According to the latest news from the World Table Tennis Federation, the annual WTT World Finals will officially start on November 20, 2024, in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, which is also the hometown of Japanese star Hina Hayata.
Judging from the recent world competitions, although the strength of foreign players is increasing, for the Chinese table tennis team, the biggest opponent is still the Japanese team, especially the rise of the Zhang Ben brothers and sisters, which has made the national table tennis have seen a sense of crisis.
And the Fukuoka finals are not only in Japan's home stadium, but also in Hina's hometown of Hayata, Japanese players will inevitably be elite and in full condition, in the case of taking advantage of the time and place, the Japanese Table Tennis Association will definitely want to snatch a gold medal from the mouth of the Chinese team!
After the International Table Tennis Federation announced that the WTT Finals would be held in Fukuoka, Japan, the mayor of Kitakyushu City and Fukuoka officials expressed their hope that fans from all over the world would come to Fukuoka, and the people of Fukuoka would extend a warm welcome to fans from all over the world.
This time, Japan's Fukuoka won the right to host all the WTT finals in one fell swoop, and took the initiative to increase the "thickness" of the prize pool, which is enough to see that Japan attaches great importance to the sport of table tennis.
As the fourth largest table tennis event after the Olympic Games, the World Table Tennis Championships, and the World Cup, the prize pool of the WTT Finals is relatively high, and there are also high points.
But for national table tennis players, this WTT Fukuoka Finals is a big test.
Time back to the 2023 WTT Women's Finals in Nagoya, Japan, although the Chinese players won the women's singles and women's doubles championships in this competition, it was December, and the minimum temperature in Nagoya, Japan had reached below 0°, but the former Takeda Teva Ocean Stadium in Nagoya, Japan, did not even have air conditioning, and Sun Yingsha, Wang Yidi and others could only jog and raise their legs to warm up.
On the other hand, the Japanese players, because they are fighting at home, are more prepared, and each has a "little sun" to warm up, which is really despicable.
Fortunately, the temperature in Fukuoka, Japan in November is about 10 °, not as cold as Nagoya last year, and the Chinese table tennis delegation must have learned the lessons of that year, and will prepare heating equipment in advance.
Although Japan has been proud of "defeating the Chinese team" in recent years, once a Japanese player defeats a Chinese player in a certain game, Japanese fans are like the New Year, but in general, the gap between Japanese women's table tennis and Chinese women's table tennis is still very large.
Take the current national table tennis women's team as an example, Sun Yingsha has completed 14 consecutive victories against Hina Hayata, Chen Meng has also "abused" all the Japanese women's table tennis, and Wang Manyu has never lost to the Japanese team since her debut.
To put it simply, in the next 5 years, unless the Japanese team has a "genius", it will be almost impossible for the Japanese team to surpass the Chinese team.
At the end of the article, I would like to remind the Chinese team members that the current Japan is no longer the Japan of the past, especially in terms of food, we must be more careful, and I would like to call on the head coach of the women's team, Ma Lin, "Chef Ma", to take care of the women's team members, and at critical moments, it is not impossible to bring cooking utensils to cook by yourself.