On Sunday in Moscow, the People’s Republic of China was thwarted in its bid for a ninth consecutive world championship in women’s table tennis,
. China’s coach Shi Zhihao
for the defeat.
China had won 16 of the previous 17 women’s championships, and had not lost a world title since 1991. That year, a unified Korean team defeated a young Chinese team that included
—who would go on to become a table-tennis legend—in her first team-finals appearance.
Singapore was represented in the finals by
,
, and
. Feng, Wang, and Sun are natives of the Chinese provinces of Heilongjiang, Liaoning, and Shandong, respectively.
