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Table tennis great Liu Guoliang re-elected as CTTA president
CGTN
Profile of Liu Guoliang. /CFP
Profile of Liu Guoliang. /CFP

Profile of Liu Guoliang. /CFP

Liu Guoliang was re-elected as the president of the Chinese Table Tennis Association (CTTA) on Thursday.

Liu, 47, started his first term in December 2018, before which he achieved a "Grand Slam" as a player, winning men's singles titles in the Olympics, World Championships and World Cup, and worked as the chief coach of the Chinese team.

"I'm thrilled to be re-elected while also feeling more pressure and a sense of responsibility," said Liu, who was unanimously re-elected through a show of hands by CTTA delegates as the only nominee for the position.

"In the new term, we will focus on the Chinese team's Paris Olympic preparation, laying a solid foundation for the development of table tennis, fostering quality competitions, and promoting table tennis culture to ensure a sustainable and high-quality development of the sport in China," Liu said in his speech.

"We have the ITTF World Table Tennis Championships Finals in Durban, the Hangzhou Asian Games, and some World Table Tennis (WTT) tournaments this year. These competitions will be closely related to the Paris Olympics, whether in terms of our preparation, players' ranking points, or squad selection," he added.

According to Liu, the team's roster for the Paris Olympics is expected to take shape by the end of 2023. Chinese paddlers won four of the five events in the last edition of the Games in 2021.

Also on Thursday, Qin Zhijian, current secretary-general of CTTA, was elected as vice president of the organization along with Liu Yi, Zhang Xiaopeng, Wang Liqin, Gao Yaxiang, and Zhang Lei. He Xiao was named the new secretary-general.

(With input from Xinhua)

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