Other Events | 29 Nov 2015
World's Best Junior Players Battle for Junior World Champion titles in France
Photo: Courtesy ITTF
Wang Manyu looks to defending her Junior World Champion title in France
The world's best junior table tennis players have gathered in the French city of Vendée for the ITTF 2015 World Junior Table Tennis Championships that will be held from 29 November to 6 December 2015 at the Vendéspace.
The 2015 World Junior Table Tennis Championships, which is the most premier event for under-18 players, will see 183 athletes from 40 countries battling to be crowned Junior World Champions in 7 categories: Boys' Team, Girls' Team, Boys' Singles, Girls' Singles, Boys' Doubles, Girls' Doubles, and Mixed Doubles.
Top seeded WANG Manyu (CHN) will be hoping to defend her Girls' Singles crown that she won in Shanghai last year, to match the record set by ZHU Yuling, who now stands at number 2 in the world.
The 16-year-old will have to fend off not only competition from her compatriots CHEN Xingtong, CHEN Ke and WANG Yidi, but also from top players from the rest of the world all eyeing to break China's winning streak since the inauguration of the event in 2003.
Brazil's Bruna TAKAHASHI, who made history to win 2 golds for Latin America at the 2015 World Cadet Challenge last month, will look to continue her top form here in Vendée to create more surprises ahead of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in her home country.
Hong Kong's HO Kwan Kit, who has enjoyed much success on the ITTF World Tour series, leads the seedings in the boys' singles. He will face tough challenges from Sweden's Anton KALLBERG, who was awarded the wild card to the recently concluded Liebherr 2015 ITTF Men's World Cup to fight with the world's top players.
The crowd will be cheering for local talents headed by Alexandre CASSIN and 2014 Youth Olympian Audrey ZARIF in the Boys' and Girls' Singles respectively, in their fight for the prestigious titles.
The 2015 World Junior Championships will kick off with the teams' events on 29 November, and the team titles determined on 2 December, while the Singles and Doubles matches will commence from 3 December.
