Popular science: Let Ma Long be a god and Deng Yaping call the pity of the World Table Tennis Championships copy trophy, what is the origin?

The 2023 Durban World Table Tennis Championships has ended, the Chinese table tennis team signed up for five projects, but took back six trophies, of which Ma Long, who did not win the championship, won the singles replica trophy is the highest honor in the table tennis world, because only athletes who have achieved three consecutive singles championships or more than four crowns of the World Table Tennis Championships are eligible, and only three people in history, namely Zhuang Zedong, Wang Nan, and Ma Long.

If you consider the special history of the Zhuang Zedong period and the fact that the competitive pressure of women's singles is less than that of men's singles, then Ma Long's achievement is even more rare.

However, after the game, Quan Yan found that many fans have some misunderstandings about copying trophies, and some people do not know much about their past and present lives, so now let's take a comprehensive look at the relevant content, let's walk into this treasure that makes Ma Long a god and Deng Yaping call "pity" What is the origin.

Misunderstanding 1: The World Table Tennis Championships replicates trophies in all projects.

This is a common misunderstanding in the comment area, many fans think that no matter which project of the World Table Tennis Championships, as long as it achieves three consecutive championships, it will definitely be able to get a copy trophy, or at least five individual triple championships can be obtained, but this is actually a wrong view, let's take a look at the content stipulated in Article 4.1.12.3 of the ITTF Manual:

A player who wins the men's or women's singles event 3 times in succession or 4 times in all shall receive from the ITTF a half-size replica of the appropriate trophy as a permanent possession.

Through the above paragraph, we can see that the replica trophy of the World Table Tennis Championships is limited to the three consecutive championships or four consecutive championships of men's singles and women's singles, and its reward is a small trophy half the size of the original trophy, and the team or combination that meets this condition in the team and doubles is not required to get the copy trophy.

In this regard, Quan Yan once specially asked a friend to consult Liu Wei, the three-time winner of the mixed doubles championship of the World Table Tennis Championships, and got the answer that she had not won the copy trophy; And the Chinese team has long been the team n-game champions, and there is no shortage of combinations of triple championships in doubles, and it has never heard of any replica trophies: if there were, it would certainly be overwhelmingly publicized, but unfortunately it did not.

So far, only three people have won the replica trophy of the World Table Tennis Championships, and only the singles trophy: of course, the men's singles Zhuang Zedong and Ma Long are replicating the St. Blaed Cup, and the women's singles Wang Nan is copying the Ji Geist Cup, which is still different here.

Misunderstanding 2: Only Zhuang Zedong, Ma Long, and Wang Nan have achieved three consecutive singles championships in the World Table Tennis Championships.

Although according to the rules, the replica trophy can also be won by the World Table Tennis Championships singles without four consecutive championships, but because the single World Table Tennis Championships is now held every two years, it is indeed too difficult to win four consecutive championships for at least eight years: if an athlete can maintain such a high level in eight years, then other opponents really can't play.

But the above situation is based on a premise, that is, today's table tennis world. As we all know, the World Table Tennis Championships has been held for nearly a hundred years, and different periods have different rules and backgrounds, and Zhuang Zedong (1961~1965), Ma Long (2015~2019), Wang Nan (1999~2003) are not the only players who have achieved three consecutive singles championships or four consecutive championships and above.

As early as before World War II, Hungary's Barna had achieved five men's singles championships, and Barna's teammate Medyanski won the women's singles championship from the first to the fifth World Table Tennis Championships. Since then, England's Bergman has won four men's singles titles in 1937~1950, and Romania's Rozianou (later changed to Israel) won six consecutive women's singles titles in 1950~1955.

However, the World Table Tennis Championships of that year was very different from now, it was held once a year, so their competitive pressure was far less than that of later juniors, so the ITTF did not set up a copy trophy that year.

It was not until 1959 that the World Table Tennis Championships was changed to a biennial session, and then there was a copy trophy, and the rules were different at the beginning, when it was stipulated that women's singles must be four consecutive championships, or not five consecutive summits to win, and as a result, only Wang Nan achieved three consecutive championships over the decades, so the ITTF revised the rules in 2003 to unify the standards of men and women, otherwise Wang Nan could not get it.

Finally, let's talk about a few athletes who passed by with the copy trophy.

Objectively speaking, although the early World Table Tennis Championships were held once a year, the achievements achieved by Barna, Medyansky, and Roziano, who could win five or even six singles championships, were actually closer to the current biennial three or four consecutive championships, but unfortunately the trophy was not copied at that time, and it was not posthumously awarded to them later (Rozianou died in 2006).

After 1959, some athletes won two consecutive World Table Tennis Championships singles championships, but the third crown did not win, the typical representative is Guo Yuehua, he reached the top in 1981 and 1983, and won two runners-up in 1977 and 1979, which is indeed a pity, but it is said that his gains and losses are also as historical particularity as Zhuang Zedong of that year, so I will not discuss it here.

Of course, there is another situation closer to copying trophies, that is, winning three championships, but not connected, typical representatives of three, the first is Deng Yaping, she was the champion in 1991, 1995, 1997, but in 1993 she lost to Singapore's Jing Junhong, so when she saw Ma Long win the trophy at the Durban World Table Tennis Championships, she called herself "too pity" that year.

The second is Wang Liqin, who won gold in 2001, 2005 and 2007, but lost to Schrager of Austria in 2003. In addition, Wang Liqin also reached the men's singles final at the 2009 World Table Tennis Championships, and finally lost to Wang Hao, which can be said to be infinitely close to the copy trophy, which is more regrettable than Deng Yaping.

The third is Ding Ning, who was the champion in 2011, 2015 and 2017, and she is not connected.

At present, the athlete who is most likely to get the next copy trophy in the table tennis world is naturally Fan Zhendong, who has already been the king in the men's singles event of the World Table Tennis Championships in 2021 and 2023, as long as he successfully defends his title in 2025, he can equal his predecessors - but what did not happen is difficult to predict, I hope that Xiao Fat will continue to move forward step by step, and strive to climb over the mountain of senior brother Ma Long: Come on!