The 25th edition of the international Youthcup took place in Hasselt (Belgium). About 540 players from 11 countries faced each other during the three day long table-tennis festival. For this jubilee edition two clubs where invited from the world leading table-tennis country – China.
Players and coaches from the “East China University of Science and Technology tt- Club” and the “Ouyu sport club Zhongshan China Wu Bin” were on duty. It was a great opportunity for the European youngsters to measure up with their overseas challengers.
In the teams event East China University dominated in cadets and juniors events both for girls and boys. In the category boys born in 2006 or later the Swedish youngsters from Angby overcame their Chinese opponents from Ouyu TT club in the final.
In the girls event Yuhan XU (cadet grils) and Xinyi Lu (junior girls) took the gold medal.
A remarkable effort in cadets boys singles came from Belgian’s Louis LAFFINEUR who’s beaten two players from the East China University team YUN Wang in round one and YU Zhang in semi’s on his road to the final only to be stopped by China’s dangerously attacking defender SHICHUN Geng.
Major upset in the junior boys singles event where created by the Suisse player Pelz PEKKA from Neuheusen. He overcome the Chinese hegemony. On the road to the final he was better then Belgium’s promising youngster Romain GASPAR in quarter final Dutch Pim van SCHAIK in semi’s and in a thrilling final RENUI Xu from East China University.
All these team and individual successes lead to East China University winning the 25th edition of the International Youthcup. With a second place for Braunschweig (Germany) and a third place for Lubuski (Poland).
For all results please check our website: www.ttchasselt.be
