When it comes to Liang Jingkun's love name, some people think of the cute "Liang Tiantian", and some people think of the domineering "giant killer".
Indeed, the main force of the national table tennis has a very strong contrast: the appearance is cute and thick, and the attack is domineering and brave. But revisiting his path of growth, it seems that it is more appropriate to describe him as "headwind king".
Because, he can always sink his heart to long-term silent refinement, and then find the opportunity and make a splash.
Low-key efforts, stunning four seats
Born in 1996, Liang Jingkun practiced table tennis since childhood and entered the provincial team training at the age of 11. However, in the provincial team, he is not the type with his own aura.
It is said that his coach was not optimistic about his development at one time, because he was a little fat since he was a child and did not meet the standard of "good seedlings". Moreover, his grades during the training camp are in the middle of the upper class and the less present type.
However, this undesirable child is still silently practicing rising the ball day after day. A year after entering the provincial team, he exploded, and Li Kezhong won the men's singles championship at the 2008 Hebei Youth Games. At that time, he was only 12 years old.
This time, the record shocked everyone and laid the groundwork for him to enter the national team later. Four years later, 16-year-old Liang Jingkun was officially called up to the national team, along with Fan Zhendong, Zhou Qihao, Liu Dingshuo and Xu Chenhao.
In the early days of joining the national team, Liang Jingkun also continued the rapid momentum, with impressive results:
Soon after joining the national team, he was crowned the new branch of the Asian Junior Table Tennis Championships, and won the team championship of the World Junior Table Tennis Championships in the same year; since then, he has successively picked out Zhang Jike, Ma Long and other national table tennis giants, and won tickets for himself to the Next Year's World Table Tennis Championships.
On the battlefield of the World Table Tennis Championships, he defeated 2 foreign players in succession until he was "revenge" by teammate Zhang Jike in the third round, and only stopped this journey.
After two years of silence, it finally broke out
However, after the World Table Tennis Championships folded, he began to fall into a long period of silence.
From mid-2015 to 2017, his results can only be found in one table tennis super runner-up and a fifth place in several national competitions, and unfortunately he did not get a ticket to the 2017 World Table Tennis Championships.
At that time, some of his friends around him had already played the first corner. And Liang Jingkun, who was at the intersection, chose to silently insist, looking for the next opportunity to transform.
Finally, after two years of silence and refinement, in 2018, he repeatedly achieved great results with stronger technology; a year later, he became a double champion and broke through himself at the World Table Tennis Championships to jump to the third place in the men's singles.
However, after the world table tennis championships became famous, he ushered in a new test.
Dive into the ball and transform gorgeously
The 2019 World Table Tennis Championships in Budapest is both an opportunity and a challenge for him. In this competition, although he made a breakthrough in results, he also began to receive attention from the outside world and understood a lot of public opinion pressure.
In the face of heavy accusations, he chose to close the wheat and continue to practice intently to make up for the shortcomings. At the same time, his psychological quality is also improving little by little.
The time of silently rising balls quickly passed, and in 2021, he transformed and upgraded again. At this time, Liang Jingkun has grown into an increasingly stable and powerful player who can prove himself.
In 2021, he was known as the "male table tennis labor model", and after the Olympic Games, he rotated on the various major competitions: first led the team to sprint at the National Games and won two third places; half a month later, he served as the iron blood of Shandong Weiqiao, defeated the "supernova boy group" Shandong Luneng in the finals of the Table Tennis Super League, and won the honor of MVP of the Table Tennis Super League.
This is not over, after a short break, he went to Slovenia with the members of the national table tennis team to participate in the WTT Challenge, steadily winning two consecutive championships; and then rushed to Houston, the United States, to participate in the world-renowned World Table Tennis Championships.
This time, he was divided into dangerous areas, half of which were full of foreign strong players, and the test was extremely severe. Fortunately, this time he did not miss any opportunity, defied the pressure all the way, until the semi-finals lost to teammate Fan Zhendong, once again won the third place trophy.
It can be said that 2021 is a powerful witness to his gorgeous transformation.
Shoulder the heavy responsibility and wait for the outbreak
Although in 2021, his sports career record book is star-studded, but there are still various difficulties in front of him:
How to deal with the sharpshooter seems to have become a major issue for him. At the National Games, he has always been inferior to the chipper Hou Yingchao, and it is difficult to win every time he encounters it.
At the same time, the momentum of the rising star is also getting stronger: at the 2022 WTT Macau Championship, 17-year-old Lin Shidong sent away the national table tennis "Seventh" Zhou Qihao in the first round, and almost picked down Lin Gaoyuan, who was ten years older than him; while 21-year-old Xu Yingbin broke out super cold and defeated Fan Zhendong.
At this time, it is only 2 years before the Paris Olympic Games.
Faced with the new situation, he quickly began a new round of precipitation.
However, I believe that this precipitation will be the prologue to the next stunning four seats. Because his life track is like his World Table Tennis Championships last year, there is always a chance to reverse repeatedly: he once fell behind 3-0, but he was able to bottom out and rebound and turn against the wind.
In an interview after the game, he admitted that he never thought he would lose when he fell behind 3-0. Because as long as you win one game, you have a chance to turn it back.
I believe that he can also seize the opportunity in the new cycle and continue to rise the ball. Two years later, at the Olympic Games, we can definitely see a more powerful "national table tennis main force Liang Jingkun".