The Buzz | Chinese Olympic table tennis players in town

The Chinese national table tennis team arrived in Macau yesterday for a four-day official visit. Tonight the legion of Olympic gold medalists, led by their coach Liu Guoliang, also a winner of multiple world titles, will appear at the Tap Seac Multisport Pavilion for an event, showing off their skills at the table tennis tables in front of a 1,500-strong audience who pre-booked their seats earlier this week. Moreover, some of the audience members will even get a chance to battle with the top athletes, such as Ma Long, Ding Ning, Li Xiaoxia and Zhang Jike. The event’s major organizers, the Macao Sport Development Board and the Sports Olympic Committee of Macau, China sought to encourage local citizens to engage in exercise to stay healthy through the rare chance to interact with the mainland athletes. The national table tennis team is set to meet students from the University of Macau tomorrow for the first time at the Hengqin campus. After that, local high school students will also get a glimpse of the top players as part of the team’s visit. This is the fourth time that such a citywide visit has been held.