Table Tennis: NZ trio up against it

The decision to use bigger balls in table tennis once the Olympics are over has had the side effect of hampering New Zealander Peter Jackson's preparations for Sydney.

The Olympics will be the swansong for the traditional 38mm diameter ball, which will be replaced with a 40mm version so that rallies will be longer and the game more of a spectacle.



But the months leading up to the Olympics have also been the off-season in Europe, where Jackson plies his trade as a professional from his base in France.

As a consequence, the former Aucklander found it difficult to get practice partners, since most players wanted to prepare for the new European season by hitting with the bigger balls.



Other Olympics-bound competitors could practise with team-mates. But Jackson, who is making his third Games appearance after Seoul and Barcelona, is the only male player in the New Zealand team.

The 35-year-old was able to get in some sessions with British No 1 Matthew Syed. He also took advantage of a two-week international training camp in Australia.

Apart from the ball issue, Jackson said he was reasonably happy with his build-up for Sydney.

He had done a lot of physical conditioning to avoid a repeat of his recent bad run with injuries.



Jackson is ranked 50th in the 64-strong men's singles field.

The other New Zealanders, Li Chunli and Karen Li, are ranked 25th and 42nd respectively in the women's singles, and 24th in the 32-strong women's doubles field.

Olympic newcomer Karen Li has a simple target - to come away with the scalp of a higher-ranked opponent. But the 22-year-old has her work cut out to advance from section play into the last 32.

Her sister, Li Chunli, 38, is rated by Finch as capable of beating anyone on her day. Sydney will be her third Olympics in NZ colours.

While Li Chunli is a professional based in Japan, Karen Li is a Palmerston North student who admits that living in New Zealand makes it difficult to maintain the standard needed for world-class competition.

"The level is much higher overseas. I just hope I can beat someone with a higher ranking than me."

Karen Li and her sister spent a month in their native China as preparation. The two will team up in the women's doubles, in which they are ranked 24th of the 32 pairings.

Finch said the emphasis for the three was performance, not results.

"What we're looking for is having players come off who felt they had given everything they could."

- NZPA

*Peter Jackson starts play in the singles tomorrow while Karen Li and Li Chunli play doubles today and singles tomorrow.