China has cut short the 16-athlete list registered to the
International Table Tennis Federations (ITTF) for the forthcoming
world team championships at Bremen, Germany to 10 members.
According to a statement released Thursday by the nation's
governing body of the sport, Wang Hao, singles silver medallist in
the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, led the men's squad including
reigning world champion Wang Liqin and triple World Cup holder Ma
Lin.
Newcomers Chen Qi will play his first team worlds as China vie
for their 15th championship of Swaythling Cup, while teenager Ma
Long edged higher-ranked Hao Shuai for the last berth.
Zhang Yining, grand slam winner of Olympics, world championships
and World Cup, will team up with Wang Nan, Guo Yue, Guo Yan and Li
Xiaoxia in the women's team event after the Chinese paddlers had
lifted the Corbillon Cup for 15 times.
Chen Qi, 22, harshly threatened his position in China's national
team after losing temper at the Asian Cup ten days ago.
But the Olympic doubles champion was yet given a chance of
making up for his mistakes by being included in the squad for the
Bremen worlds, slated April 24 to May 1.
After his defeat at the hands of compatriot Wang Hao in the men'
s singles final in Japan on March 5, Chen, a native from Jiangsu
province, a most economic developed area in East China, flung the
ball to the ground and booted a chair into the air.
He was ruled to make a televised apology to the Chinese nation
last week, punished to turn over 10 percent of his earnings this
year to the authorities, but escaped a ban from international
competitions with the national side.
"From the national team's point of view, the main point of the
punishment is to help educate the youngster, so we prefer to keep
Chen Qi in the squad for world championships and hope that he will
do some soul searching and accept lessons while working hard for
good scores and achievements," said Cai Zhenhua, director of China'
s table tennis and badminton administrative center.
"The list might be changed again before April 20 even if we had
sent it over to the world governing body ITTF. We have to aware of
occasions that some key members might get injury during practice,"
he added.
(Xinhua News Agency March 17, 2006)