On February 6, 2024, the International Table Tennis Federation officially announced that Liu Guoliang made an important decision, the Chinese team adjusted the list of World Table Tennis Championships, the qualifications of the top nine players remained unchanged, only the women's team was slightly adjusted, and Chen Xingtong was replaced with the previous Qian Tianyi, which was completely in line with expectations.
The World Table Tennis Championships is one of the three major competitions, and its gold content is self-evident, because of the relationship between the Olympic year, the national table tennis coaching staff attaches great importance to it, and even gives up some points events, arranges training camps a month in advance, and invites many retired veterans to come back to assist the main players in preparation.
However, this year's World Table Tennis Championships only has team events, relatively speaking, it is still easier, after all, the overall strength of the national table tennis is too strong, with a very high error tolerance rate, with the Japanese team announcing the list of participants in the Paris Olympics, when the national table tennis will reveal the answer, it will naturally become a hot topic of discussion, and the individual performance in the competition will definitely become an important consideration criterion, but the players at the bottom of the ranking have too few opportunities to play.
Originally, the International Table Tennis Federation directly announced the list of national table tennis participants according to the world ranking of a certain node, the nine main forces plus the young player Qian Tianyi, Chen Xingtong's defeat caused controversy, and now Liu Guoliang made a timely move to temporarily modify the lineup, Chen Xingtong took the last train, Qian Tianyi missed the game, and won everyone's support, after all, although Qian Tianyi is very good, there is still a gap with Chen Xingtong.
It is worth mentioning that, following the example of the previous World Cup, the World Table Tennis Championships added individual singles points, if the team wins the championship, the team gets 1000 points, and the five people will be distributed, according to the national table tennis regulations, the team competition enters the knockout stage, and the three players with the highest ranking must play, that is, Fan Zhendong, Wang Chuqin, Ma Long, Sun Yingsha, Wang Yidi, Chen Meng, of which Wang Manyu suffers a lot if he has few points.
What is certain is that this is the strongest lineup that the current national table tennis can come up with, all 10 main players play, and there is no room for loss in defending the title, like young players, although it is worth cultivating, they need to be trained through the competition, but now this stage is too critical, directly related to the Paris Olympics, so it is understandable that the coaching staff refuses to take risks, there is no doubt that Chen Xingtong is the best choice for the fifth person.
The opening of the World Table Tennis Championships has entered the countdown stage, the national table tennis is about to set off, go to Busan, South Korea, usher in a new journey, adapt to the venue in advance, make preparations, and strive to maintain the best competitive state.