BEIJING - China won the men's and women's titles at the 49th world team championships in Guangzhou at the weekend, underlining their status as favourites for the inaugural Olympic team gold medals in Beijing in August.
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Members of China's men's table tennis team (from L), Ma Long, Chen Qi, Wang Liqin, coach Liu Guoliang, Wang Hao and Ma Lin pose with their trophy and medals after beating South Korea in the men's final of the World Team Table Tennis Championships in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou March 2, 2008. [Agencies]
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World number two Ma Lin beat Olympic men's singles champion Ryu Seung-min 11-5 10-12 11-6 11-5 to set his team on the way to a 3-0 final victory over South Korea on Sunday, a day after the women's team came from 1-0 down to beat Singapore 3-1.
World number one Wang Hao had a scare against lowly ranked Lee Jung-woo but prevailed 7-11 14-12 11-5 11-9 in his tie before Wang Liqin wrapped up a fourth successive gold medal, and a 17th in all, for the men with a 11-5 11-2 11-6 win over Joo Se-hyuk.
The dominance of China's women has been even more marked -- they last lost the title to a unified Korean team in 1991 -- but they were given a scare by Singapore on Saturday before rallying to secure an 18th title.
Li Jia Wei downed world champion Guo Yue 9-11 11-13 9-11 to put the islanders ahead in the final before world number one Zhang Yining beat both Feng Tianwei and Li Jia Wei in four sets and Wang Nan overcame Wang Yue Gu to prevent a huge upset.
"Our players did as well as usual but there are some details to be improved," China's head coach Shi Zhihao told Xinhua news agency.
"I hope people have noticed that a lot of foreign players posed a threat to us. Don't expect Chinese players to win every single match."
Team events will replace the doubles in table tennis at the Beijing Olympics. Four of the world's top five men are Chinese, while Chinese women occupy all five top spots in the women's world rankings.
