Table Tennis: Beaten into fourth yet again

There have been precious few moments when New Zealand has beaten Australia in the Melbourne Commonwealth Games and it stayed that way, after Karen Li and Annie Yang were beaten for the bronze medal in the women's table tennis doubles last night.

Playing against the Australian duo of Miao Miao and Lay Jian Fang, Li and Yang started with assurance and were quickly into a 2-0 lead in the best of five games. The pair were high-energy, jogging on the spot in moments between rallies and being highly vocal and pumping their fists when they won points.

Li has been in fine form recently and, although denied in the singles, she and Yang are forming a good combination after Li's sister, the renowned Li Chun Li, retired as a player. She is now the women's coach and sat in that chair at the edge of the court last night.

However, one of their first forays as a doubles pairing was against Australia in the test series lost 4-3 last October. Li and Yang were surprisingly beaten in that rubber. It looked as if they were on course to avenge that defeat but the Australians won a huge rally in the third game, took it and did not look back from that point.

They attacked well, were hitting with some savage spin and the New Zealanders committed errors and lost their grip on the match.

It was our 26th fourth placing in Melbourne. It really has been a defining feature of this Games effort, embarrassingly so sometimes, without taking anything away from the fine efforts of the medallists.

-HERALD ON SUNDAY