Xinhua News Agency, Budapest, April 19 (reporter Su Bin Yuan Liang) the Chinese team who participated in the World Table Tennis Championships in 2019 entered the main venue of the Hungary Convention and Exhibition Center for pre-competition training for the first time. Liu Guoliang, chairman of China Table Tennis Association, said that he hoped to prepare for the Tokyo Olympic Games through the inspection team of This World Table Tennis Championships. Men’s and women’s singles are expected to win gold medals. In contrast, the situation of women’s teams is more favorable, while men’s teams have two risk points.
The Interesting link in the training of the national security team on that day was that four players, Ma Long, Wang Chuqin, Ding Ning and Liu Shiwen, had a joint training with the athletes of the US team for more than half an hour, the athletes of both sides exchanged skills and experiences during the training on the same stage. Chinese Ambassador to Hungary Duan Jielong also came to the venue and talked with Liu Guoliang and members of the coaching staff.
After the eight-day adaptive training in Austria, the national basketball team arrived in Budapest, the venue of the competition, on the 17th. After attending the first training class in the training hall on the 18th, the whole team entered the competition hall on the 19th.
“After we arrived in (Budapest), we trained in the sub-Hall yesterday, and we felt a little bit like the World Championship. After the main hall was built, the Chinese team was the first team to come here for training today. Everyone was more excited and felt like fighting immediately.” Liu Guoliang said that from Austria to Budapest, the main difference is that everyone will see many familiar faces in the training competition, and the atmosphere of the competition will move forward a little bit.
Liu Guoliang said that this world table tennis tournament is the biggest chance to practice before the Tokyo Olympic Games. No matter the athletes, coach team or security team, everyone will go all out and hope to pass the World Table Tennis Championship Test team and prepare for next year’s Olympic Games.
Mixed doubles will become the fifth table tennis competition in the Tokyo Olympic Games. The Chinese team in this World Table Tennis Championships sent two pairs, Xu Xin/Liu Shiwen and Fan Zhendong/Ding Ning. In this regard, Liu Guoliang said that the preparation for the mixed doubles was more significant for the training of the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Liu Guoliang said that the mixed pair of players still seems to be the strongest lineup at present. Fan Zhendong and Ding Ning have not participated in international competitions, but as far as team training and competition confrontation are concerned, the strength of the two men is not under Xu Yi and Liu Shiwen.
Liu Guoliang admits that he is more concerned about the lottery now. The lottery “is not good or bad, but the draw”. “How to draw out the mixed pairs of Chinese team, draw out the upper and lower half of Ma Long and Fan Zhendong, and put the strong confrontation at the end, this is what I want to see.” He said that the most worrying thing is that the mix of two pairs is drawn to a line, and the lineup of team drills will be greatly affected. I hope that after the lottery results are released, fans around the world will see it, whether the two strongest mixed pairs of Guozhen can make two wings fly together in the World Table Tennis Championships. The two pairs have different styles of play. Xu Yi and Liu Shiwen belong to the smart and changeable type, while Fan Zhendong and Ding Ning belong to the solid type. He is very much looking forward to the mixed pairs of the World Table Tennis Championships to get good exercise.
In Liu Guoliang’s view, there is hope to win gold medals in both men’s and women’s singles, but in terms of probability, the situation of women’s line is better than that of men’s line.
“(Women’s singles) the level of five athletes is relatively average, and the stability is good. The World ranks among the top four in female team members, and the draw is more favorable. There are two risk points in the men’s team, one is the stability of young generals in the competition, the other is that the world ranking is relatively not so high, and it is likely to be biased when drawing lots, but this is all part of the competition, we will also be prepared.” Liu Guoliang said.
Looking forward to the Tokyo Olympic Games, Liu Guoliang showed his belief of winning, “No matter what, even if we have one left in the Olympic Games next year, we will win the championship.”