Team harvests 4 golds at world table tennis finals

Despite a gold-laden campaign at the world championships, China's once invincible national table tennis team has left the prestigious tournament in Doha, Qatar, with alarm bells ringing for its Olympic ambitions.

Winning four of the five events at the world championships finals, it seemed like business as usual for China's table tennis squad to have proved its mighty prowess again in the Qatari capital. However, the surging challenge from the rest of the world, underlined by the squad's early exit in men's doubles, has triggered a sense of urgency for the celebrated program.

The men's doubles final, the first event on Sunday, proceeded without a Chinese pair for the first time in 50 years, with two Chinese teams eliminated in the quarterfinals. Japan's Hiroto Shinozuka and Shunsuke Togami won the final after beating Chinese Taipei's Kao Cheng-jui and Lin Yun-ju 3-2 in the best-of-five format.