Chinese naturalized Argentine athlete wins gold in Pan Am Games

2011-10-21 01:06:45 GMT2011-10-21 09:06:45(Beijing Time) Xinhua English

GUADALAJARA, Mexico, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- Table tennis player Liu Song, who naturalized himself as Argentine, won the men's singles gold medal for his country during the 2011 Guadalajara Pan-American Games.

Liu, 39, also won his ticket to the 2012 London Olympics.

The Argentine player defeated in the singles final Mexican player Marcos Madrid 11-8, 11-6, 5-11, 11-7 and 11-9.

The game was very hard-fought from the beginning, but the Mexican player was not so focused that he made several mistakes, causing him to be in disadvantage. Nevertheless, the Mexican audience supported Madrid all the time.

The game's constant feature was Liu's aggressive play, who permanently changed between large balls and lets near the net, which caused the Madrid to get confused.

Liu confirmed his mastery over his Mexican rival and defeated him in an exciting fifth set which was scrambled until the end.

Liu now lives in Bordeaux, France, but he represents Argentina since 1995.

He was born in Southwestern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and was the Latin American champion in 1998, 2003 and 2006.

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