The Houston World Table Tennis Championships are about to start, and as the dream team of the world table tennis world, the national table tennis team is once again pinned on high hopes. In this competition, Liu Guoliang also sent a relatively young lineup, three veterans Ma Long, Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen did not participate, Fan Zhendong, Wang Chuqin, Liang Jingkun, Chen Meng, Sun Yingsha, Wang Manyu and other young players will shoulder heavy responsibilities. At the Tokyo Olympics, the young players of the national table tennis team have proved their strength, and this is another opportunity for them. Liu Guoliang also said that without Liu Shiwen, he also wanted to win the championship, and he gave Wang Manyu a task, expecting Wang Manyu to win the championship.
For a long time, the mixed doubles event was not valued in table tennis, until at the Tokyo Olympic Games, mixed doubles was listed as an official event, which was valued by the teams. Unfortunately, at the Tokyo Olympics, national table tennis players Liu Shiwen and Xu Xin lost to the Japanese combination of Ito Andomachi and Mizutani Hayabusa, rubbing shoulders with the gold medal and missing the opportunity to make history. Subsequently, Liu Shiwen withdrew from the team competition due to injury, and Chen Meng, Sun Yingsha and Wang Manyu joined forces to win the team gold medal for the national table tennis women's team.
The loss of mixed doubles is a pity for the national table tennis, and Liu Guoliang still attaches great importance to this project. At the Houston World Table Tennis Championships, the national table tennis did not send the combination of Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen to participate in the mixed doubles, but negotiated with the United States table tennis and arranged two multinational combinations of Lin Gaoyuan/ Zhang An, Kanak / Wang Manyu to compete in the mixed doubles. This is not the first time in the history of national table tennis, before that, Xu Xin had partnered with South Korea's Liang Xiayin to win the mixed doubles gold medal at the 2015 World Table Tennis Championships. Fang Bo also partnered with Germany's Solja to win the bronze medal in mixed doubles at the 2017 World Table Tennis Championships.
At the Tokyo Olympics, Wang Manyu replaced the injured Liu Shiwen in the team competition, and together with Chen Meng and Sun Yingsha, he completed the task of winning the championship. This time in the World Table Tennis Championships, Wang Manyu played in the mixed doubles competition, which can be seen as a replacement for Liu Shiwen. I have to say that the blood exchange of the national table tennis women's team has been completed, Ding Ning has left, and Liu Shiwen has also begun to make way for young players. From now on, Chen Meng, Sun Yingsha and Wang Manyu will become the three main players of the new generation of the national table tennis women's team, leading the national table tennis team to continue to move forward in the Paris Olympic cycle.
From Liu Guoliang's words, it is not difficult to hear that he is still very optimistic about the combination of Lin Gaoyuan, Wang Manyu and American players. Even if Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen did not come, he still believed that these two multinational pairs of national table tennis had the strength and ability to impact the championship. I hope that Lin Gaoyuan and Wang Manyu can have a good play and win the championship of the mixed doubles competition for the national table tennis!