Team China to the fore in table tennis

Source: China Daily | 09-16-2008 13:44

Chinese paddlers added two team titles to their growing collection of 10 gold medals on Monday.

In the women's team class 6-10 final, defending champion China repeated its Athens success by beating Poland 3-1, while France took the bronze against Russia.

Polish sensation Natalia Partyka, the reigning Paralympic champion in singles class 10, suffered her first singles defeat of the tournament, losing to Fan Lei, the singles silver medalist, in a five-game thriller.

In the opening match, Partyka beat Lei Lina 3-2, but China later gained the upper hand after Fan whitewashed Malgorzata Grzelak before pairing with Lei to beat the Polish pair 3-0 in the doubles.

"I think I performed well in the singles matches," Partyka said after the final on Monday. "I beat her in the singles final the other day and today she played really well. She was just better today.

"In team events, China is better than us. I am a little disappointed that I lost the second singles match. China has many good players and there was no question they would beat us in the doubles."

But Fan said she was lucky to win against the Pole.

"Before the match, I made meticulous preparation," she said at the press conference. "I think I was lucky today, because Natalia is really good and I have a lot to learn from her."

The Chinese women clinched their second team gold in class 1-3 by beating Italy 3-1.

After reigning Paralympic champion Liu Jing lost 1-3 to Michela Brunelli in the first singles match, teammate Li Qian performed steadily to win both her singles matches before pairing with Liu to defeat the Italian duo in doubles.

"My opponent is a class higher than me, so physical fitness is one factor. The main reason for my loss today is that I made many mistakes during the match," Liu said.

Italian coach Alessahdro Areigli thought the silver medal was an acceptable finish.

"Of course, China was much better. We wanted to come here to give them a tough match and make them earn the gold," he said. "We have worked so hard for a number of years. This is the best possible result we could achieve. It was a fair result."

In the men's competition, France beat Brazil 3-1 in the team class 3, while China defeated Great Britain 3-1 to take bronze.

Slovakia swept the French 3-0 to win class 1-2.

But it was a golden moment for Brazil after winning its first Paralympic medal in table tennis thanks in part to Welder Knafl beating Athens gold medalist Florian Merrien after fellow Brazilian Algacir Silva had lost to Jean-Philippe Robin.

"The silver medal is a golden prize for me," Silva said after finishing second.

"It now means that in Brazil more people will pay attention to table tennis."

Host China, which won eight individual gold medals, will contest all four team finals in the women's 4-5 and 6-8 and men's 4-5 and 9-10 classes today.

Editor:Xiong Qu