Guo Yue, long expected to be a leading female table tennis player on the
Chinese national team in the 2008 Olympics, will not be included on the women's
single name list of the upcoming Doha Asian Games, the Jinan Times reported
Monday.
Guo Yue plays a match during the International Table Tennis Association
Professional Tour in Zagreb, Croatia in January 2006.
According to Asian Games regulations, each country or region can only have a
maximum of two players in men's or women's single matches. This year in China,
the two women will be chosen from players who participated in the Bremen World
Championships.
Zhang Yi'ning, former Asian Games champion, is slated to go to Doha, leaving
one more space open.
An official with the Table Tennis and Badminton Centre told the paper that
Wang Nan, who has taken home the gold from all kinds of international games,
might not compete against other young teammates for the precious chance to play.
Li Xiaona, who has performed well previously and is liked by the women's team
head coach Shi Zhihao, is still young and will have chances to participate in
other big events.
In terms of performance in recent international matches and opens the new
world champion Guo Yan obviously outdid Guo Yue.
Guo Yue, the 18-year-old world champion, has been fading from the public eye
over the past two months. According to Shi, Guo fell out of favor with the
national team because she became prideful and arrogant starting in 2005 after
grabbing several gold medals in domestic games and abroad.
Dubbed the 'Pingpong Kingdom,' China boasts numerous talents in this
nationally-loved game, thus competition on the national team is extremely
fierce, ensuring the domination of the Chinese team in the table-tennis world.
