Table tennis winner's victory kick costs him his $45,000 winning prize (VIDEO)
Talk about having the best and worst day of your life all rolled into one. Chinese table tennis player Zhang Jike paid for his exuberant celebrations when he won the Liebherr Men's World Cup final in Düsseldorf after having his winning's were withheld.
Zhang Jike collected $45,000 in prize money for winning the Liebherr World Cup title only to be stripped of it all for destroying the advertising hoardings with a celebratory kick after the final.
He repeated the fly-kick trick at the other end of the arena and then removed his shirt, throwing it into the crowd.
"I am very sorry for what I did," Zhang was quoted afterwards on the International Table Tennis Federation website. "It was not acceptable behaviour and I am sorry.
"This was a perfect victory, I have been under a great deal of pressure, with people questioning my form."
His Coach Liu Guoliang criticized him for this behavior.
"He is always very enthusiastic. However, he went too far this time. It's wrong to behave in this way for whatever reasons."
In Sunday's final match of the 2014 International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Men'sWorld Cup, the World and Olympic Champion beat team mate Ma Long by 11:4, 13:11, 11:5 and 12:10.
Zhang and Ma became finalists of this year's World Cup after overcoming German playerTimo Boll and Japan's Jun Mizutani respectively.
You can watch Zhang's celebration below:
