Since entering 2022, the dynamics of Lin Yunru, a fierce rival of national table tennis and a 20-year-old talent in Chinese Taipei, have attracted everyone's attention. On the one hand, he hired 59-year-old former Olympic champion Wei Qingguang (now known as Wei Guan Qingguang) as his coach; on the other hand, he abruptly withdrew from the upcoming WTT Oman Tournament at the end of February, giving up competition with many world champions in national table tennis.
On February 11, the well-known Japanese table tennis magazine "Zhuoqiu Kingdom" reported that Wei Qingguang had appeared in Germany to officially participate in the training of Lin Yunru, and some old fans were also curious: Can the former Olympic champion help the recently depressed juniors out of the predicament?
Born in 1962, Wei Qingguang was one of the first two athletes to win the Olympic championship in the history of the national table tennis men's team - in 1988, he and Chen Longcan won the gold medal in the men's doubles competition of the Seoul Olympic Games, creating a new history of Chinese table tennis and becoming a figure praised by fans and friends.
After retiring from the army, Wei Qingguang chose to go to Japan to develop, and later stayed in the local area, both to participate in the competition himself and to coach and train new talents. It is precisely because of such a rich experience that he often becomes an expert in the Japanese media consulting table tennis content, and it is not surprising that he was invited by Lin Yunru to be a coach this time.
As for Lin Yunru's words, young fans are very familiar with it, as an athlete who has won the World Cup singles and Olympic mixed doubles bronze medals, his state in the second half of last year is not ideal, especially the Houston World Table Tennis Championships upset loss to South Korea's Lin Zhongxun is even more surprising, and at the end of the year, it did not pose any threat to Wang Chuqin, and he was swept away, which is indeed not in good shape.
And before that, Lin Yunru's coach came from Shandong Province, but later resigned for personal reasons, so he now urgently needs to find a new coach, and Wei Qingguang, who has outstanding achievements in the athlete period and has achieved great success after retiring, has become a good candidate.
Although Lin Yunru joined the Russian league in Europe, one of his training bases is in Germany, so he temporarily trains locally. As for whether his withdrawal from WTT Oman is due to a conflict with the league arrangement, we do not know, but even if he does not participate in the game at the end of February, Lin Yunru is likely to compete for the WTT Grand Slam title in March, which will be more interesting.
It is reported that the athletes who may participate in the training with Lin Yunru are also Brazilian star Hugo (ranked No. 3 in the world), Simon of France (who eliminated Xu Xin in the World Table Tennis Championships), American rising star Kanek and others, so Lin Yunru is still in a very good environment, and then it depends on whether Wei Qingguang can give his disciples clever guidance.
So are you optimistic about Wei Qingguang's coaching? Welcome to leave a message to talk about your impressions of the former Olympic champion!