Gao Ning
Press Association
Gao Ning in action at the London 2012 Olympic test event.
Born: 11/10/1982
Place of birth: Hebei, China
Event: Table Tennis
Previous Olympics: 1
Previous medals: 0
Widely considered to be Singapore's best male table tennis player of the past few years, Gao is determined to erase the memory of Beijing 2008.
He went into the last Olympic Games with high hopes, having collected the Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships and Indian Open titles the previous year.
However, he was surprisingly beaten 4-1 by Tan Ruiwu in the last 32 after turning in an uncharacteristically flat display against the Croatian. Yet the 29-year-old has consigned that disappointment to the past and he again entered an Olympic year as a force in both the singles and doubles.
He retained his Commonwealth Table Tennis title in Glasgow in 2009 before collecting silver at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi the following year, losing to Yang Zi in the final having teamed up with his fellow Singaporean for another silver in the doubles and winning gold in the team event.
Gold at last year's Southeast Asian Games followed before he upset Olympic singles champion Ma Lin from China at the ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals in London - the test event for the Olympics - on the way to the semi-finals.
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