Cheung Yuk (; born October 28, 1981, in

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, Postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an Eastern China, eastern coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is o ...

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 most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

) 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 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 p ...

(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 Delt ...

, 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 1 ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, where he competed in both the singles and doubles tournament. For his first event, the men's doubles, Cheung and his partner Leung Chu Yan 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 people, 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 (table tennis, born 1983 ...

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

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, w ...

, 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 South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in Eas ...

for the gold medal in the mixed doubles, with a sudden death set score of 3–4. Two years later, Cheung qualified for the men's doubles at the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

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

, 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 men's doubles 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 The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

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 of ...

. 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 6 (six) ...

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 , or Han Yang in Chinese, is a Japanese table tennis player of Chinese origin. He won two gold medals in the men's singles at the 2007 ITTF Pro Tour series in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and in Santiago, Chile. As of December 2012, Kan is ranked no ...

Seiya Kishikawa is a male Japanese table tennis player. He paired with Jun Mizutani in men's doubles competitions, the duo won four consecutive national titles from 2007 to 2010. They also won a bronze medal at the 2009 World Championships and two titles at th ...

, 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 men's singles, 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 latter ...

, 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 Kong ...

, 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 Guo Yan (, born June 24, 1982 in Beijing, China) is a Chinese table tennis player. Two-time winner of World Cup in 2006 and 2010. In February 2011, she ranked 2nd in the ITTF world ranking. Career records Singles (as of February 3, 2011) *Worl ...

References

External links