

Round of 16 

4th place 

Round of 64 

Round of 16 

Round of 64 

Bronze medal 

Round of 32 

Quarter-Final 

Round of 16 

Round of 64 

Round of 32 

Round of 32 

Olympians 


ATHENS OLYMPIC GAMES 2004 - WOMEN 

Olympians 



BANH Tawny 


BEN KAHIA Nesrine 

BOROS Tamara 

BOUCETTA Leila 

CADA Petra 

DAS Mouma 

EDEM Offiong 

ERDELJI Silvija 

ESPINEIRA Marisol 

FADEEVA Oxana 

FAZEKAS Maria 

FUJINUMA Ai 

FUKUHARA Ai 

GANINA Svetlana 

GAO Jun 

GUENNI Olfa 

GUO Yue 

HUANG Yi-Hua 

INOYATOVA Manzura 

JING Jun Hong 

KAFFO Bose 

KIM Bok Rae 

KIM Hyang Mi 

KIM Hyon Hui 

KIM Kyung Ah 

KIM Yun Mi 



KRAVCHENKO Marina 

LAU Sui Fei 

LAY Jian Fang 

LEE Eun Sil 

LI Chunli 

LI Jiawei 

LI Karen Jinli 

LIN Ling 

LIU Jia 

LOGATZKAYA Tatyana 

LU Yun-Feng 

MEDINA Iizzwah 

MELNIK Galina 

ROU 

USA 

HUN 

TUN 

CRO 

ALG 

CAN 

IND 

NGR 

SRB 

PER 

RUS 

HUN 

JPN 

JPN 

RUS 

USA 

TUN 

CHN 

TPE 

UZB 

SIN 

NGR 

KOR 

PRK 

PRK 

KOR 

PRK 

THA 

BLR 

ISR 

HKG 

AUS 

KOR 

NZL 

SIN 

NZL 

HKG 

AUT 

BLR 

TPE 

HON 

RUS 

Round of 64 

Round of 64 

Round of 64 

Round of 128 

Quarter-final 

Round of 128 

Round of 32 

Round of 128 

Round of 64 

Round of 128 

Round of 128 

Round of 64 

Round of 16 

Round of 16 

Round of 32 

Round of 32 

Round of 128 

Round of 64 

Round of 128 

Round of 32 

Silver medal 

Round of 16 

Bronze medal 

Round of 32 

Round of 32 

Round of 32 

Round of 16 

Round of 64 

Round of 32 

Round of 32 

4th place 

Round of 32 

Round of 32 

Round of 128 

Round of 32 

Round of 16 

Round of 64 

Quarter-final 

Round of 32 

Round of 64 

Round of 32 

Quarter-final 

Round of 32 

Round of 32 

Round of 64 

Bronze medal 

Round of 16 

Round of 16 

Round of 64 

4th place 

Quarter-final 

Quarter-final 

4th place 

Round of 32 

Round of 16 

Round of 64 

Silver medal 

Round of 64 

Round of 16 

Round of 64 

Round of 16 

Round of 32 

Round of 16 

Round of 32 

224 


ATHENS OLYMPIC GAMES 2004 - WOMEN 


MENAIFI Asma 

MIAO Miao 

MIROU Maria 

NECHAB Souad 

NEGRISOLI Laura 

NIU Jianfeng 

NONAKA Mariany 

OFFIONG Cecilia Otu 


PALINA Irina 



PEREZ Luisana 

PING Whitney 

RAMOS Fabiola 

REED Jasna 


ROUSSY Marie-Christine 

SCHALL Elke 

SCHÖPP Jie 

SHABAN Zeina 

SILVA Ligia 

SONG Ah Sim 

STEFANOVA Nikoleta 

STEFF Mihaela 

STRBIKOVA Renata 

STRUSE Nicole 

SUK Eun Mi 

TAN MONFARDINI Wenling 

TAN Paey Fern 

TIE Yana 


UMEMURA Aya 

VACHOVCOVA Alena 

VAIDA Cornelia 

VEGA Maria Paulina 

VOLAKAKI Archodoula 

WANG Nan 

WU Xue 

YOON Ji Hye 

ZAMFIR Adriana 

ZHANG Xueling 

ZHANG Yining 

ALG 

AUS 

GRE 

ALG 

ITA 

CHN 

BRA 

NGR 

NGR 

RUS 

BLR 

BLR 

VEN 

USA 

VEN 

USA 

CHI 

CAN 

GER 

GER 

JOR 

BRA 

HKG 

ITA 

ROU 

CZE 

GER 

KOR 

ITA 

SIN 

HKG 

HUN 

JPN 

CZE 

CRO 

CHI 

GRE 

CHN 

DOM 

KOR 

ROU 

SIN 

CHN 

Round of 128 

Round of 64 

Round of 64 

Round of 16 

Round of 64 

Round of 64 

Round of 16 

Round of 128 

Round of 64 

Round of 128 

Round of 32 

Round of 32 

Round of 64 

Round of 128 

