Table Tennis Blog

These are the official World Ranking of both male and female table tennis players form Sept 2008:

Women Top 10:

1. ZHANG Yining CHN
2. GUO Yue CHN
3. LI Xiaoxia CHN
4. WANG Nan CHN
5. GUO Yan CHN
6. LI Jia Wei SIN
7. WANG Yue Gu SIN
8. JIANG Huajun HKG
9. FENG Tianwei SIN
10. TIE Yana HKG

Men Top 10

1. WANG Hao CHN
2. MA Lin CHN
3. MA Long CHN
4. WANG Liqin CHN
5. SAMSONOV Vladimir BLR
6. CHEN Qi CHN
7. BOLL Timo GER
8. RYU Seung Min KOR
9. JOO Se Hyuk KOR
10. OH Sang Eun KOR

Yining Zhang has been number 1 since January 2003 and shows no signs of slowing. The same can be said for Hao Wang who from October will have held the male number 1 title for one year. Two bright stars to watch out for are Long Ma and Yue Guo both from China. They have been working hard the last year perfecting their game and now show signs of extraordinary talent.

The Beijing Olympics finished off this years summer of sporting excellence with a stunning ceremony at the bird’s Nest stadium to close the Paralympics on Thursday

In possibly the most spectacular performance yet, produced by film directory Zhang Yimou, 2,000 elegant dancers in wonderfully colourful costumes dazzled the 91,000 crowd with a performance to the theme of “a letter to the future” to bid Farwell to the 4,000 Paralympians

“These are the greatest Paralympic Games ever,” (IPC)

“The spirit that is ever bright in our movement found here in China a kindred spirit … one world, one dream, one people has become a reality.”

In China the disabled have often been stigmatised and suffered from a lack of facilities and chief Beijing organiser Liu Qi said he thought the success of the Games would leave a great legacy.

“This Paralympic Games has been a great event to arouse public interest and to promote the cause for people with a disability,” he said.

“Public accessible facilities have been significantly improved and an accessible bridge has been formed to join our hearts.”