Home grown paddlers to fly the Hong Kong flag at the Asian Games after ITTF import ban on players
No longer relying on mainland expertise, Wong Chun-ting and Doo Hoi-kem will have to do it alone in Jakarta looking for medals in table tennis competition
Paddlers Wong Chun-ting and Doo Hoi-kem will proudly wear the “made in Hong Kong” tag at the Asian Games – 10 years after an import ban of players was imposed on teams.
Before 2008, many countries imported quality players – mainly from the mainland – to boost their squads but the world table tennis governing body, the International Table Tennis Federation, shut the door on overseas players in trying to level the playing field.
The ITTF decided that players over the age of 21 would not be allowed to represent another nation at the world championships and the World Cup, while players between the ages of 15-20 would need to wait up to seven years before they can change their nationality.
The ruling stopped mainland players from entering Hong Kong and representing the city, which was common practice since the 1980s.
Of the 10 players representing Hong Kong at the Jakarta Games, only men’s player Jiang Tianyi, who arrived in Hong Kong in 2005, remain the only former mainlander on the squad.