N.Z. set to finish low in world table tennis

Press, 23 February 1987, Page 9

N.Z. set to finish low in world table tennis

NZPA Hong Kong By TIM DONOGHUE New Zealand teams are on target to finish around thirtieth to fortieth in the world table tennis championships in New Delhi, the coach Mr Peter Hirst said yesterday. He said the men’s team (Aucklanders Peter. Jackson and Barry Griffiths and North Shore players Malcolm Darroch and Tony Radford) had won two of its second round matches against Egypt and Ghana. "If we win the third second round match against Pakistan we’ll be shooting for about thirty-third or thirty-fourth position in the men’s championships,” Mr Hirst said. He said the women’s team, which lost to Norway but had wins over Malta and Jordan, would go into the third round playing for positions 33-40. The women’s line-up is West Coast’s Maxine Goldie and Aucklanders Eileen

Hoete and Sharon Coad. Taiwan produced the biggest upset of the championships by thrashing the Asian Games champion, South Korea, 5-0 in the men’s team event after the South Koreans earlier lost 5-4 to Sweden. The double defeat knocked South Korea out of contention for the top eight places, a huge setback for the team which upset the defending champion, China, in the last Asian Games at Seoul. Taiwan did not take part in those games. In the women’s event, China lost the doubles to Japan but won the tie 3-1 to earn a quarter-final tie against Yugoslavia. Japan faces South Korea, which brought in its No. 1 player, Yang Young-ja, yesterday after narrowly beating Taiwan 3-2. Yang brushed aside Hungary's Edit Urban, 21-13, 2117i as South Korea won the ttfe 3-0.