Laos table tennis team hopes to learn at Asian Games

English.news.cn   2010-11-09 19:22:16

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GUANGZHOU, South China, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Somchay Vong Sa returned to China for the Asian Games, this time as a coach.

Somchay, head coach and team leader of the Laos table tennis team, brought 10 players to these Asian Games to compete in all the seven events. The table tennis team is the biggest among the Laos delegation which consists of 53 athletes competing in 12 sports.

Somchay did not think that her players are competitive enough to stand on the podium, at least not in the near future, since Laos just made a breakthrough in the Asian Games in Doha four year ago by taking a silver in martial arts. But she cherished the chance for her players to learn.

"I hope my players can do the best they can. I think the Asian Games is a good place for them to learn, to collect experience," said Somchay in rather fluent mandarin.

Somchay went to a Chinese school in Beijing when she was seven and started to train in table tennis at 11 in 1972 in then Beijing Sports Institute, now upgraded to Beijing Sports University.

"I trained there for four years before I started to compete internationally," she said.

After retiring in 1996, Somchay returned home and began her coaching career.

"China have been helping with many our sports, such as table tennis, judo, weightlifting and diving. They send coaches there," she said. "I hope my players can have the chance to train in China in the future."