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Beijing Olympics: Chinese Men's Team win gold, merciless with German challengers

First published on Monday, August 18, 2008

Last updated on Wednesday, August 20, 2008

It was the dream final of the first Men’s Team event at Olympic Games. The top seeded Chinese team against the first challenger Germany, Asia against Europe. The Chinese team with world number one WANG Hao, MA Lin (no. 2) and WANG Liqin (no.4) could show its superiority.

In the opening match, 19 year old Dimitrij OVTCHAROV (no. 14) had no chance against WANG Hao. The Chinese smashed Germany’s shooting star 3-0; the worst case scenario for the team of Richard PRAUSE (GER) has come true.

No Surrender but China was too Strong
In the second match, world number six Timo BOLL tried to put up some resistance. Germany’s best was not constant enough to win more than one game against MA Lin. After the 2-0 lead, there was no question about the winner of the contest. It was just a question of honour for BOLL and company to play their best.

In the doubles match between WANG Hao/WANG Liqin and Timo BOLL/Christian SÜSS, the Germans started well. The crucial moment of this match was in the third game that WANG/WANG won 11-8. After that, the German Vice World Champion from 2005 in Shanghai could not stop the “China Express” anymore.

Chinese Stars also Favourites for the Singles Event
The superior performances of the Chinese trio should help them for the Men’s Singles event. MA, WANG and WANG did not lose one single match and conceded only ten games to their opponents during the whole competition.

Statements about the Final

Richard PRAUSE, Coach Germany
“We have a proverb in Germany, ‘the final must be won’. We tried to put that in our mind just before the final. We tried everything to find out the weak points of the Chinese players. It was very difficult to find them. On the other hand, they found some weak points in the German team. They were the better team. They deserved to win.”

Timo BOLL, Germany:
”We gave our all today. There wasn’t a lot of pressure. Before the final, we had very little hope to win. We hoped to win in the Doubles match. It’s a pity we didn’t.”

Dimitrij OVTCHAROV, GERMANY:”I’m very happy today because none of us have ever won an Olympic medal before. This is the maximum we can achieve because China is too dominant in table tennis.”

LIU Guoliang, Coach China
On what he said to the players on the moment they won:
“I said to them: ‘You guys are the greatest. You did so well tonight. I am really proud of you. You did not disappoint anyone.’”
“We had some regret the Athens Games. I told them to remember that we still have the Singles competition. We will try to make up for Athens.”

MA LIN, China
“I played pretty well, especially in the third and fourth games where I relaxed and let go of myself.”
“I lost one game because technically and tactically, as well as in my attack, I made some errors. I managed to control the situation better later, so I won the third and fourth games.”

On crying during the medals ceremony:
“I had tears in my eyes because I remembered all the moments form the years of training and competing.”

WANG Hao, China
On the meaning of winning his first Olympic Gold medal:
”I am very excited. We’ve prepared for a long time for this competition. We’ve also sacrificed a great deal. All three of us played very well today to win the Gold. We made it. Since this is a team victory, it shows the capabilities of China’s table tennis. We really wanted to win this Gold. There were some difficulties today, but it was not as hard we anticipated, so we managed.”

WANG Liqin, China
On the key to their win:
“We won today’s competition because we were very solid in our attacks and took many initiatives.”

ITTF Press Release

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Beijing Olympics: Chinese Men's Team win gold, merciless with German challengers

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