体坛英语新闻：World champion Liu Shiwen leads field at ITTF Women's World Cup

CHENGDU, China, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Reigning champion Liu Shiwen will lead a 20-strong field at the upcoming ITTF Women's World Cup, as the 28-year-old vies for a record fifth gold medal at the annual event.

Joining Liu will be her compatriot and Asian Cup winner Zhu Yuling and Japan's former Asian champion Miu Hirano, winners of the 2017 and 2016 World Cups respectively.

Other competitors include Singapore veteran Feng Tianwei, African Cup winner Dina Meshref of Egypt, Germany's European champion Petrissa Solja, Pan American Cup winner Adriana Diaz of Puerto Rico, and the Oceania Cup champion from Australia, veteran Lay Jian Fang.

With the seedings arranged according to the latest ITTF world rankings, players ranked 9 to 20 will be divided into four preliminary groups, with the top two finishers in each group joining the top eight seeds in the knockout stage.

The three-day tournament, which was first held in 1996, carries a total prize purse of 250,000 U.S. dollars, while the winner takes home 60,000 dollars.