On March 17th, the Table Tennis Center announced the list of participants for the Olympic Table Tennis Asian Qualifiers, and more than half a month has passed.

On April 9, the Athens Olympic Games Table Tennis Asian Qualifiers officially kicked off at the Haidian Gymnasium in the capital. Wang Liqin and Niu Jianfeng will compete for the last ticket in the men's and women's singles, while Wang Liqin/Yan Sen and Niu Jianfeng/Guo Yue will also fight for qualification in the doubles.

The top seven finishers in men's and women's singles and the top six in men's and women's doubles will qualify for the Athens Olympics. I'm afraid no one will doubt that the national table tennis players will not be able to qualify from the Olympic Asian Qualifiers, but the existence of many strong opponents makes it difficult for Chinese athletes to win all the games.

Three days later, on April 11, the singles matches of the qualifiers were all over, and Wang Liqin won the men's singles championship of the qualifiers with an excellent performance with four victories and successfully won the ticket to the Athens Olympic Games. All seven men's Olympic athletes have been selected, in the following order: Wang Liqin (China), Zhu Shihyuk (South Korea), Oh Il (North Korea), Yau Zeliang (Japan), Arai Zhou (Japan), Koji Matsushita (Japan), Li Jing (Hong Kong, China).

Among them, the Japanese men's table tennis won three of the seven places, but this is not something to be proud of, but it shows the embarrassing situation that no one in the Japanese team can carry the banner. Because the real top table tennis players have already been directly selected for the Olympic list, such as Ye Hao and Ma Lin of the Chinese team, Boll of the German team, and Liu Chengmin of the South Korean team. As for the Chinese team, it is really because of the strong forest, so even a world champion like Wang Liqin has to participate in the qualifiers to get an Olympic ticket. This is not the case with the Japanese team, who are so weak that no one can be selected directly for the Olympic roster, and they can only qualify for the Olympic ticket.

In women's singles, Niu Jianfeng, sent by the Chinese women's team, encountered some trouble, but in the end she defeated North Korea's Kim Xiangmei 4:2 in the final to win the women's singles championship in this qualifier and get a ticket to the Olympic Games.

Compared with the calm waves of the men's and women's singles competitions, the doubles event can be described as turbulent and unstable. The defeat of the prince of table tennis, Kong Linghui, set off a storm in China, and the International Table Tennis Federation was shot again. Fans have said that the ITTF has reformed and restricted the heart of the Chinese table tennis team, which is well known to passers-by.

However, on the afternoon of April 11, just after all the singles matches in the qualifiers were over, the Chinese table tennis team held a press conference and suddenly changed the list of players in the doubles in the qualifiers. Yan Sen/Wang Liqin was topped by Kong Lingshen/Wang Hao and missed the Olympic doubles. Kong and Wang, the "idol combination", will represent the national table tennis in the men's doubles competition of the Asian Qualifiers to compete for an Olympic quota.

In the following two days, the Kong Linghui/Wang Hao combination first advanced to the second stage with a three-game winning streak in the group stage. After that, the two continued to soar and won the men's doubles championship in the qualifiers with a winning attitude, and successfully held the Olympic doubles ticket in their hands.

At this point, the controversy between Kong and Yan, which lasted for half a year, came to an end, and Kong Linghui became the final lucky one and was able to catch the last train to the Athens Olympic Games.

Yan Sen is undoubtedly the frustrated in this competition, the physical pain caused by the car accident last year has healed, but the psychological loss lingers. When resuming training, use equipment to pull apart the adherent muscles, and who knows how many days and nights of pain and tears; Faced with the temptation of high salaries from foreign teams, he chose to stay, and this persistence was ultimately lost to his poor state.

The list of participants of the Chinese table tennis team at the Athens Olympics has finally settled!

The men's singles side is played by the "Trident", and Ye Hao, Ma Lin and Wang Liqin form a trio. In Men's Doubles, a combination of Ma Lin/Chen Qi and Kong Linghui/Wang Hao was dispatched.

In women's singles, the eldest sister Wang Lan led, Zhang Yiling and Niu Jianfeng followed, and the three golden flowers fought Athens. The Women's Doubles pairs are Wang Lan/Zhang Yiling and Guo Yue/Niu Jianfeng.

From March 17, when the Chinese table tennis team announced the list of participants for the Athens Olympics for the first time, to April 11, when the men's doubles players were reconfirmed, and then to the end of the Asian qualifiers on April 13, it lasted nearly a month, and the storm within the national table tennis finally stopped. After the dust settled on the Olympic list, the national table tennis entered a closed training camp.

Before the Olympics, the national table tennis will also participate in two ITTF tours, which are the last training for all Olympic team members. The two tournaments are the Korea Open and the Singapore Open, and after the two tournaments, they will once again train behind closed doors before heading to Athens for the Olympic Games.

Zhengding National Table Tennis Training Base.

"Vigorously, we are all out of the Korea Open, this time let's compete to see who can win the championship, how about it?" Marin invited Wang Liqin to fight.

"Of course I'm fine, but don't forget, it's not me who is the most serious competitor for the championship, it's the one on the field." While speaking, Wang Liqin pointed to Ye Hao, who was practicing on the court.

"Alas, this kid doesn't know which rock he jumped out of, it's so difficult to fight against him!" Ma Lin deeply agreed with Ye Hao's threat.

The two sighed again, but in their respective hearts, the waves were rolling and the waves were turbulent. As an athlete, who doesn't want to be on the top podium? Defeat is just the past, and the game is always full of unknowns, and no one can guarantee that they can win forever.

This is also the reason why Ye Hao is tireless and works hard, even with the current record, whether he is against Ma Lin or Wang Liqin, the winning rate is already higher than that of the other party, and it is no longer like when he first entered the national team. However, the earth is round, people are constantly growing, and the competition is even more unpredictable. He doesn't dare to guarantee that he has the certainty of winning, in case he carelessly loses Jingzhou like Wang Hao in the past, and loses the Olympic championship by losing to Liu Chengmin, who has never defeated him before, in the Olympics, it is not to regret it for life.

As a reborn, Ye Hao knows how unquiet the table tennis competition at this year's Athens Olympics is, and it can be said that there are many unpopulars. He doesn't want to capsize in the gutter and wait four years for the next Olympics to achieve his dream of a Grand Slam.

"I'm going to make history and set a record for the fastest Grand Slam!" This is Ye Hao's biggest goal at present. In his previous life, Zhang Jike did this, and it took only 445 days to complete this feat.

Now Zhang Jike is still a newcomer to national table tennis, and Ye Hao is already the first brother of national table tennis. The opportunity is already in front of Ye Hao, can you seize the opportunity and complete the great cause first, just in one fell swoop!

……

In late May 2004, the national table tennis team sent all the Olympic teams to the Korea Table Tennis Open.