Round of 64 

Round of 32 

Round of 128 

Round of 64 

Round of 32 

Quarter-final 

Round of 32 

Round of 16 

Round of 128 

Round of 128 

Quarter-final 

Round of 64 

Round of 128 

Round of 16 

Quarter-final 

Gold medal 

Preliminary Round 

Round of 64 

Round of 64 


Bronze medal 

Round of 64 

Round of 64 

Round of 64 

Round of 16 

Round of 32 

Round of 32 

Round of 64 

Round of 64 

Round of 64 

Round of 64 


Round of 32 

Round of 32 

Round of 64 

Quarter-final 

Round of 16 

Round of 32 

Round of 32 

Round of 32 

Silver medal 

Round of 16 

Round of 16 

Quarter-final 

Round of 16 

Quarter-final 

Round of 32 

Quarter-final 


Round of 64 

Gold medal 

Round of 32 

Round of 16 

Gold medal 

Olympians 


Olympians 

BEIJING OLYMPIC GAMES 2008 - MEN 

Name NOC 

MS MT 

ACHANTA Sharath Kamal 

AGUIRRE Marcelo 

AL-HASAN Ibrahem 

ALI SALEH Ahmed 

APOLONIA Tiago 


BOBOCICA Mihai 

BOLL Timo 

CAI Xiaoli 

CARNEROS Alfredo 

CHANG Yen-Shu 

CHEN Weixing 

CHEUNG Yuk 


CHILA Patrick 


CRISAN Adrian 

DAVIS Kyle 

DOAN Kien Quoc 

ELOI Damien 

FREITAS Marcos 

GACINA Andrej 

GAO Ning 

GARDOS Robert 

GERELL Pär 


HE Zhiwen 


HOYAMA Hugo 

JAKAB Janos 

JANG Song Man 

KAN Yo 


KHOURTA Idir 

KIM Hyok Bong 

KISHIKAWA Seiya 

KO Lai Chak 

KORBEL Petr 

KOU Lei 


KUZMIN Fedor 



IND 

PAR 

KUW 

EGY 

POR 

POL 

ITA 

GER 

SIN 

ESP 

TPE 

AUT 

HKG 

TPE 

FRA 

TPE 

ROU 

AUS 

VIE 

FRA 

POR 

CRO 

SIN 

AUT 

SWE 

GRE 

ESP 

AUS 

BRA 

HUN 

PRK 

JPN 

SRB 

ALG 

PRK 

JPN 

HKG 

CZE 

UKR 

GRE 

RUS 

EGY 

FRA 

Round of 64 



Round of 128 

Round of 128 

Round of 32 

Round of 64 

Round of 16 

Round of 128 

Round of 32 

Round of 32 

Round of 64 

Round of 128 

Round of 32 

Round of 32 


Round of 64 

Round of 64 

Round of 64 

Round of 32 

Round of 64 

Round of 64 

Round of 64 

Round of 64 

Round of 64 

Round of 32 

Round of 64 

Round of 64 


Round of 32 

Round of 64 

Quarter-final 

Round of 64 


Round of 16 

Round of 128 

Round of 128 

Round of 128 

Silver medal 

9th place 

7th place 

4th place 

5th place 

7th place 

7th place 

13th place 

7th place 

9th place 

4th place 

9th place 

9th place 

13th place 

13th place 

5th place 

5th place 

5th place 

9th place 

13th place 

226 


BEIJING OLYMPIC GAMES 2008 - MEN 

Name NOC MS MT 

LI Ching 

LIN Ju 

LIU Song 

LUNDQVIST Jens 

MA Lin 

MASSAAD Adel 

MAZE Michael 


MEROTOHUN Monday 

MIZUTANI Jun 

MONTEIRO João 

MONTEIRO Thiago 

NOROOZI Afshin 

NOSIRU Kazeem 

OH Sang Eun 

OVTCHAROV Dimitrij 


PETER-PAUL Pradeeban 


RI Chol Guk 

RYU Seung Min 


SAKA Suraju 



SHEN Qiang 


ST LOUIS Dexter 

SÜSS Christian 

TABACHNIK Pablo 

TAN Ruiwu 

TOKIC Bojan 

TORIOLA Segun 


TSUBOI Gustavo 

WANG Hao 

WANG Liqin 

YANG Zi 

YOON Jae Young 

ZALCBERG David 

ZENG Cem 

ZHANG Wilson 

ZHUANG David 

HKG 

DOM 

ARG 

SWE 

CHN 

EGY 

DEN 

RUS 

NGR 

JPN 

POR 

BRA 

IRI 

NGR 

KOR 

GER 

SWE 

CAN 

CRO 

PRK 

KOR 

BEL 

CGO 

BLR 

AUT 

CAN 

RUS 

TRI 

GER 

ARG 

CRO 

