At three o'clock in the afternoon, the women's table tennis singles final of the Barcelona Olympics kicked off. Although the Chinese team locked up the championship and runner-up of women's table tennis in advance, the national audience still wants to see with their own eyes who will win this gold medal that surpasses the historical record.

Before the start of the competition, the venue not only welcomed the head and deputy head of the Chinese sports delegation, but also welcomed an unexpected guest, Mr. Samaranch, President of the International Olympic Committee.

Seeing Samaranch, the European and American media, who were originally not concerned about this gold medal, immediately surrounded them.

The Australian reporter asked sharply: "Mr. Samaranch, you have always attached great importance to table tennis, is it because you have taken a fancy to the Chinese market behind it and curry favor with the Chinese?" ”

The question is acute, but it is clearly difficult for Samaranch, who is known as the wise old fox.

"First of all, I would like to state that the goal of the Olympic Movement is to promote national fitness," he laughed. From that perspective, we welcome China's participation with more than a billion people. I do love to watch women's table tennis, but if it's for commercial reasons, I should go to football. Last year, I presented awards to the two female players on the court at the World Table Tennis Championships in Chiba today. At that time, I made a pact with them that if they could stand on the top podium at the Olympics this year, I would personally present them with the award. ”

Presentation of the gold medal by the President of the Olympic Committee himself?

This is not without precedent, but in the past, it was a national event of the host country, and the president of the Olympic Committee would present the award in order to win over the host country and the home audience.

The European and American media never expected that Samaranch would use the highest honor of personally awarding the award to the women's table tennis event.

Mr. Samaranch explained: "I was blown away from watching Deng Yalin's match on TV a few years ago. She was small and lacked strength. But her active struggle, that vigorous force, I think is the best interpretation of the Olympic spirit, a model of female athletes, and can even be called an outstanding representative of the 90s who have the courage to fight for new women. ”

European and American reporters didn't expect Samaranch to speak so highly of Deng Yalin, and actually said that she represents the Olympic spirit, the best female athlete, and even represents the new woman.

Kong Zhendong can understand that Samaranch himself is a short and stubborn old man, so he especially admires Deng Yalin, who dares to fight and pull all the masters off the horse.

At the beginning of the game, Samaranch watched the ball in the center, and the head of the national delegation and the head coach of the women's team, Zhang Xilin, sat on his left and right.

Kong Zhendong can only sit on the side of the back row with ordinary coaches such as Zhang Chuan.

Today's match, like the women's doubles civil war, is a high-level fight after releasing the pressure of the gold medal.

However, for Deng Yalin and Qiao Hong, this is also a battle for the royal power of the leading female table tennis figures in China.

Whoever wins the championship will be the core of women's table tennis in the next four years of the Olympic cycle.

It's a fateful battle between teammates who know each other too well. This kind of ball, Kong Zhendong has experienced it many times when he played against Liu Guobang. This is the most difficult opponent to fight.

Deng Yalin and Qiao Hong are familiar with each other's serves, the opponent's feints, and the opponent's strengths and weaknesses.

The final balance of victory and defeat depends on who can play more subtle changes and combinations, and who has a stronger fighting spirit and desire to win.

In terms of ball path and spin, Deng Yalin is indeed far above Qiao Hong, and she is younger, and she is also expected by the team, and Deng Yalin, who has repeatedly expressed the hope that she will carry the flag, also has a stronger fighting spirit and winning belief than Qiao Hong, who has a calm and introverted personality.

In the end, Deng Yaping successfully won Qiao Hong with a score of 3:1, winning her first Olympic singles gold medal and the 16th gold medal for the Chinese delegation to break the historical record.

At the subsequent award ceremony, Mr. Samaranch kept his promise to present the award to Deng Yalin.

At the same time, Mr. Samaranch raised new expectations, and he smiled as he put on the gold medal for Deng Yalin: "Deng, I hope you keep up your better competitive form, and in Atlanta four years later, I want you to stand on the top podium again." At that time, I will also wear a gold medal for you. You can think of this as a date four years from now. ”

Deng Yalin, who already had English skills, understood what Mr. Samaranch meant, and smiled and agreed.

The glory of women's table tennis, the carnival of the whole country.

Kong Zhendong quickly left the women's table tennis venue and rushed to the men's table tennis venue next door.

Relative to the stability and dominance of women's table tennis. Table tennis men's singles has been an absolutely competitive event for a century.

In this Olympic Games, the Chinese team Wang Tao, Lu Ning, and Ma Wenhua participated in the singles competition, but there were 32 players, at least about 20 of them, and they had similar strength.

Therefore, the first consideration of the male table tennis masters is not the championship, but whether they can qualify and reach the top 16.

Three rounds of group stage, in the morning, afternoon and evening, in one day, the match is completed.

When Kong Zhendong rushed from the women's team to the men's singles field, the second round of the group stage had already come to an end.

Diametrically opposed to the carnival of the women's table tennis venue, the Chinese men's team can be described as gloomy and gloomy.

Wang Tao and the three have ended two rounds of the group stage, in addition to Wang Tao's two wins and won the top 16 seats, Lu Ning has just lost to his old rival Kim Zhezhu in the doubles match in the second round of the group stage, one win and one loss, and needs to compete for the right to qualify with South Asia Three in the third round.

China's first brother Ma Wenhua dug a bigger hole for himself, with one win and one loss in the first two rounds, he will fight to the death with the Czech rival Kerber to compete for the only remaining qualifying place in the group.

Kerber's backhand twisted in the table, at last year's Chiba World Table Tennis Championships, it was left to Ma Wenhua and left the Chinese team with hellish memories.

Tonight, Ma Wenhua, who is not at his peak, has a bleak future.

Tonight, Lu Ning and Ma Wenhua are both life and death battles, but Lu Ning is ranked number one in the world, and it is not a problem to tyrannize South Asian Ah San.

Ma Wenhua lost to Kerber at the World Table Tennis Championships last year, and his form declined in the first two rounds of the group stage, so his game tonight is much more difficult.

What's more, Kong Zhendong's views coincide with Mi Xingbang, and the three Chinese players are far from the men's singles championship.

Compared with Lu Ning's singles European player with obvious loopholes in his backhand, and Wang Tao's absolute weakness in holding the strength ball, Ma Wenhua, who has relatively comprehensive skills and no obvious loopholes, is the existence with the greatest opportunity.

Therefore, trying to ensure that Ma Wenhua qualified from the group is the first major event of the national table tennis men's team.

At seven o'clock in the evening, Ma Wenhua's match against Kerber began.

In the first game, Kerber significantly increased the forehand rate compared to last year, and the combination of forehand and backhand won the first game against last year's Kerber.

The group stage was a best-of-three game, and Ma Wenhua was forced to the edge of the cliff again.