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World Junior Championships
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After a somewhat disappointing start in the team matches, the Canadian Junior Boys team fared better in the individual competition. Three of the four team members advanced to the Round of 64; while Pierre-Luc Theriault was expected to win his preliminary rounds, Jimmy Pintea and Louis Wong each needed upset wins. For all three Canadians the singles competition ended there.
Pierre-Luc Theriault finished the Singles matches with 7 wins and 2 losses - a respectable record.
Echoes of Chile 2003?
In 2003, two Canadian boys turned heads at the table tennis world junior championships by defeating China and Germany to reach the podium and win a bronze medal.
Pierre-Luc Theriault, partnering with Louis Wong, wanted to repeat the 2003 Canadian success. It was Germany's top pair again, when only 32 doubles pairs were left standing. Right from the start, the Canadians were in control eliminating the Germans from the competition by a score of 3-1 (11-5,12-10,3-11,11-6).
As in Chile, the Canadian pair also drew China. However, the outcome would be different than in 2003. The Chinese pair of Song Hongyuan and Zheng Peifeng (gold medallist in the team competition) defeated the Canadians by a score of 3-0. "The match was closer than the score," explained Coach Yongjun Duan from Bahrain. "We had a chance in both the first and the third game; we lost them both by the narrowest of margin. Some of our performances here showed that we can compete with the best; the boys need to gain more competition experience and this cannot happen at the World Championships."