Noumea, New Caledonia - In her quest to gain qualifying points for the
2014 Youth Olympic Games, Anqi Luo as the lone Canadian competed in New
Caledonia at a Road To Nanjing Series junior competition. The New
Caledonia Junior Open, part of the ITTF Global Junior Circuit, saw some
of the world's leading junior girls teams in the competition, among them
Korea and Taipei.
In the Junior Girls team
competition, Luo teamed up with Thailand's Tamolwan Khetkhuan. The
Thailand-Canada team faced little opposition in the qualifying rounds
defeating New Zealand and Australia by a score of 3-0.
The
semi-finals would be a different affair; after the two singles matches,
the score was 1-1; next up the doubles fixture. The Canadian - Thai
pair clicked in their first difficult match and defeated the Taipei
doubles of Kuo Chia-Yun and Lee Yu-Peng by a score of 3-0, taking a 2-1
lead. Taipei came back to even the score. At 2-2 Anqi Luo faced Taipei's
Kuo Chia-Yun. The Canadian got off to a bad start. Down 0-2 and 1-7 in
the third, Taipei seemed to have the match wrapped up. But the
never-say-die spirit of the young Canadian allowed her to get back into
the game and win game three 12-10. With renewed confidence Luo went into
the next two games, won and secured the team's victory.
In
the finals, The Thailand/Canada team faced Korea, another powerhouse on
the junior girls circuit. Buoyed by their semi-finals win, Luo
and Khetkhuan left the Koreans no chance and defeated the Koreans 3-0.
"The
girls showed great spirit and had an excellent performance here in
Noumea," commented Canadian women's team coach Junya Chen. "This is the
first gold for Anqi Luo on the international circuit. The training in
Zhending, China leading up to this competition has certainly paid off.
Now on to the individual competitions."
Anqi
Luo will return to Canada for the ITTF North America Championships at
Capilano University (August 25-27) and the Canadian Junior Open
Championships, another Road To Nanjing series event (August 29 -
September 1) at the same venue.