For Canada's table tennis players the singles event at the 2012 London Games ended quickly. Andre Ho (BC) faced the experienced Segun Toriola of Nigeria. The many times African Champion went into the match as favorite, ranked 200 places higher in the ITTF World Ranking than Ho. The Canadian won game 1 and kept the other games close, losing the match 4-1, 12

-10 in the fifth.

The second Canadian to exit was Pierre-Luc Hinse (WR 305) who faced latvian Matiss Burgis. Burgis (WR 103), well known on the international circuit found himself in a see-saw battle against the lower ranked Canadian. Down 0-2, the Canadian fought back to 2-2, and then 3-3. In game 7, Hinse got off to a better start and it looked like an upset was possible. "Towards the end of the match, he (Burgis) was returning my serves better and better. His international match experience saved him today," Hinse analyzed the match.

On the women's side Mo Zhang had no problem in her preliminary match against Qatar's Aia Mohamed. In Round 1, Zhang squeaked by Turkey's Melek Hu erasing a 75 rank difference in Hu's favor on the ITTF World Ranking. Round 3, however, was the end for Mo Zhang where Austria's Qianbing Li proved too strong.

On August 3, the Canadian Men's Team will meet Japan in the Men's Team competition. The Japanese team is one of the medal favorites, seeded third in the Olympic team competition - little chance for the Canadians.

"With a completely new team on the men's side we were happy to qualify a team this year and end up in the coveted field of 16 teams at the Olympics," analyzes TTCAN's Director General Tony Kiesenhofer the team's performance in London. "We have a number of excellent young players with their sights set on 2016 who are determined to achieve a stronger showing in Rio."