Top Chinese table tennis stars pull out of China Open after coach reshuffle

Triple Olympic gold medallist Ma Long and two other well-known national players from the China squad have said they would take no further part in the China Open being played in Chengdu because they miss their coach Liu Guoliang, who was removed from his post after more than a decade at the helm.

Ma, who was the Olympic singles champion in Rio last year and was a member of China’s gold medal winning team in Rio and at the London Games four years earlier, has joined world number three and Rio Olympic team gold medallist Xu Xin and 20-year-old youngster Fan Zhendong, a member of China’s gold medal winning team at the Tokyo World Championships in 2014, on the sidelines.

Ma Lin, a retired player and a former men’s doubles gold medallist from the 2004 Athens Games with Chen Qi, and men’s coach Qin Zhijian were also involved in the protest.

Ma Long, Xu and Fan were competing at the China Open in Chengdu at the Sichuan Provincial Gymnasium this week but will take no further part “because they have no desire to play without their coach” according to media reports, who say the players didn’t show up for their matches on Friday with the referee awarding victory to their opponents.

The mainland’s top sports body, the General Administration of Sports of China, condemned the actions and demanded that the Chinese Table Tennis Association investigate the matter and “deal with the incident severely”.

“The act of forfeiting without authorisation and leaving without notice during a major international tournament shows no regard for neither the athlete’s ethical code and code of conduct, nor for the interest and glory of the country, [and] it is also disrespectful to the opponent and to the spectators. This kind of behaviour is wrong and we are strongly against it,” a statement from the government body said.