China has reaffirmed their standing as the world’s best table tennis nation by winning both the boy’s and girl’s teams World Junior Championships titles today in Shanghai China. Japan were vanquished in both finals matches as they stru
China has reaffirmed their standing as the world’s best table tennis nation by winning both the boy’s and girl’s teams World Junior Championships titles today in Shanghai China. Japan were vanquished in both finals matches as they struggled to keep up with the power and precision of the host nation.
The girl’s team led by the 2014 Youth Olympic Games champion LIU Gaoyang defeated their Japanese rivals 3-0 to win their fourth consecutive girl’s team title. The 18 year old Youth Olympic champion stated: “I tried to relax and play my best table tennis. Last year I didn’t play my best so I did not want history to repeat itself. 2014 has been a perfect year for me winning the title at the Youth Olympic Games and now this. Hopefully I can also win the girl’s singles title next Sunday to make my year even better.” Despite the loss 14 year old Miu HIRANO of team Japan who has also qualified for the GAC Group 2014 World Tour Grand final to be held next week remained upbeat about the future: “Since we lost against China last year we have made a lot of progress in our games and we feel that we are getting closer. We hope next year we will improve even more and be able to clinch the gold medal.”
USA created history by becoming the first ever North American country to win a medal at the World Junior Championships. They shared their place on the podium with Hong Kong who also takes home a bronze medal as the losing semi finalists. Just like the girl’s team the Chinese boy’s defeated Japan 3-0 to be crowned World Junior Champions. The victory was China’s ninth in a row and it was a table tennis exhibition which makes you believe that the Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion will be one of the Chinese boys on duty today.
Despite China’s amazing winning streak the boys were under pressure to perform in front of their home supporters at the Minhang Indoor stadium. “Because China did not win the boy’s singles title last year (won by Korean JANG Woo-Jin) we were under huge pressure to win this teams title” stated LIANG Jingkun. “I am so happy that we were able to play well and make our country proud.”
The bronze medals went to Chinese Taipei and Korea after strong performances. There are five more medals on offer in Shanghai with the boy’s and girl’s singles boy’s and girl’s doubles and mixed doubles titles all up for grabs on the weekend.
