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Table Tennis

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Few sports will be followed more closely by the locals in Beijing than table tennis, a sport which is a national obsession in China.

The Chinese have won 16 of the 20 gold medals awarded since table tennis became an Olympic sport back in Seoul in 1988. Every women's event has been won by the Chinese.

In the past three Games, the Chinese have won 11 of the 12 golds. Only South Korea's Seung Min Ryu managed to break the Chinese stranglehold, winning the men's singles in Athens four years ago.

Before a fanatical home crowd, China's table tennis stars will be aiming to prove that just an aberration and return to gold-medal winning domination.

And it's not just the Chinese who will be thrilled by the action from the Peking University Gymnasium. Modern table tennis is an attacking feast.

If you find defence an interminable bore and are thrilled by attack then table tennis may be the game for you.

No five-day Tests here, no playing for time, no boring emphasis on possession at the expense of offence - the expedite system has put such tactics in table tennis to the sword.

The expedite system comes into force if a game is unfinished after 10 minutes, unless both players or pairs have scored 9 or more points. Otherwise, once that time is reached, the umpire interrupts the game - mid-rally if necessary - and introduces a new serving and scoring regime.

Under the expedite system, each player or pair shall serve for one point in turn until the end of the game, but the real innovation is the onus on the server to attack - if the receiving player or pair can make 13 good returns, they win the point.

Olympic table tennis is a world away from the ping-pong played in countless garages around the world. Hi-tech rackets propel the ball at speeds of up to 160 kilometres an hour.

The use of different adhesives in the construction of rackets has led to many of them being banned from Olympic competition - some combinations of adhesive added up to 30 kilometres an hour to the speed the ball travels at.