CNG Throwback: When Champion Is Not About 1 Person

Table tennis is, sometimes, a lonely sport, because it is often focused on the individual. Most of the glory comes from the singles and doubles events. While there are team competitions where table tennis players come together and build off one another and produce amazing results. Today's CNG Throwback covers the 2005 Chinese National Games women's team finals where 15-year-old Ding Ning won her first Chinese National Games champion alongside with her Beijing teammates.

Photo: Table Tennis World

 Zhang Yining, Guo Yan and Ding Ning were part of the champion-winning team at 2005 Chinese National Games. However such squad did not give the Beijing women's team a huge advantage over the other teams at the Games. In the play-off stage of the team event, the Beijing women's team faced a huge challenge in the first round from the home team Jiangsu led by Fan Ying and Li Ju and won by a slight margin of 3-2. They headed to the semifinals playing against Team Liaoning, a very strong team consisting of Olympic champion Wang Nan, young hopefuls Guo Yue and Chang Chenchen. It was another close match and the Beijing team made to the finals after another 3-2 victory.

In the finals, Zhang Yining won 2 points for the team defeating Peng Luyang and Li Xiaoxia while Ding Ning also earned 1 point from the match against Jiang Huajun who moved to train in Hong Kong after representing Team Shandong at the 2005 Chinese National Games. Watching the girls jump for joy and have a big hug is a treasured moment.

The Beijing women's team has won 5 out of 12 women's titles in the past Games and has been a very strong team over the past decades. This year, Ding Ning will be the big sister of the team leading Sheng Dandan, Guo Yuhan, Li Jiayuan and Sun Chen to strive for the women's team title at the 13th Chinese National Games (2017). Follow our next CNG Women's Team preview which will be released on this Wednesday, 16 August, to have an overview of the women's team event at the Games!

Although I make frequent updates so that I can include more CNG throwbacks before the Games starts, there are always more amazing matches than that I can include. No worries, I have created a playlist to include most of the matches from the past Chinese National Games. If I have missed any matches, please remind me in the comment box, I will add them back to the playlist!