Paris Olympics: Hong Kong’s Games entries grow as table tennis’ Wong Chun-ting earns men’s singles spot
- Wong adds a place in the singles competition to his existing berth in the mixed doubles
- Hong Kong could yet add a further men’s singles ticket to their women’s singles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles places
The Hong Kong delegation’s entries in the Olympic Games increased to 32 after table tennis player Wong Chun-ting sealed a berth in the men’s singles in Paris.
Despite seeing his latest world ranking drop by one place to No 49, Wong was awarded the spot reserved for the next highest-ranked player in East Asia after each of the region’s qualifiers in the team event had been allocated two players. There was no East Asia qualifying tournament, because of a lack of participants.
A source at Hong Kong’s table tennis association confirmed that Wong had received a singles place to go with his existing berth in the mixed doubles tournament, in which he will partner Doo Hoi-kem.
It will be a third straight Games for 32-year-old Wong, who made his debut in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, reaching the last 16 of the men’s singles competition.
He featured again in Tokyo in 2021, being ousted in the round of 32.
The veteran led Hong Kong’s challenge in the team competitions of those Games, too, as they reached the quarter-finals in Brazil and the last 16 in Japan. He also reached the last eight with Doo in the mixed doubles of the Tokyo edition.