World table tennis governing body ITTF on Monday awarded prizes to three veterans for playing at all the six Olympics since the sport was introduced at the 1988 Seoul Games.

Sweden's Jorgen Persson, Croatia's Zoran Primorac and Belgium's Jean-Michel Saive, who have failed to win any Olympic gold medals so far, stood on the Olympic podium at the Peking University Gymnasium, receiving the awards from ITTF president Adham Sharara.

Sweden's Jorgen Persson, Croatia's Zoran Primorac and Belgium's Jean-Michel Saive accept the honour in Beijing

Former world champion Persson, 42, finished ninth in the Athens men's singles and fourth in the Sydney singles. His doubles partner, all-time great Jan-Ove Waldner, retired at 40 in 2006.

Primorac, 39, won a doubles silver in Seoul. Both the Croatian and Saive, 38, failed to reach the last 16 in the Athens singles.

At the award ceremony, Yang Shuan, Executive Vice-President of the Beijing Olympics organizing committee, presented Sharara with an Olympic torch, which will be kept in the ITTF museum in Lausanne, Switzerland.

(Xinhua News Agency August 18, 2008)