SVN 

NGR 

GRE 

BRA 

CHN 

CHN 

SIN 

KOR 

AUS 

TUR 

CAN 

USA 

Round of 16 

Round of 64 

Round of 128 

Round of 128 

Gold medal 


Round of 32 


Round of 32 

Round of 128 

Round of 128 


Quarter-final 

Round of 16 

4th place 


Quarter-final 

Round of 128 

Round of 32 

Round of 64 

Round of 128 

Round of 16 

Round of 16 

Round of 32 


Round of 32 


Quarter-final 

Round of 32 

Round of 32 

Round of 128 

Silver medal 

Bronze medal 

Round of 16 

Round of 32 


Round of 128 

Round of 128 


5th place 

9th place 

Gold medal 

13th place 

9th place 

5th place 

13th place 

9th place 

Bronze medal 

Silver medal 

9th place 

13th place 

7th place 

Bronze medal 

4th place 

13th place 

13th place 

Silver medal 

7th place 

9th place 

9th place 

13th place 

Gold medal 

Gold medal 

9th place 

Bronze medal 

13th place 

13th place 

Olympians 


BEIJING OLYMPIC GAMES 2008 - WOMEN 

Olympians 

Name NOC WS WT 

ABDUL-AZIZ Shaimaa 

AGGARWAL Neha 

BAKULA Andrea 

BARTHEL Zhenqi 

BOROS Tamara 

DANG Ye Seo 

DODEAN Daniela 

DVORAK Galia 

FADEEVA Oxana 

FENG Tianwei 

FOMUM Victorine 

FUKUHARA Ai 

FUKUOKA Haruna 

GANINA Svetlana 

GAO Jun 

GUO Yue 

HADACOVA Dana 

HEINE Veronika 

HIRANO Sayaka 

HU Melek 

HUANG Crystal 

HUANG Yi-Hua 

KAFFO Bose 

KIM Jong 

KIM Kyung Ah 

KIM Mi Yong 



KOTIKHINA Irina 

LAU Sui Fei 

LAY Jian Fang 

LI Jiao 

LI Jiawei 

LI Jie 

LI Qian 

LI Qiangbing 

LIAN Qian 

LIN Ling 

LIU Jia 

LONG Judy 

LOVAS Petra 

MEDINA Paula 

MIAO Miao 

EGY 

IND 

CRO 

GER 

CRO 

KOR 

ROU 

ESP 

RUS 

SIN 

CMR 

JPN 

JPN 

RUS 

USA 

CHN 

CZE 

AUT 

JPN 

TUR 

USA 

TPE 

NGR 

PRK 

KOR 

PRK 

THA 

BLR 

RUS 

HKG 

AUS 

NED 

SIN 

NED 

POL 

AUT 

DOM 

HKG 

AUT 

CAN 

HUN 

COL 

AUS 



Round of 128 

Round of 32 

Round of 32 

Round of 64 

Round of 128 

Quarter-Final 


Round of 16 

Round of 32 

Scratched 

Round of 16 

Bronze medal 

Rd of 64 

Round of 32 

Round of 32 


Round of 64 


Round of 32 

Round of 16 

Round of 128 

Round of 64 

Round of 32 

Rd of 128 

Round of 32 

Round of 128 

Round of 16 

4th place 

Round of 16 

Round of 64 

Round of 16 

Round of 128 

Round of 16 

Round of 32 


Rd of 128 


Round of 64 

9th place 

13th place 

9th place 

Bronze medal 

7th place 

9th place 

Silver medal 

4th place 

4th place 

5th place 

Gold medal 

7th place 

4th place 

5th place 

13th place 

Bronze medal 

5th place 

13th place 

9th place 

Silver medal 

9th place 

9th place 

7th place 

13th place 

5th place 

7th place 

13th place 

228 


BEIJING OLYMPIC GAMES 2008 - WOMEN 

Name NOC WS WT 

NECULA Iulia 

NI Xia Lian 

NONAKA Mariany 

ODOROVA Eva 

OFFIONG Cecilia 


PAN Li-Chun 

PAOVIC Sandra 

PARK Mi Young 

PARTYKA Natalia 

PASKAUSKIENE Ruta 



PESOTSKA Margaryta 

POTA Georgina 

RAMOS Fabiola 

SAMARA Elizabeta 

SANG Stephanie Xu 

SCHALL Elke 

SHABAN Zeina 

SHEN Yanfei 

SHUMAKOVA Marina 

SILVA Yadira 

SOROCHYNSKA Tetyana 

STEFANOVA Nikoleta 

TAN MONFARDINI Wenling 

TIE Yana 

TIMINA Elena 

