Wen[TPE] and Shi[CHN] dominate Deaflympics final day

From: ITTF, Switzerland - Jan 13, 2005

The final day of the 2005 Deaflympics in Melbourne, Australia, brought many stories of great wins, near misses, legendary winning streaks ended, and new dynasties being formed.
5 players stood out above the others in this championships:
Shi Ce[CHN],Kyoko Funakoshi[JPN] and Mariya Vasylyeva[UKR]in the womens events and Wen Chih-Tsuan[TPE] and Gennadiy Zakladnyy[UKR] in the mens events, with Shi and Wen taking 3 gold medals each.

Shi Ce[CHN] was unseeded, and as luck would have it, was placed in the same group as No 1 Seed and 1997 and 2001 Deaflympics singles gold medalist, Kyoko Funakoshi[JPN] for the singles event.
Shi won the group match convincingly but Funakoshi showed why she is such a great champion by still making it to the final, as 2 players from each group progressed.
In the final,Kyoko led 2-1, with greater big match experience and a strong pen-grip attacking game, before Shi fought back to end the dream of 3 straight gold for Kyoko, winning 4-2.
The pair also faced off in the final of the womens doubles with the same result,4-2.
Shi won with partner, Wang Dongmei, defeating Kyoko Funakoshi and her partner, Naoko Imanishi. Kyoko had defeated Wang in the singles semi-final, also 4-2.Shi also won the mixed doubles.
Wen Chih-Tsuan[TPE]in the men's events won all before him taking the teams, doubles and singles gold medals. As Chinese Taipei will host the 2009 Deaflympics he will be a firm favorite to do the same again in 4 years.[Wen was not in the mixed doubles as Chinese Taipei brought only a Mens Team]
For Gennadiy Zakladnyy[UKR]a few extra points could have made his tournament so much different.
In the mixed doubles Gennadiy and partner, 15 year old, Mariya Vasylyeva led 9-8 in the deciding 7th game before losing by the narrowest of margins to Shi-Li[CHN].
Mariya, celebrating her 15th birthday during the tournament was the hero of the women's team final winning both matches to take the gold medal from China, including inflicting the only defeat of Shi Ce[CHN] for the tournament, and very nearly adding her second defeat in the mixed final.
In the mens doubles quarter-final with father, Mykola,Gennadiy led 10-9 in the deciding 7th game against gold medalists Wen Chih-Hsuan and Yang Jung-Tsung[TPE], before ending that dream. In the teams events quarter-final he won both of his matches when they lost to silver-medallist Germany.
He also made the final of the men's singles with a strong 4-0 victory over Li[CHN] but nobody was close to beating Wen[TPE] going down 4-0.

Final Results:

Mens Singles:
Gold:Wen Chih-Hsuan[TPE]
Silver:Gennadiy Zakladnyy[UKR]
Bronze:LiYunnan[CHN]

Womens Singles:
Gold:Shi Ce[CHN]
Silver:Kyoko Funakoshi[JPN]
Bronze:Wang Dongmei[CHN]

Mens Doubles:
Gold: Wen Chih-Hsuan-Yang Jung-Tsung[TPE]
Silver: Mark Mechau-Thomas Baehr[GER]
Bronze:Ivan Rupcic-Jan-Erik Baron[GER]

Womens Doubles:
Gold: Shi Ce-Wang Dongmei[CHN]
Silver: Kyoko Funakoshi-Naoko Imanishi[JPN]
Bronze:Tatiana Mironova-Elena Shagieva[RUS]

Mixed Doubles:
Gold: Li Yunnan-Shi Ce[CHN]
Silver: Gennadiy Zakladnyy-Mariya Vasylyeva[UKR]
Bronze: Dai Jin-Lin Huan[CHN]

For full results go to www.2005deaflympics.com

© 2005 ITTF