Cheung Yuk (; born October 28, 1981, in

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its c ...

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, sli ...

) is a Hong Kong table tennis player. As of February 2013, Cheung was ranked no. 80 in the world by the

International Table Tennis Federation The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) is the governing body for all national table tennis associations. The role of the ITTF includes overseeing rules and regulations and seeking technological improvement for the sport of table tenni ...

(ITTF). Cheung is also left-handed, and uses the offensive, shakehand grip.

Table tennis career

Representing his adopted nation

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

, Cheung made his official debut at the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 ( Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from ...

in Sydney, where he competed in both the singles and doubles tournament. For his first event, the

men's doubles Men's doubles, Women's doubles or Mixed doubles are sports having two players per side, including; * Beach volleyball * Doubles badminton * Doubles curling * Footvolley * Doubles pickleball * Doubles squash * Doubles table tennis * Doubles ...

, Cheung and his partner

Leung Chu Yan Leung Chu Yan (; born 1979) is a table tennis player from Hong Kong. He competed at the 2000, 2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against ...

won the preliminary pool round against Greece's Kalinikos Kreanga and Ntaniel Tsiokas, and Australia's Simon Gerada and Mark Smythe, attaining two victories, four games, and a total score of 98 points. The Hong Kong pair progressed to the knock-out stage, but they narrowly lost to the South Korean duo

Ryu Seung-Min Ryu Seung-min (; born August 5, 1982 in Seoul, South Korea) is a Korean table tennis player who won the gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in the men's singles competition. His opponent was Wang Hao, a top-seeded player from the Chinese ...

and Lee Chul-Seung, with a set score of 2–3. In the

men's singles Singles are people not in a committed relationship. Singles may also refer to: Film and television * ''Singles'' (miniseries), a 1984 Australian television series * ''Singles'' (1992 film), written and directed by Cameron Crowe * ''Singles'' ...

, Cheung defeated Brazil's

Hugo Hoyama Hugo Hoyama (born May 9, 1969) is a retired Brazilian table tennis player of Japanese origin who has won several medals in single, double and team events in the Latin American Table Tennis Championships. Along with Gustavo Tsuboi and Thiago Mon ...

and Canada's Kurt Liu for a spot on the knock-out stage, by placing first in the preliminary pool round, with two victories and a score of 182 points. Cheung, however, lost the first round for the second time to Japan's Koji Matsushita, receiving a unanimous set score of 0–3. At the

2002 Asian Games The 2002 Asian Games ( ko, 2002년 아시아 경기대회/2002년 아시안 게임, Icheoni-nyeon Asia gyeonggi daehoe/Icheoni-nyeon Asian Geim), officially known as the XIV Asian Games ( ko, 제14회 아시아 경기대회/제14회 아시안 � ...

Busan, South Korea Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, ...

, Cheung and his partner

Tie Ya Na Tie Ya Na or Tie Yana (; born 13 May 1979) is a table tennis player from Hong Kong, China who won two silver medals at the 2006 Asian Games in the singles and doubles competitions. Tie played for China in the Universiade before emigrating to ...

defeated the host nation's

and

Ryu Ji-Hae Ryu Ji-Hye ( Hangul: 류지혜, Hanja: 柳智恵) (born February 10, 1976 in Busan, South Korea) is a former female table tennis player from South Korea. External linksprofile men's doubles Men's doubles, Women's doubles or Mixed doubles are sports having two players per side, including; * Beach volleyball * Doubles badminton * Doubles curling * Footvolley * Doubles pickleball * Doubles squash * Doubles table tennis * Doubles ...

at the 2004 Summer Olympics in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh List ...

, by being selected as one of the top 8 seeded teams chosen from ITTF. Reuniting with his partner Leung Chu Yan, Cheung lost the third preliminary round match of the

to Russian duo

Dmitry Mazunov Dmitry Vyacheslavovich Mazunov (russian: Дмитрий Вячеславович Мазунов; born 12 May 1971 in Nizhny Novgorod, Russian SFSR) is a Russian table tennis player. He won a bronze medal, along with his brother Andrey Mazunov, i ...

and Alexei Smirnov, with a unanimous set score of 0–4. Eight years after competing in his last Olympics, Cheung qualified for his third Hong Kong team, as a 39-year-old, at the 2008 Summer Olympics in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, by claiming the men's singles title from the Final World Qualification Tournament in

Budapest, Hungary Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population o ...

. Cheung joined with his fellow players and former rivals

Ko Lai Chak Ko Lai-chak (; born 10 May 1976 in Chancheng, Foshan, Guangdong, China) is a table tennis player from Hong Kong. He won a silver medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in the men's doubles alongside Li Ching. At the 2006 Asian Games he won two ...

and Li Ching for the inaugural men's team event. He and his team placed second in the preliminary pool round, earning a total of six points, two victories (against Nigeria and Russia), and a single defeat from the Japanese trio Yo Kan,

Seiya Kishikawa is a male Japanese table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets ...

, and

Jun Mizutani is a retired Japanese table tennis player. He became the youngest Japanese national champion at the age of 17. His consecutive singles titles at the national championships from 2007 to 2011 made him the first man to win the event five times in ...

. The Hong Kong team offered another shot for the bronze medal by defeating Chinese Taipei in the first play-off. Cheung and his team, however, finished only in fifth place, after losing out their second play-off to South Korea (led by defending Olympic singles champion

), receiving a final set score of 1–3. Being chosen as one of the top 16 seeded players, Cheung received three byes in the preliminary round of his second event, the

, before losing out to Swedish table tennis player and six-time Olympian

Jörgen Persson Jörgen Persson (born 22 April 1966, in Halmstad, Sweden) is a Swedish table tennis player. In two memorable World Table Tennis Championships finals he faced fellow Swede Jan-Ove Waldner in 1989 and 1991, losing the former and winning the latt ...

, with a set score of 1–4. At the

2010 Asian Games The 2010 Asian Games (), officially known as the XVI Asian Games () and also known as Guangzhou 2010 (), was a regional multi-sport event celebrated from November 12 to November 27, 2010 in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China, although several events ...

Guangzhou, China Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Ko ...

, Cheung and his new partner Jiang Huajun captured the silver medal in the mixed doubles, with a set score of 1–4, losing out to the host nation's duo Xu Xin and Guo Yan.

References

External links