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Chan fears competitive edge will be missing

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Atypical pneumonia could still have an adverse effect on Hong Kong's chances at the World Championships, says men's coach Chan Kong-wah.

The Sars outbreak prevented the team joining China's training camp for the tournament, but Chan is also worried that it might have dulled their competitive edge. 'The form is good, but we have had problems because of Sars. We haven't played since the Asian Championships in Bangkok. Two months without games worries me,' he said. 'That's too long. For the last two years we've played at least one tournament a month, sometimes two. It's not easy to just find your form.'

'Table tennis is one of Hong Kong's best chances in the Olympic games. The World Championships are important for our preparations for the Olympics. It's also important because we need to get our rankings higher so we don't have as many players having to go through qualifying,' he added.

As if to prove Chan right, the Hong Kong squad opened their campaign yesterday with Song Ah-sim and Leung Chu-yan scoring a nervous 12-10, 11-9, 11-7 victory over England's Andrew Baggaley and Georgina Walker in the qualifying group of the mixed doubles, during which head coach Hui Jun was particularly critical of their service returns. Song and Leung were also shaky early on in their next match against Norway's Lill Kristin Wenneberg and Raymor Gonzales, recovering from 4-9 down in the first game, to go through to the main draw 13-11, 11-4, 15-13.

There they will join Hong Kong's Asian Games gold medallists Tie Yana and Cheung Yuk, and the Lau Sui-fei/Li Ching and Kwok Fong-fong/Ko Lai-cheuk partnerships, who are due to play their first matches late on day two (tomorrow, Hong Kong time).

However Li, the veteran of the squad at 28 years of age, conceded their chances of overall success were not great. 'The draw in the mixed doubles is not so good for us, but Hong Kong's mixed doubles is not at a high level apart from Tie and Cheung. I think we've a better chance in the men's doubles.'

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