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Filip Ilijevski and Isabelle Xiong are the 2016 Canadian Table Tennis Champions
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Winnipeg, Manitoba July 10th 2016 - This conclude this 2016 edition of the Butterfly Canadian Championships. The University of Winnipeg in Manitoba has seen some spectacular Table Tennis over the last six days. A huge thank you to all the volunteers as well as the organizers created that create a state of the art playing field for the athletes to compete in.
Filip Ilijevski from Ontario came to Championships as the defending champion in the Men's U21 event and the Silver Medalist from the Men's Single event in 2015. He not just defended his title in the U21 category, but also added a gold medal in the Team event and a Silver Medal in the Men's Double event.
Isabelle Xiong from British Columbia was able to defeat the #1 seeded player from Québec, Alicia Côté in the Semi Finals of the Women's event. That definitely gave her big boost to for the final against her provincial Team mate Ivy Liao. Just minutes before the final, both Athletes competed in the U21 Women's Single final where they went into the 7th set where Ivy was able to keep a 2 points difference to secure the 2016 title.
A big surprise came from the Women's Double competition, where 13 year old Sophie Gauthier and 18 year old Sidonie Barey from Québec, won the gold medal.
We asked the two Athletes if they expect to win the Double event, what the title meant to them and how they are able to explain their amazing journey to win the Gold Medal.
Sophie and Sidonie were more than excited, “We did absolutely not expect to win. We knew that we can make one or two rounds maybe and reaching the semi finals was already amazing. Getting even further makes us so very proud. We realized that it is very important to have a good relationship with your partner and having a good team spirit. We played point by point without having a goal in mind and tactical tried to not panic when we had a tight game."
Best players of the 2016 Butterfly Canadian Championships
Ivy Liao, British Columbia - Gold Medal in Women's U21, Silver Medal in Women's Single
Isabelle Xiong, British Columbia – Gold Medal in Women's Single, Silver Medial in Women's U21, Silver Medale in Women's Doubles, Bronze Medal Women's Team
Jeremy Hazin, Ontario - Gold Medal Men's Double, 2 Silver Medals Men's Single and Men's U21, Gold Medal Men's Team
Filip Ilijevski, Ontario - Gold Medal Men's Single and Men’s U21, Silver Medal Men’s Double, Gold Medal Men's Team
For results click here.