TOMMY Priscila 


VALDEZ Johenny 

WANG Chen 

WANG Nan 

WANG Yuegu 

WU Jiaduo 

WU Xue 

XIAN Yi Fang 

XU Jie 

YANG Fen 

YOUSRY Noha Mohamed 

ZHANG Mo 

ZHANG Yining 

ZHU Fang 

ROU 

LUX 

BRA 

SVK 

NGR 

NGR 

TPE 

CRO 

KOR 

POL 

LTU 

BLR 

BLR 

UKR 

HUN 

VEN 

ROU 

AUS 

GER 

JOR 

ESP 

KAZ 

MEX 

UKR 

ITA 

ITA 

HKG 

NED 

VAN 

HUN 

DOM 

USA 

CHN 

SIN 

GER 

DOM 

FRA 

POL 

CGO 

EGY 

CAN 

CHN 

ESP 

Round of 32 


Round of 64 


Round of 128 

Round of 64 

Round of 16 

Round of 64 

Round of 128 

Round of 32 

Round of 128 

Round of 32 

Round of 128 

Round of 64 

Round of 64 

Round of 64 


Round of 32 



Round of 128 

Round of 64 

Round of 64 

Quarter-Final 


Round of 32 

Quarter-Final 

Silver medal 

Round of 32 

Round of 64 

Quarter-Final 

Round of 64 

Rd of 128 

Round of 128 


Round of 128 

Gold medal 

Round of 64 

7th place 

13th place 

13th place 

9th place 

Bronze medal 

9th place 

7th place 

13th place 

13th place 

9th place 

5th place 

9th place 

13th place 

5th place 

Gold medal 

Silver medal 

13th place 

13th place 

9th place 

Gold medal 

9th place 

Olympians 


Olympians 


Name NOC 

BS XT 

ARSA MARAKKALA Hasintha 

BAJGER Ondrej 

BEDAIR Omar 

CHEW Zhe Yu Clarence 

CHIU Chung Hei 

DAS Avik 

FUCEC Luka 

GAUZY Simon 

GAVILAN Axel 

HAGERAATS Koen 

HMAM Adem 

HOLIKOV Elmurod 

HUNG Tzu-Hsiang 

JOUTI Eric 

KIM Dong Hyun 

KIM Kwang Song 

KULPA Konrad 

LAKATOS Tamas 

LEITGEB Stefan 

LI KAM WA Warren 

MASSAH Patrick 

MEJIA Luis 

MUTTI Leonardo 

NIWA Koki 

ONAOLAPO Ojo 

SANTIWATTANATARM Tanapol 

SARAGOVI Pablo 

SODERLUND Hampus 

TAPIA Rodrigo 

VANROSSOMME Emilien 

WAGNER Florian 

WU Kevin 

SRI 

CZE 

EGY 

SIN 

HKG 

IND 

CRO 

FRA 

PAR 

NED 

TUN 

UZB 

TPE 

BRA 

KOR 

PRK 

POL 

HUN 

AUT 

MRI 

MAW 

ESA 

ITA 

JPN 

NGR 

THA 

ARG 

SWE 

ECU 

BEL 

GER 

NZL 

25th place 

9th place 

17th place 

9th place 

Quarter-final 

29th place 

9th place 

Bronze medal 

17th place 

9th place 

17th place 

21st place 

Silver medal 

21st place 

9th place 

9th place 

9th place 

4th place 

9th place 

29th place 

29th place 

25th place 

21st place 

Gold medal 

Quarter-final 

17th place 

29th place 

Quarter-final 

25th place 

Quarter-final 

21st place 

25th place 

25th place 

17th place 

9th place 

5th place 

9th place 

17th place 

9th place 

9th place 

21st place 

25th place 

Bronze medal 

21st place 

5th place 

9th place 

Silver medal 

4th place 

9th place 

9th place 

17th place 

25th place 

21st place 

25th place 

17th place 

Gold medal 

25th place 

5th place 

21st place 

5th place 

25th place 

9th place 

Partner ill 

25th place 

230 



Name NOC GS XT 

Olympians 

BARAVOK Katsiaryna 

BHANDARKAR Mallika 

BLIZNET Olga 

CORDERO Carelyn 

EERLAND Britt 

GALIC Alex 

GIARDI Letizia 

GU Yuting 

HSING Ariel 

HUANG Hsin 

JEGER Mateja 

KIM Song I 

KUMAHARA Caroline 

LAID Islem 

LI Isabelle Siyun 

LOVERIDGE Alice 

MAFUTA IVOSO Jolie 

MESHREF Dina 

NAGYVARADI Mercedes 

