China wary of threat posed by our paddlers

TNP PICTURE: MELISSA CHUE

They have not been at their best recently, but that has not stopped Chinese news wire agency Xinhua from naming the Singapore trio of Feng Tianwei, Wang Yuegu and Li Jiawei as China's most dangerous opponents for the women's team gold at the upcoming Olympic Game in a report yesterday.

The Republic finished second behind China at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but beat the world No. 1 team at the World Team Table Tennis Championships two years later.

Singapore women's head coach Zhou Shusen was not surprised when told about the analysis. He said that Singapore are the only team to beat China in more than a decade, and the Republic's paddlers have a better win record than the rest of the countries.

The team leave for centralising training at the Surrey Sports Park on Friday night, and are aiming for two medals at the London Olympics, which takes place between July 27 and Aug 12.