Table tennis: Bronze medal for women

By DAVID LEGGAT

New Zealand bowed out of the women's teams event with a bronze medal around their necks after losing their semifinal to Singapore last night.

By beating England in their quarter-final, the New Zealand team of Li Chunli, her sister Karen Li and Tracey McLauchlan made sure of a bronze.

The odds were always against them tipping over a Singapore team, who included two players, Li Jia Wei and Jing Jun Hong, ranked No 11 and No 17 in the world respectively.

Singapore won the tie 3-2, with Karen Li and McLauchlan outclassed, but Chunli turned in a superb display to win her two games against Wei and Jing.

The 40-year-old Chunli, who has never been beaten by a New Zealand player and is a three-time Olympic representative, is world No 47, but it did not show last night. She beat Jing 3-1 before keeping the tie alive by beating Wei 3-2 in the fourth rubber.

But McLauchlan was crushed in straight games by Jing, as Singapore advanced to the final where they will play either Canada or Australia. It was New Zealand's first Commonwealth Games table tennis medal. Chinese-born Chunli, who settled in New Zealand in 1984, stretched her winning streak at the Games to 10.

The women overshadowed the men's line-up, who crashed out after booking a quarter-final clash with Singapore when they beat the Maldives 3-0 in pool play.

Peter Jackson, Shane Laugesen and Andrew Hubbard all had straight-sets victories. But they were no match for Singapore in the final eight, losing 3-0 and winning only two sets. Hubbard and Peter Jackson lost in four sets, while Aaron Li, who replaced Laugesen, lost in straight sets.

Men's Team:

Semi-final:

England 3 bt India 1

England 3 India 1 (Matt Syed (Eng) bt Raman Subramanian (Ind) 11-7 11-3 11-7, Soumyadeep Roy (Ind) bt Terry Young (Eng) 9-11 11-4 13-11 11-6, Gareth Herbert (Eng) bt Chetan Panduranga Baboor (Ind) 11-9 7-11 11-4 12-14 11-6, Matt Syed (Eng) bt Chetan Panduranga Baboor (Ind) 10-12 15-13 11-8 11-4)

Classification Play-offs

5th/6th Final: Australia 3 Wales 2 (Adam Robertson (Wal) bt William Henzell (Aus) 11-9 11-8 13-11, Russell Lavale (Aus) bt Adam Robertson (Wal) 11-7 11-8 14-12, Russell Lavale (Aus) bt Ryan Jenkins (Wal) 8-11 13-11 11-7 11-7, Ryan Jenkins (Wal) bt William Henzell (Aus) 11-8 7-11 11-7 11-8, Trevor Brown (Aus) bt Owen Griffiths (Wal) 11-6 11-4 11-6)

Full coverage:
nzherald.co.nz/manchester2002

Medal table

Commonwealth Games info and related links