Table tennis world champion Kong Linghui?yesterday formally
announced his retirement and his intent to compete for a China
Table Tennis Team coach position, sina.com reported Thursday.
Kong began his competitive career at age six, and in 1986 made
the Heilongjiang Provincial team, going on to make
the national team in 1991.
31-year-old Kong is one of only three athletes to perform a
gold-medal sweep at all three major table tennis tournaments, the
World Championships, the Table Tennis World Cup and the Olympic
Games. The other two are his former teammate Liu Guoliang, now head
coach of China's men table tennis team and Swedish veteran, Waldner
Jan-Ove.
At the beginning of the year, Kong was assigned some coaching
duty in order to lighten the working stress of the men's team.
However, until now, Kong has still mainly been focusing on his own
training and match-play.
(China Daily October 13, 2006)
