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Starting early Passion for table tennis begin early in China
BEIJING (AP) -- For an idea of why China could sweep table tennis gold at the Sydney Olympics, watch the wunderkids training in the gymnasium of Beijing's East District Sports School. Aged between five and 12, they play like hardened competitors. Faces etched with concentration, they dart around the tables, deftly spinning and smashing returns with paddles that dwarf their small hands, across nets some can hardly see over. "No country will ever catch up with China," says Zhang Qiuhua, the deputy school principal, glowing with pride at her charges. "The gap with other countries has opened up already at this young age." By the time Chinese players reach adulthood, they become almost unbeatable. At the past three Olympics, China won five of the six women's golds and four of the men's. Sydney looks to be little different. China's passion for table tennis -- the Chinese call it "guoqiu" -- national ball -- and the Communist government's network of state-sponsored sports schools provide China with mountains of talent and coaches. From China's teeming cities to its vast countryside, table tennis is, despite its English roots, perhaps THE national sport. It's played by millions, in sports schools and clubs or in villages, army barracks and parks, often on rugged, pitted outdoor concrete tables, with bricks in the center for a net. Table tennis has even been a tool in Chinese statecraft. In what was dubbed "ping-pong diplomacy," China helped bridge its Cold War enmity with Washington by inviting the U.S. table tennis team to visit in April 1971. The Chinese easily won the main contest in Beijing, but the 18,000 spectators also enthusiastically applauded each American point. When newly born Communist China was seeking recognition after the revolution of 1949, the International Table Tennis Federation was the first major international sports association it joined, in 1953. Table tennis is "technical and quick. It's very suited to Chinese people," said Yao Zhengxu of the Chinese Table Tennis Association. "It's not like tennis or running that need strength." At Beijing's East District school, parents pay 60 yuan ($7.20) a month for three hours of lessons for their kids a day, seven days a week. The school picks children from kindergartens, usually aged 5. The best move up after about six years to even better schools, and from there to city and possibly national teams. Deputy principal Zhang, a table tennis coach herself, pointed out that the kids train against adults, steepening the learning curve. Backed up in excited lines at one end of the table, they took turns against their coaches, returning to the back of the line after each point to await another turn. In a corner, a coach cuffed an eight-year-old boy around the head for making mistakes. China's Olympic players are products of the state-sponsored system. "They were chosen very small and rose through the ranks," said Yao, the association official. Among the men, Wang Liqin was ranked world No. 1 as of Aug. 15, Kong Linghui, no. 2, and defending Olympic champion Liu Guoliang, no.4. On the women's side, Wang Nan is ranked first, Li Ju second, Sun Jin fourth and Yang Ying no. 5. But there are questions about whether China is the dominant force it was in 1996. Before sweeping all four golds at those Olympics, China had won all seven world titles a year earlier. But this February, Sweden's men toppled defending champions China at the World Team Championships. While China's women didn't have such problems, retaining the crown for the thirteenth time, they go to Sydney without a player of the stature of Deng Yaping, the dominant player of the 1990s. Deng retired in 1998 having swept the singles and doubles titles at the last two Olympics. 'At present, the condition of Chinese players clearly is not as good as in the past," the state-run Xinhua News Agency said in evaluating China's prospects. It quoted coach Cai Zhenhua as saying China could compete for all four golds, but none were certain. He gave a descending list of likely golds: women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles and, least likely, men's singles. The toughest opposition for China's women could come from former Chinese players. The 1988 Olympic champion Chen Jing now plays for Taiwan and is ranked 3. He Zhili, now married to a Japanese coach and called Chire Koyama, is world No. 8. She went to Japan after China left her off the 1988 Olympic squad, despite her world title a year earlier.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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