Hong Kong’s Wong Chun Ting is part of a dying breed in table tennis thanks to his penhold grip on the bat, but the world No. 8 hopes to revive the style by winning a medal at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
While the European-style shakehand grip is now in the ascendancy, Wong decided on the penhold style to emulate China’s Wang Hao, who won three consecutive individual Olympic silver medals in Athens, Beijing and London using the technique. He also won team golds in 2008 and 2012.
“I hope it will not [die out], I sincerely hope that my success can motivate more players to choose penholder grip,” Wong said.
Photo: Reuters
World No. 7 Chuang Chih-yuan of Taiwan said the shakehand technique suited the more aggressive style of table tennis being played these days.
“The current generation and how table tennis is going means it is quite difficult to play penholder style,” Chuang said.
“Now every moment everybody is thinking to attack first,” he said.
Photo: AFP
The table tennis competition in Rio is to start on Saturday.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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