China ping pong king Kong takes up coaching

China's former Olympic and world champion table tennis star, Kong Linghui, has been appointed assistant coach of China's women's table tennis team, shortly after announcing his retirement.

Kong, whose slipping record saw him gradually ushered out of the national team this year, had been assisting Liu Guoliang, his former Olympic gold-medal winning doubles partner and current men's head coach, before formally retiring last Thursday.

"Kong had done a good job in assisting Liu," Liu Fengyan, director of the Table Tennis and Badminton Administrative Centre, told Xinhua news agency.

"That's why we gave Kong a job on the national team," he said.

Kong's appointment caps a glittering career and a difficult transition to retirement for the man dubbed "the Prince of Table Tennis" in China.

"Frankly speaking, I can't live without playing table tennis," he said. "It is an anguishing decision to quit. I had planned to play until after the 2008 Olympics, but now it seems unrealistic."

Kong, 31, quit after losing his last competitive match in the national championships last week.