Hong Kong to Hold Asian Olympic Table Tennis Qualifier Match

The Sydney Olympic Games Table Tennis Asian Qualifier Match, the largest of its kind, is scheduled to start in Hong Kong Feb 29.

At the lot-drawing ceremony for singles on Feb 28, Chinese men players Ma Lin, Liu Guozheng and Wang Liqin and women players Sun Jin, Zhang Yining and Yang Ying took part in the match to get one number for single playing respectively.

Chinese men players Kong Linghui, Liu Guoliang, and women players Wang Nan, Li Ju who have already won admission tickets to the Olympic Games, only take part in the doubles this time.

Contestants for the single playing will first be divided up into eight groups for the preliminaries, and the eight contestants ranking first in each group will continue to compete in the following round robin match for seven qualifier numbers. If nothing goes wrong, the six Chinese players will all enter the top eight respectively, but only the best two of them would have a chance to win the admission tickets to the Olympic Games and the other two will be eliminated.

A total of 108 players from 20 strong teams, including China, Japan, South Korea, China's Taipei and China's Hong Kong, which have just ended matches in the World Cup Table Tennis Match held in Kuala Lumpur, will gather in Hong Kong.

Since table tennis was listed as a formal event at the Seoul Olympic Games in 1988, the previous three qualifier matches for the Olympic Games were all held in Japan.

The top seven players of the men's and women's singles as well as the best one from West Asia, Midwest Asia, Southeast Asia, and Central-South Asia respectively will be qualified for the Sydney Olympic Games.

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