NG Ka Yee 

NOSKOVA Yana 

PANG Céline 

PHAN Lily 

ROSHEUVEL Adielle 

SAWETTABUT Suthasini 

SOLJA Petrissa 

SZOCS Bernadette 

TANIOKA Ayuka 

VITHANAGE Nuwani 

WU Julia 

XIAO Maria 

YANG Ha Eun 

BLR 

IND 

MDA 

PUR 

NED 

SLO 

SMR 

CHN 

USA 

TPE 

CRO 

PRK 

BRA 

ALG 

SIN 

GBR 

CGO 

EGY 

HUN 

HKG 

RUS 

FRA 

AUS 

GUY 

THA 

GER 

ROU 

JPN 

SRI 

NZL 

POR 

KOR 

21st place 

21st place 

Quarter-final 

21st place 

9th place 

21st place 

25th place 

Gold medal 

9th place 

17th place 

9th place 

Quarter-final 

9th place 

29th place 

Silver medal 

17th place 

25th place 

9th place 

17th place 

9th place 

9th place 

17th place 

25th place 

29th place 

4th place 

Absent ill 

Quarter-final 

Quarter-final 

25th place 

29th place 

9th place 

Bronze medal 

17th place 

17th place 

9th place 

21st place 

25th place 

17th place 

21st place 

Bronze medal 

21st place 

5th place 

9th place 

4th place 

9th place 

25th place 

5th place 

17th place 

25th place 

9th place 

9th place 

9th place 

21st place 

9th place 

25th place 

25th place 

5th place 

Absent ill 

5th place 

Gold medal 

25th place 

25th place 

9th place 

Silver medal 


Olympians 

232 



Olympians 

Natalia Partyka was present at both the Olympic and Paralympic Games 

in Beijing in 2008, once again she is in both competitions in London in 2012 


The London Olympic Games 

London, 

Saturday 28th July - Wednesday 8th 

August 2012 


234 




The London 2012 Olympic Games 

Competitors - Men 

Competitors - Women 

Men’s Singles, Men’s Team 

Women’s Singles, Women’s Team 

Officials 

Schedule of Play 



The 2012 Olympics table tennis competition 

will be held in ExCeL London, a 

large exhibition centre built on the site 

of the Royal Victoria Dock, about 17 kilometres 

from the centre of the city and 

close to the Olympic Park. The centre 

was opened in 2000 and was greatly extended 

in 2010, and it has hosted a wide 

range of events, from sporting competitions 

to political conferences - even the 

European Star Wars Celebration! 

It consists of two large halls with a total 

floor area of nearly 100,000 square 

metres, which can be sub-divided into 

smaller halls as required. The hall in 

which the table tennis competition will 

be played has a floor area of more than 

18,000 square metres and will accommodate 

up to four tables, with seating 

for 6,000 spectators. During the Games 

the boxing, judo, fencing, taekwondo 

weight-lifting and wrestling competitions 

also will be held on the site. 

As in 2008, there will be men’s and 

women’s singles and team events. The 

number of players in each singles event 

will be limited to 70 and, in order to 

ensure entries from as many National 

Olympic Committees as possible, there 

will no more than two from the same 

National Olympic Committee. Following 

the established pattern, the singles 

events will be played as knock-outs, with 

players from the same National Olympic 

Committee being drawn into opposite 

halves. 

