Asian Table Tennis Championships: milestone for Doo Hoi-kem, but record low for China
Hong Kong’s Doo on podium in women’s singles, while China post worst results since debut in 1972
Doo Hoi-kem said stepping onto the singles podium at the Asian Table Tennis Championships allowed her to realise a years-long dream.
Despite losing in straight games in Astana to eventual winner Kim Kum-yong of North Korea in Saturday night’s semi-finals, the result earned Hong Kong’s leading women’s player her maiden singles medal in a regional championships – or indeed anywhere.
“It was my first singles podium in any championships,” said world No 48 Doo, whose biggest prizes previously had been won in doubles and team competitions. “It was my dream from many years ago.
“After so many failures, it seemed that this dream had been wiped out. I didn’t even dare to mention it again, and I never imagined this would appear so suddenly.”
It had also been Kim who halted Doo’s progress at the Paris Olympics in July, when Doo and partner Wong Chun-ting fell to Kim and Ri Jong-sik in their mixed doubles semi-final.
However, the medal in Kazakhstan was the city’s first Asian Championships women’s singles medal in 19 years. Mainland Chinese import Lin Ning defeated fellow import Lau Sui-fei in an all-Hong Kong 2005 final on Jeju Island in South Korea.
