Hungary Open for Québec’s Vida Sieu and Wenbin Zhang

Two of our Canadian National Team Athletes decided to compete at the 2017 Hungarian Open in Budapest. A great experience for every Athlete. Prior to the tournament, they visited our Canadian Athletes Mo Zhang and Matthew Lehmann and practiced with them at the Linz AG Froschberg Training Centre in Austria. 

Vida Sieu had not been to a training camp overseas yet, so it was a very nice experience for her, "I decided that now that I have some free time and I am not busy with school, I thought it would be nice to give it a try and experience it.” She practiced 6 days in Linz prior to the Tournament, then 5 days at the tournament in Budapest. 

"The reason why I decided to do this is because in Cegep, which is similar to community college and only exists in Quebec, we get an entire month off. I figured that there was no better way to spend my holiday vacations than training and playing table tennis since after this month, there will be multiple important tournaments taking place such as provincials, the Canada series and ultimately nationals.” 



"The training was very fun as it was intense and we had very strong training partners. It was nice to see how professionals trained and we got the opportunity to practice alongside them. During the week, there is the morning practice and then an afternoon practice 3 hours later. Then, everyone had the weekends off but the training hall was still open for those who wished to practice." 



Her goal for 2017 is to reach the podium at the Québec Provincial Championships. All the best to you Vida!

Wenbin Zhang was the second Canadian National Team Athlete that made the trip to Europe. "I’ve always fancied visiting Europe and practicing here, and i’ve always loved to travel. These are few of the reasons that I decided to come here in addition to my love for this sport and the drive to gain as much experience in table tennis as I can." 



It makes a huge difference playing in big tournaments like the Hungarian Open. I wanted to see the  level of world class players and again, to gain valuable experience as an athlete. 

An intense training in Linz happened for both Athletes, "We had trainings in the morning and in the afternoon, and some days we also had physical training with a fitness coach. The training in Austria was challenging, but not to the point of exhaustion, and the players here were all very strong; therefore, I am quite happy with the training I received in Austria.  

"My personal goal for 2017 is to finish in the top 8 at the Quebec senior provincials, as I was not able to participate last year due to a shoulder injury. Other than that, my goal is to do the best I can throughout the year by training hard and enjoying table tennis as much as I can.” 

All the best to you Wenbin!!!