"Good friends show their love in times of trouble," wrote Greek tragedian Euripides, "not just in times of happiness." Nearly two and a half millennia after these words (or, rather, their rough equivalents in ancient Greek) were written, they ring as true as ever. Now, a modern tragedy is unfolding in the form of a deadly epidemic. The novel coronavirus originating in Wuhan, China has now claimed over a thousand lives. As the world struggles to respond to the outbreak, the global table tennis community is pulling together. China's table tennis team, fresh off a characteristically dominant trip to the ITTF German Open where they won four of the five gold medals on offer (settling for silver in the men's doubles), found itself in limbo. Ordinarily, they would have returned to China to train for the next major tournaments on their calendar, namely the ITTF-ATTU Asian Cup (February 28-March 1 in Hainan, China) and the Qatar Open on (March 3-8). These, however, are not ordinary times. The Asian Cup has been indefinitely postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak. For the same reason, the Chinese team elected to avoid returning home for the time being. This left the world's best table tennis team temporarily homeless. Luckily, they have many friends around the world who do not begrudge them their dominant skills. As soon as word of Team China's plight got out, offers started pouring in. Among those opening their doors to the weary travelers were Austria, Germany, Japan and Qatar. Ultimately, Qatar's offer proved the sweetest. Not only did Qatar Table Tennis Associtation President Khalil Al-Mohannadi generously roll out the red carpet for all 29 players, coaches and staff, but on extremely quick notice he arrange a training facility with 15 tables and 2,000 balls. For Liu Guoliang, President of the China Table Tennis Association, it was an offer he couldn't refuse. "We are very grateful for all the assistance provided to us during this time of difficulty," said Liu. "We didn’t expect that they could prepare the venue, tables and facilities for us within such a short period of time... it’s very heart-warming, especially during this particular period and we really appreciate all this help from our international friends." Like Euripides observed so long ago, true friends show their true colors when it matters most.

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