China

Kong Linghui - Table Tennis World's athlete 2006

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-12-30 10:00

China's Table Tennis World Magazine has voted Chinese star Kong Linghui as the athlete of the year in 2006.

Kong Linghui

The 31-year-old Kong, one of the three men's players in the world who have won a Grand Slam of Olympic, world championships and World Cup singles titles, beat German star Timo Boll, China's Guo Yan, Guo Yue, Ma Lin and Yan Sen in the voting. The magazine didn't announce the votes.

Kong had an eventful year in 2006, which started with a 22.8 million yuan (2.9 million U.S. dollars) transfer to the Chinese Super League club Zhejiang Haitian and ended with an announcement to quit play and take a coaching job.

In between, Kong was arrested for drunk driving which caused a car accident near the Beijing's Workers' Stadium.