Entering 2024, the task of national table tennis is very heavy. In addition to the upcoming World Cup in Macau, there is also the Saudi Grand Slam tournament and the Paris Olympics in July, so for the Chinese team, the task and pressure of this year are very heavy.
At the same time, it is not easy for the coaching staff to achieve good results in these tournaments. After all, judging from the performance of the competition in recent years, in addition to the good results of the Chinese team, players like Japan, South Korea and even Europe and the United States have gradually become stronger, such as Japan's Tomokazu Zhang and his sister Miwa Zhangmoto, as well as Hina Hayada and others have performed strongly, and Tian Zhixi and Shin Yubin of the Korean team are also very brave. On the other hand, the Lebrun brothers have been in great form lately and will be home field advantage in the next Olympics.
Therefore, if the Chinese team wants to face these world masters, it can be said that it is difficult and stressful to get good results. Moreover, it is understood that in recent years, the youth training of the Japanese and South Korean national teams has been very good, and it is bound to cause more and more challenges to our national team in the future. In such a situation, if the national table tennis wants to continue to achieve brilliant results and continue to dominate the entire world table tennis arena in the future, it is definitely not enough to rely on these main players, and it is necessary to cultivate more reserve forces to help the national table tennis continue its glory.
So just recently, according to official media reports, the national table tennis arranged an important selection competition. According to reports, from the end of March to April 4, 2024, the national youth team exchange trials ended successfully in Huangshi, this time a total of 345 players participated in the competition, and in the end, only 26 people were selected for the national table tennis youth team, and the remaining 319 people were eliminated. It can be seen from such a promotion and elimination list that the pass rate of the national table tennis selection of talents this time is only 7%, which can be said to be very cruel. It can be seen from this that there are a lot of participants but not many people stay, and the coaching staff is very strict about these talents.
It is understood that the 26 people selected this time are divided into five age groups, from 05 to 06, 07 to 10, and the youngest player is 10. This means that in terms of age, the youngest players in the national youth team are only twelve or thirteen years old, and they will spend the first ten years in the national team, with plenty of time for the coaching staff to develop.
In this way, while Japan and South Korea are desperately catching up, we are not idle, and fans can rest assured. Obviously, the national table tennis has realized the seriousness of the crisis and realized the seriousness of the matter, so it has accelerated the pace of youth training in recent years and selected outstanding talents from all over the country for training, which has been done very well. Of course, if these young players want to grow into talents in the future, in addition to the training of the national table tennis coaching staff, these players themselves have to be a little more competitive and dare to fight hard in order to be famous in the future.
At the same time, I hope that the national table tennis coaching staff will give these young children more opportunities to fight abroad in foreign competitions in the future, so that they can grow up and become very powerful players like Tomokazu Zhangmoto.