CHINA became the first nation to win all four table tennis golds in Atlanta yesterday, even though a fight in the crowd threatened to scupper Deng Yaping when she was on the brink of successfully defending the women's singles title.
Deng was playing a final against Chen Jing who won the gold for China in the Seoul Olympics but now represents Taiwan, and a spectator waving a Taiwanese flag became involved in a brawl with a Deng supporter who apparently took exception to the flag's presence.
The disruption of five minutes, during which the players were obliged to stand around amid a gale of boos, shook the Olympic champion's concentration. She had been two games up and poised for triumph at 15-15 in the third game which she now quickly lost.
Deng lost the fourth as well, but a few seconds' pause during which she placed both hands flat on the table, closed her eyes and breathed deeply, seemed to help her.
"I had to recover my mind and forget the third and fourth games or I might have lost" admitted Deng. The four foot 11 inches "pocket rocket" also recovered her startling counter hitting, the quickest in the women's game, to win 21-14, 21-17, 20-22, 14-21, 21-5. The day before she had become one of the first two players successfully to defend an Olympic title when she and Qiao Hong won the womens' doubles again.
China's golden quartet was made certain by Wang Tao who had survived a fall, a twisted ankle, two blackouts lasting three quarters of an hour and a two game deficit to win in five games against Vladimir Samsonov in the quarter finals. Now the bulky left hander saved six game points in the first game to win 23-21, 21-7, 21-16 against Petr Korbel to earn a final with his compatriot Liu Guoliang.
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