‘China in North America’ Training Camp– a
fitting launch for TEAM 2024
After a
week of training in San Jose, U.S, the Chinese Junior table tennis team travelled
across three time-zone and arrived in Markham, Canada, on Oct.10.
The City of
Markham, Canada, is like a large ‘China town’ with lots of table tennis fans.
On Oct.27th, 2017, Women’s World Cup of Table Tennis will be held in
Markham. The Markham Pan Am Center, which is the venue of the Women’s World
Cup, is also the location of the training camp.
After a
short break, 27 members from Chinese table tennis team, the U.S team and the
team from west coast of Canada had a simple opening ceremony in the early
morning of Oct.12. On behalf of Table Tennis Canada, Tony Kiesenhofer, the CEO,
welcomed the Chinese team and received the sponsored equipment, at a value of C$30,000,
from Double Happiness (DHS). Meanwhile, Wei Liu, the captain of Chinese table
tennis team, kindly presented the flag of Chinese table tennis team as a gift.
The picture
features the participants in the Markham portion of the China in North America
Camp.
Coach Yang
Yu emphasized all the training regulations and started the first class of the
camp, which is a qualifying tournament.
After a
warm-up led by a member of the Chinese team, Kaiyuan Quan, a competitive
qualifying round began. The purpose of
having the qualifying tournament in the first class is to assess the level of
each member in order to better adjust or coordinate the entire training plan.
In the morning, there were 6 members from the Chinese team, who were the top
ranked after the match.
The training camp will go
from October 12 to 17 when the Chines delegation will return to China.
This camp is the start of a regular cooperation
with Chinese teams, and the official start of Table Tennis Canada’s Next
Generation program – TEAM 2024.