Who needs a strict world championship training regime when you can just stack shelves and roll ice creams in a corner dairy?
Dunedin-based table tennis player Wang Qi is in the final weeks of preparation for the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Team Table Tennis Championships in London later this month.
But the Chinese-born 72-year-old said he had a very painful case of shingles, so had been avoiding training.
‘‘No matter.
‘‘I play not too much because I have a business — the Willowbank Dairy.’’
‘‘That keeps me quite fit,’’ he said.
And it appears to be working. Despite turning 73 next week, he still has the fitness and mental acuity of a 30-year-old.
Wang qualified for the world championships recently, after winning the Fijian national championships, and he has been named captain of a team of nine Fijian players for the London games.
He said most of the team were in their 20s, but he did not feel out of place because there would be many other players nearer his age in London.
How did he end up playing for Fiji?
‘‘Long story,’’ he said.
Wang first picked up a table tennis bat in China when he was 7, and started taking the sport seriously when he went to junior table tennis school as a 9-year-old.
He had a promising amateur career in China, but was forced to put it on hold during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, from 1966 to 1976.
Wang eventually returned to the sport, and coached a young Ma Lin in the mid-1980s, who later went on to become an Olympic champion.
One of Wang’s post-revolution highlights was in 1999, when he helped the Liaoning province win the team title in the Chinese amateur contest, and he claimed third place in the singles the same year.
Then in 2001, he migrated to Fiji.
It was while Wang was there the Otago Table Tennis Association (OTTA) brought him to Dunedin on a two-year contract, to help lift the standard and promote the sport in the region.
His contract was extended and he stayed on in Dunedin, but his close association with Fiji remained.
He said the London games would be his fourth time at the world championships.
And the strength of his competitive spirit meant he had no plans to retire from the sport just yet.
‘‘I want to sell my business. Then I will have more time to help Fiji qualify for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games.
‘‘There is still a very little chance.’’
