The 2024 National Youth Team Exchange Trials ended in Huangshi, Hubei Province and Zhengding, Hebei Province, and after fierce competition, a total of 26 rookies were selected for the National Youth Team, injecting fresh blood into the Chinese table tennis team. It is understood that the youngest player selected for the national youth team is only 14 years old, and the oldest is only 19 years old.
According to the "Table Tennis World" report, a total of 345 people participated in the national youth team exchange trials, of which 319 were eliminated and 26 successfully broke through, with an astonishing 92.5% elimination rate! It is not an exaggeration to describe the national table tennis exchange trials with "thousands of troops crossing the single-plank bridge".
Although the national table tennis team is still the hegemon of the world table tennis arena, the overall situation is not optimistic! In the team competition of the just-concluded World Table Tennis Championships in Busan, although the men's and women's national table tennis teams successfully completed the tasks assigned by the coaching staff, they all encountered difficulties of varying degrees.
More importantly, the fault line between the national table tennis men's team and the women's team is very obvious, especially the national table tennis men's team! There is no doubt that the successful selection of 26 rookies into the national youth team will greatly alleviate the problem of insufficient reserve talents in national table tennis and improve the echelon construction.
It is worth mentioning that the echelon construction of the Korean Table Tennis Association has also achieved good results, and the just-concluded WTT feeder tournament Otosek Station, the Korean Table Tennis Association successfully won 4 individual championships and performed strongly.