Tomorrow will be the Durban World Table Tennis Championships group draw ceremony, the specific time is May 18 at 18:30, in the discussion of the group draw, the chairman of the Korean Table Tennis Association, 2004 Athens Olympic men's singles gold medalist Liu Chengmin proposed to try to let the Chinese seeded players in the same half of the region to avoid the situation of Chinese players winning the top 4.
Liu Chengmin accompanied the ITTF President Ms. Solin to attend a press conference at the drawing ceremony, and put forward ideas to other table tennis association leaders and journalists at a press conference. Liu Chengmin believes that China's table tennis strength is too strong, and it has won the championship and runner-up in many consecutive World Table Tennis Championships, and even won the top 4.
Therefore, Liu Chengmin believes that there are too many seeded players in China, and the scattered lottery in other associations can basically be played out of the group without too much play, and many players will be eliminated along the way, making it difficult for players from other associations to enter the final knockout rounds, such as the round of 16, the round of 8 and the round of 4. Liu suggested that instead of scattering the seeded players, the Chinese players should be concentrated in the same half and let them compete fully internally, and then finally eliminated from other associations.
It is said that this proposal has been seriously discussed, but it needs to be held by the ITTF to hold relevant meetings and implement the proposal through discussion in the specific competition format. Yoo Seung-min is probably worried about China's winning, and South Korea will find it difficult to even get medals. However, South Korea is still relatively competitive in men's doubles and mixed doubles.