Sydney Olympics doubles champion Wang Liqin of China pushed aside Swedish veteran Jan-Ove Waldner for a bronze medal in the table tennis event Monday at the OlympicGames.
The 26-year-old Wang, men's double winner in Sydney four years ago, dictated the match despite the first game loss before he beatWaldner, 13 years his senior, 4-1 (10-12, 11-3, 11-8, 11-7, 11-9).
1992 Barcelona Olympics singles champion Waldner looked anxiousduring the 24-minute match before he surrendered the victory to his Chinese rival with a missed service.
Waldner protested over the camera flashes from the standings when he was down at 0-3 in the third game but the brief interruption failed to affect Wang, who led to take the game 11-8.
"Waldner is an experienced player who would use many tricks during the match, but I got over all of them,"said Wang.
Waldner will be back home without a medal, which was his goal at the Games after he was also shut outside the doubles semi-finals by Michael Maze and Finn Tugwell of Denmark on Thursday.
"It was not my day today. I was a little bit tired but both of us were," he said. "It would be fun to have won the bronze, but life goes on."
(Xinhua News Agency August 24, 2004)
