Chinese domination not good for sport: Chinese official

China's third successive clean sweep of the table tennis world championships was good news for the country, but bad news for the sport, a top Chinese official said.

The team took every title on offer in the championships, which ended here Tuesday, after making each final an all-Chinese affair.

Cai Zhenhua, the country's most senior table tennis official, welcomed the results, which came after China cleaned up at the Beijing Olympics, but said continued Chinese dominance was not good for table tennis.

"It's dangerous. If one association keeps winning everything, it's good for that association, but it's not good for the sport." Cai said if table tennis was to thrive globally, China needed to help other countries to raise their game.

"We should help to popularise table tennis, raise the standard of play worldwide, not only in China. I don't want only China to enjoy table tennis, I hope the whole world will enjoy it.

"It is China's obligation, China's duty... to improve table tennis in the world. It's our duty to offer the secret of our success to the world." he added.

China has dominated the past decade, missing only the men's singles title at the 2003 championships in Paris.

The sport's governing body, the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), has moved to make the game more competitive in recent years by introducing larger, slower balls.

After the Beijing Olympics they also banned the use of "speed glue," an adhesive that increases the elasticity of the paddle.

The ITTF also started a new 11-point best-of-seven-game system.

But nothing can stop China dominating the world.

Cai, who is also China's deputy sports minister, said the team's performance in Japan was something to be proud of.

"The World Championships are the most watched event back in China. Everybody pays a lot of attention to them. Everything had already been decided ahead of the final day," he said, referring to the all-Chinese finals.

"We had already fulfilled our job a clean sweep of all the gold medals." Men's world number one Wang Hao and women's number one Zhang Yining beat defending champions Wang Liqin and Guo Yue in their respective finals to take the singles crowns.

Wang Hao and Chen Qi won the men's doubles and Guo Yue and Li Xiaoxia took the women's doubles, while Li Ping and Cao Zhen clinched the mixed doubles title.

Cai said China had tried to give the other teams a fighting chance by sending only newly-paired couples to the mixed doubles, but all four semi-final places were taken by members of his team.

"I can not force the players to give up," Cai said, adding: "We didn't expect our rivals to be so weak." Beijing Olympic gold medallist Zhang said: "Table tennis is a national sport in China. It's very difficult for a player from another country to beat a Chinese player. It's possible, but it's very difficult right now." YOKOHAMA, Japan, Friday, AFP