Table Tennis

Was I complaining yesterday about how hard it was to follow the field hockey ball because it was so small and fast?  After table tennis today, I would be happy to have the field hockey ball back.

The table tennis arena set-up was unlike anything I've ever seen before; everything was dark except for the table  set up in the middle of the arena (normally I would call it a "ping pong table",but what should I call it,  a "table tennis table"?).  It was like being in a night club.  They even served drinks.

Whatever you call it, it's a very cool table.  Wouldn't you be the envy of the neighborhood if you had this table in your basement?

In table tennis, there's a chair umpire just like in regular tennis (she's sitting in the chair in the upper corner of the picture).  This umpire indicates who wins the point.  Unlike regular tennis, this umpire is not responsible for score keeping. That responsibility falls to another umpire (he's sitting in the chair on the left hand side of the picture).

What I noticed even more than how hard it was to shoot table tennis (I never got one shot where the ball was on the paddle), was the unique serving styles of the players.

Jike Zhang (China)

Dimitrij Ovtcharov (Germany)

Chin-Yuan Chuang (Chinese Taipei)

Hao Wang (China)

Here are Zhang (left) and Ovtcharov (right) and their coaches before the first semifinal.

Zhang (left) and Ovtcharov (right) in the first semifinal.  Zhang won this semifinal and went on to win the gold medal in the final.  Ovtcharov won the bronze medal match.

Chuang (left) and Wang (right) in the second semifinal.  Wang won this semifinal but lost to Zhang in the gold medal match (which means he won the silver medal).  Chuang lost to Ovtcharov in the bronze medal match (which means he won nothing).