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Olympic Games 2008
Team Event Seedings
What were the team event seedings for the 2008 Olympic Games? Find out here...
By Martin Hughes
Owner and Editor
The 2008 Olympic Games ran from 8 to 24 August 2008 in Beijing in the People's Republic of China, and we saw some fabulous table tennis.
Although the opening ceremony took place on Friday 8 August 2008, the table tennis events didn't actually start until Wednesday 13 August 2008.
The team competitions were the first of the table tennis events to get underway on 13 August, and the seedings were announced on 2 August 2008.
As expected, China were the number one seeds.
The team seedings were based on the individual Men's and Women's World ranking lists issued by the International Table Tennis Federation for July 2008 and took account of only those players who were competing in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
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China on top
China's team of Wang Hao, Ma Lin and Wang Liqin were the undisputed number one seeds in the men's team event.
With these three players ranked at number one, two and four in the world rankings, there was never any doubt that they would be the number one seeds and overwhelming favourites to secure a gold medal for the host nation.
In the women's team event, China were also the number one seeds.
With Guo Yue, Zhang Yining and Wang Nan ranked at number one, two and five in the women's world rankings, again, there was never any doubt that they would be the number one seeds and favourites to secure a gold medal too.
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So...
How did the team draw work?
At the start, the sixteen teams who qualified for the Olympic Games were drawn into four groups.
There were four teams in each group and the draw was based on the "snake principle".
The four highest ranked teams were placed in position one in each of the four groups (Groups A, B, C, D).
The remaining teams were then drawn, in ranked order two at a time, into Groups A, B, C or D.
Teams seeded five and six were drawn by lot into Group C or D, whilst teams seeded seven and eight went into Group A or B.
This sequence continued with the remaining teams, until all four groups were completed.
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So what dates were scheduled for...
The Draw
The team event draw was scheduled for Thursday 7th August 2008 at 15:00 hours in Beijing, China, whilst the draw for the singles events was scheduled to take place on Monday 11th August 2008 at 15:00 hours.
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So, these were the...
Team event seedings for the Olympic Games 2008
The team seedings and groupings for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games were as follows...
| Seed | Teams (Men) | Group |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | China | A |
| 2 | Germany | B |
| 3 | Korea Republic | C |
| 4 | Hong Kong | D |
| 5 | Japan | C or D |
| 6 | Chinese Taipei | C or D |
| 7 | Singapore | A or B |
| 8 | Austria | A or B |
| 9 | Croatia | A or B |
| 10 | Greece | A or B |
| 11 | Sweden | C or D |
| 12 | Russia | C or D |
| 13 | Brazil | C or D |
| 14 | Nigeria | C or D |
| 15 | Canada | A or B |
| 16 | Australia | A or B |
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| Seed | Teams (Women) | Group |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | China | A |
| 2 | Singapore | B |
| 3 | Hong Kong | C |
| 4 | Korea Republic | D |
| 5 | Japan | C or D |
| 6 | Germany | C or D |
| 7 | Netherlands | A or B |
| 8 | Austria | A or B |
| 9 | United States of America | A or B |
| 10 | Croatia | A or B |
| 11 | Spain | C or D |
| 12 | Poland | C or D |
| 13 | Romania | C or D |
| 14 | Australia | C or D |
| 15 | Dominican Republic | A or B |
| 16 | Nigeria | A or B |
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