The format for matches in the team 

events will be the same as in Beijing. 

The three players in a team will play two 

singles, a doubles and then, if necessary, 

one or two more singles, until one 

team has won three individual matches, 

with no player being allowed to play 

more than twice. Individual matches in 

the team events will again be the best 

of five games. This time there will, however, 

be no groups and each team event 

will be played as a knock-out from the 

start. 

Like the 1926 World Championships, 

the 2012 Olympics competition will be 

played on up to four tables, but there 

the similarities end: 

The 1926 men’s team event was played 

as a group but in 2012 it will be played 

as a knock- out. In 1926 the three players 

in a team all played singles against 

all three members of the opposing team 

but in 2012 they will play up to five 

matches, four singles and a doubles. 

There was no women’s team competition 

in 1926, but in 2012 there will be 

one, played on the same basis as the 

men’s competition. 


Players in the top 16 places of the World 

ranking will enter direct into the third 

round and those ranked 17-32 direct 

into the second round; all other players 

will compete in the first round or, 

if there are more than 64 entries, in a 

qualifying round. Singles matches will 

be the best of seven games. 

236 


World Championships Olympic Games 

Men’s Teams 7 16 

Women’s Teams 0 16 

Men’s Singles 64 70 (max) 

Women’s Singles 16 70 (max) 

Men’s Doubles Pairs 26 0 


Mixed Doubles Pairs 13 0 

Men’s Minor Singles 59 0 

Total of Individual Matches 379 300 (max) 

Duration in Days 7 12 

The numbers of players in men’s singles 

will be similar for the two competitions, 

but in 2012 the number of women singles 

players will be four times as great 

as in 1926. The 1926 Championships included 

also men’s and mixed doubles 

events, as well as a men’s minor singles 

for lower-ranked players, none of which 

will have any equivalent in 2012. 

The outcome of all these differences 

means that the total number of individual 

matches in 2012 will probably be 

about 30% less than in 1926. So why will 

the competition take almost twice as 

long to complete? One reason is that table 

tennis in 1926 was far simpler technically 

than it is today. There was no need 

then for racket control, when the Laws 

said the racket could be of “any material, 

size, shape or weight”. 

Now it must be checked that rackets are 

covered with one of more than 1,000 authorised 

materials and that they comply 

with the requirements for colour, thickness, 

flatness and freedom from chemical 

or other treatment. 

In 1926 a “stimulant” probably referred 

to a cup of tea or coffee between 

matches, but now players must be routinely 

tested for a growing list of performance-enhancing 

substances. 

There were then no restrictions on clothing, 

but now it necessary to determine 

that colours and designs are acceptable 

and that International Olympic Committee 

regulations on advertising are observed. 

All of these complications result in more 

time-consuming procedures and the 

need for more technical officials, but 

there is a more significant reason for the 

extended duration. 

The 1926 World Championships was 

not a matter of great interest except to 



the players concerned and a fairly small 

number of table tennis enthusiasts. Table 

tennis was generally covered by only 

a few newspapers, and then only sporadically, 

although The Times of London 

did send a reporter on that occasion. 

Radio broadcasting had begun in London 

only a few years earlier and the first 

sports commentary, on a Rugby match, 

was not until 1927. The presentation of 

matches and the schedule of play had, 

therefore, to consider only the requirements 

of the participants and the spectators 

who actually attended. 



Nowadays television has transformed 

the situation. Spectators are not limited 

to those lucky enough to be present at 

the event. There is a world-wide audience 

expecting their chosen sports to 

be professionally presented at convenient 

times for viewing, and the playing 

schedule must take account of this. Video 

replays and slow-motion shots will 

show up any mistakes by organisers and 

officials, and avoiding these calls for 

thorough preparation and rehearsal. 

The management of media relations is 

another substantial area of work that 

the 1926 World Championships organisers 

could hardly have imagined. All 

these additional demands mean that 

bringing the 2012 Olympics competition 

to a successful conclusion will not be an 

easy task. 

Table tennis has adapted to the demands 

of television, as shown by its rating 

for the 2008 Games, and it is to be 

hoped that London 2012 will see a further 

increase in its standing. 



