BUDAPEST, April 19 (Xinhua) -- In preparation for the 2019 World Table Tennis Championships in Hungary, Chinese delegation conducted their first practice session in the Budapest Fair Center, hoping to win titles in both men's and women's singles.
"We are the first team to train here, everybody is hyped up for the coming battles," the president of the Chinese Table Tennis Association Liu Guoliang said. "This will be the best opportunity for all the players, coaches and staff to gear up for the Tokyo 2020."
Liu expressed his concerns and confidence. "We aim to win both gold medals in men's and women's singles, and the latter has more favorable chance as our women players are the top four in world rankings and have stable performance," Liu said.
"Younger men players, however, might be affected by inexperience in international competitions. My concern now is the result of the draw, because we don't want our players meet too early." Liu added.
This year's World Championships will see two teams, Liu Shiwen/Xu Xin, and Ding Ning/Fan Zhendong to participate in mixed doubles, which is included in the five table tennis competition events at the 2020 Olympics. Liu said: "Two teams have different styles and are neck-and-neck with each other in trainings, I hope that they can meet in the final."
During the practice session, Ma Long, Wang Chuqin, Ding Ning and Liu Shiwen also practiced with the American athletes for more than half an hour.
The 2019 World Table Tennis Championships will be held in Budapest, Hungary from 21 to 28 April 2019.
