The national table tennis did not score anything in the singles event of the Asian Table Tennis Championships, which undoubtedly made the majority of fans deeply worried about the training of reserve talents in the national table tennis. At the 2024 National Table Tennis Championships, Huang Youzheng won the men's singles championship and Liu Weishan won the women's singles championship. But such a result can hardly really make fans full of hope for the future of national table tennis.
Huang Youzheng and Liu Weishan won the championship in singles, which can at least prove the following:
First of all, the singles level of this year's National Championships is limited, and it can even be said that rookies peck each other.
On the one hand, many of the main players of national table tennis withdrew, which greatly reduced the overall competition intensity of the game. The absence of top players such as Ma Long, Fan Zhendong, and Chen Meng undoubtedly greatly reduced the excitement and technical content of the game. On the other hand, there is a certain overlap between the time of the Asian Table Tennis Championships, and many good players were sent to participate in the Asian Table Tennis Championships and missed the singles competition of the National Championships. It's like there is no tiger in the mountains, the monkey is the king, and it is reasonable for the second-tier players to win the championship in the end.
However, from a technical point of view, there is still a big gap between Huang Youzheng and Liu Weishan and the main players of national table tennis in terms of comprehensiveness, stability and psychological quality at critical moments.
Huang Youzheng, who was born in 2005 like Lin Shidong, has failed to show dominance in WTT junior events, and his results in WTT feeder tournaments are mediocre, and he is currently ranked only 119th in the world. This ranking is enough to show that his competitiveness on the international stage is quite limited.
25-year-old Liu Weishan is already considered an older player among second-tier players. Her form has fluctuated greatly, and in the past Olympic cycles in Tokyo and Paris, her performance has been tepid, and even gives people a feeling of being too "Buddhist". However, in the recent WTT China Grand Slam, she first defeated Qian Tianyi, and then broke into the top 16 of women's singles; Immediately after winning the women's singles championship of the National Championships, it seems that there is a momentum of accumulation, but after all, age does not have an advantage, and I am afraid that the opportunity to participate in the competition in the future is also limited.
Secondly, it once again proved that the national table tennis women's team did not play well against the chipping ball.
The women's singles runner-up was 21-year-old chipper Yang Yiyun, who played well on the international stage, but did not have a good record against Japan at multiple WTT events after the Paris Olympics. For example, at the WTT feeder Olomouc station, Japan chipper Hashimoto Honoka won the championship "one string of four", and the women's singles final was a 3-0 victory over Yang Yiyun. At the WTT feeder Muscat station, Japan's Sakura Yokoi also won the championship in a "string of four", and the women's singles final was also a 3-0 victory over Yang Yiyun.
However, it is difficult for the second-tier players of national table tennis to break through Yang Yiyun, this is still a familiar teammate, and it is even more difficult to face the chippers of foreign associations.
The national table tennis women's team has nothing to do at the Asian Championships, and there is no suitable candidate who can be the main force at the moment, and Kuo Man and Shi Xunyao seem to be difficult to shoulder the heavy responsibility. Zhang Benmeihe and Jin Qinying witnessed the lack of reserve talents of the national table tennis women's team, and they will definitely be more confident when they play against the national table tennis players in the future. After all, in the Asian Championships, they have successfully broken through many main national table tennis players such as Sun Yingsha and Wang Yidi, so it is naturally easy to win other second-tier national table tennis players.
Finally, the dilemma of the lack of top players in national table tennis has been quite obvious.
The national table tennis women's team still has Sun Yingsha and Wang Manyu to suppress the lineup, and may not face much difficulty in the Los Angeles Olympic cycle, but the third choice has not yet appeared a suitable choice. Liang Jingkun and Lin Gaoyuan in the national table tennis men's team do not have the ability that the main force should have, and Wang Chuqin is more suitable to serve as the second men's singles. At this stage, there are no players with such dominance as Ma Long and Fan Zhendong, Lin Shidong has a chance, but the loss to Zhang Benzhihe in the men's singles final of the Asian Table Tennis Championships has cast a shadow on his growth path, and it depends on whether he can "break out of the cocoon and become a butterfly".