238 







Competitors -Men 

Name NOC D.O.B. Qualification 

240 


Name 

Competitors -Men 

NOC D.O.B. Qualification 




Competitors -Women 


242 


Competitors -Women 




Men’s Singles (69 Players) 


LIU Song 

HAN Justin 


CHEN Weixing 




HOYAMA Hugo 

TSUBOI Gustavo 

HINSE Pierre-Luc 

HO Andre 

IDOWU Saheed 

SAKA Suraju 

WANG Hao 

ZHANG Jike 

GACINA Andrej 


PEREIRA Andy 

BENTSEN Allan 

MAZE Michael 

LIN Ju 

ASSAR Omar 


HE Zhiwen 

MACHADO Carlos 

MATTENET Adrien 

DRINKHALL Paul 

BOLL Timo 

OVTCHAROV Dimitrij 



JIANG Tianyi 

TANG Peng 

PATTANTYUS Adam 

ZWICKL Daniel 

GHOSH Soumyajit 

ALAMIYAN Noshad 

BOBOCICA Mihai 

KISHIKAWA Seiya 

MIZUTANI Jun 

JOO Saehyuk 

OH Sangeun 

AL-HASAN Ibrahem 

BURGIS Matiss 

ARG 

AUS 

AUS 

AUT 

AUT 

BEL 

BLR 

BRA 

BRA 

CAN 

CAN 

CGO 

CGO 

CHN 

CHN 

CRO 

CRO 

CUB 

DEN 

DEN 

DOM 

EGY 

EGY 

ESP 

ESP 

FRA 

GBR 

GER 

GER 

GRE 

GRE 

HKG 

HKG 

HUN 

HUN 

IND 

IRI 

ITA 

JPN 

JPN 

KOR 

KOR 

KUW 

LAT 

244 


Men’s Singles (69 Players) 

ARUNA Quadri NGR 

TORIOLA Segun NGR 

AGUIRRE Marcelo 

WANG Zeng Yi 

FREITAS Marcos 

MONTEIRO João 

KIM Hyok Bong 

KIM Song Nam 

CRISAN Adrian 

SHIBAEV Alexander 


GAO Ning 

YANG Zi 

TOKIC Bojan 

JEVTOVIC Marko 


GERELL Pär 


AGBETOGLO Komu 


VANG Bora 

DIDUKH Oleksandr 

ZHMUDENKO Yaroslav 

WANG Timothy 

SHING Yoshua 

NGR 

NGR 

PAR 

POL 

POR 

POR 

PRK 

PRK 

ROU 

RUS 

RUS 

SIN 

SIN 

SLO 

SRB 

SRB 

SWE 

SWE 

TOG 

TPE 

TUR 

UKR 

UKR 

USA 

VAN 


Notation - Grey: direct entry qualified by ranking Green: continental qualification Blue: host nation & tripartite 

Men’s Team (16 Teams) 

Egypt 

China 

Germany 

Brazil 

Canada 

Australia 

Great Britain 

Korea 

Japan 

Austria 

Sweden 

Singapore 

Hong Kong 

Portugal 

DPR Korea 

Russia 

ASSAR Omar, LASHIN El-Sayed, ALI SALEH Ahmed 

WANG Hao, ZHANG Jike, MA Long 

BOLL Timo, OVTCHAROV Dimitrij, STEGER Bastian 

TSUBOI Gustavo, HOYAMA Hugo, MONTEIRO Thiago 

HO André, HINSE Pierre-Luc, WANG Zhen 

HENZELL William, HAN Justin, FRANK Robert 

DRINKHALL Paul, PITCHFORD Liam, BAGGALEY Andrew 

JOO Saehyuk, OH Sangeun, RYU Seungmin 

MIZUTANI Jun, KISHIKAWA Seiya, NIWA Koki 

SCHLAGER Werner, CHEN Weixing, GARDOS Robert 

PERSSON Jörgen, GERELL Pär, LUNDQVIST Jens 

GAO Ning, YANG Zi, ZHAN Jian 

TANG Peng, JIANG Tianyi, LEUNG Chu Yan 

FREITAS Marcos, MONTEIRO João, APOLONIA Tiago 

KIM Hyok Bong, KIM Song Nam, JANG Song Man 

SMIRNOV Alexey, SHIBAEV Alexander, SKACHKOV Kirill 


Women’s Singles (69 Players) 


LAY Jian Fang 

MIAO Miao 

LI Qiangbing 

LIU Jia 


PRIVALOVA Aleksandra 

KUMAHARA Caroline 

SILVA Ligia 

ZHANG Mo 

HAN Xing 


DING Ning 

LI Xiaoxia 

HANFFOU Sarah 

MEDINA Paula 

MOLNAR Cornelia 

TIAN Yuan 

HADACOVA Dana 

VACENOVSKA Iveta 

SKOV Mie 

HASSAN FARAH Yasmin 

EL-DAWLATLY Nadeen 

MESHREF Dina 

RAMIREZ Sara 

SHEN Yanfei 

LI Xue 

XIAN Yifang 

PARKER JOANNA 

SILBEREISEN Kristin 

WU Jiaduo 

JIANG Huajun 

TIE Yana 

POTA Georgina 


DAS Ankita 

SHAHSAVARI Neda 

TAN Wenling 

FUKUHARA Ai 

ISHIKAWA Kasumi 

KIM Kyungah 

PARK Miyoung 

MOUMJOGHLIAN Tvin Carole 

NI Xia Lian 

SILVA Yadira 

LI Jiao 

LI Jie 

AUS 

AUS 

AUT 

AUT 

BLR 

BLR 

BRA 

BRA 

CAN 

CGO 

CHI 

CHN 

CHN 

CMR 

COL 

CRO 

CRO 

CZE 

CZE 

DEN 

DJI 

EGY 

EGY 

ESP 

ESP 

FRA 

FRA 

GBR 

GER 

GER 

HKG 

HKG 

HUN 

HUN 

IND 

IRI 

ITA 

JPN 

JPN 

KOR 

KOR 

LIB 

LUX 

MEX 

NED 

NED 

246 


Women’s Singles (69 Players) 

EDEM Offiong 


LI Qian 

PARTYKA Natalia 

HUANG MENDES Lei 

KIM Jong 

RI Myong Sun 

DODEAN Daniela 

SAMARA Elizabeta 

NOSKOVA Yana 

TIKHOMIROVA Anna 

FENG Tianwei 

WANG Yuegu 


CHEN Szu-Yu 

HUANG Yi-Hua 

HU Melek 

BILENKO Tetyana 

PESOTSKA Margaryta 

HSING Ariel 

ZHANG Lily 

LULU Anolyn 

RAMOS Fabiola 

NGR 

NGR 

POL 

POL 

POR 

PRK 

PRK 

ROU 

ROU 

RUS 

RUS 

SIN 

SIN 

THA 

TPE 

TPE 

TUR 

UKR 

UKR 

USA 

USA 

VAN 

VEN 


Notation - Grey: direct entry qualified by ranking Green: continental qualification Blue: host nation & tripartite 

Women’s Team (16 Teams) 

Egypt 

China 

Germany 

Brazil 

U.S.A. 

Australia 

Great Britain 

Singapore 

Korea 

Hong Kong 

Japan 

DPR Korea 

Austria 

Spain 

Netherlands 

Poland 

EL-DAWLATLY Nadeen, MESHREF Dina, MAGDY Raghd 

LI Xiaoxia, DING Ning, GUO Yue 

WU Jiaduo, SILBEREISEN Kristin, IVANCAN Irene 

SILVA Ligia, KUMAHARA Caroline, GUI Lin 

HSING Ariel, ZHANG Lily, WU Erica 

LAY Jian Fang, MIAO Miao, TAN Zhenhua (Vivian) 

PARKER Joanna, SIBLEY Kelly, LIU Na 

FENG Tianwei, WANG Yuegu, LI Jiawei 

KIM Kyungah, PARK Miyoung, SEOK Hajung 

TIE Yana, JIANG Huajun, LEE Ho Ching 

ISHIKAWA Kasumi, FUKUHARA Ai, HIRANO Sayaka 

KIM Jong, RI Myong Sun, RI Mi Gyong 

LIU Jia, LI Qiangbing, SOLJA Amelie 

SHEN Yanfei, RAMIREZ Sara, DVORAK Galia 

LI Jiao, LI Jie, TIMINA Elena 

LI Qian, PARTYKA Natalia, GRZYBOWSKA Katarzyna 




248 




Special Photos 

A special presentation was made at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games to Jean- 

Michel Saive (Belgium), Zoran Primorac (Croatia) and Jörgen Persson (Sweden); 

they had competed in every Olympic Games since table tennis was introduced in 

Seoul in 1988. They are all competing in London, their seventh Olympic Games 

250 

London to London 

Photo: Monthly World Table Tennis

Special Photos 



252

2012 London to London

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?