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Hong Kong’s Lee Ka Yee emerged as the most successful player at the ITTF Hopes Challenge, which concluded on Sunday 16th June 2013 at the Werner Schlager Academy in Schwechat on the outskirts of the Austrian capital city of Vienna.
The winner of the Team event in partnership with Chu Hoi Yuen, she added to her collection of gold by securing the top prize in the Girls’ Singles event on the final day of play.
Furthermore she won with a degree of ease and clearly she had learned from the experiences of the previous day
Surrendered Only One Game
On the concluding day of play, she surrendered just one individual game; that being the very first game of the day’s itinerary when facing Montenegro’s Ivona Petric.
However, she recovered quickly from the reverse to secure a four games success (11-13, 12-10, 11-9, 11-8).
A hard fought quarter-final success but from that moment onwards she went from strength to strength.
Different Scenario One Day Later
At the semi-final stage she ousted Hungary’s Marta Nagypal in three straight games (11-6, 11-2, 12-10), before handing out the same punishment when opposing Crystal Wang of the United States in the final.
One day earlier when facing the American, Lee Ka Yee had recovered from a two games to one deficit to overcome Crystal Wang by the very narrowest of margins in the decisive fifth game.
Homework Completed
In the Girls’ Singles final life was much less fraught. Lee Ka Yee posted a straight games success (11-5, 11-4, 11-7; the homework had been studied to perfection.
Impressive Performances
An impressive performance by Lee Ka Yee and at both the quarter and semi-final stages it had been the same from Crystal Wang. In the round of the last eight, she beat Malaysia’s Loh Qiao Ni in four games (12-14, 11-6, 11-4, 11-1), before accounting for Thailand’s Nanpat Kola in the penultimate round (11-9, 11-5, 11-6).
Gold for Thailand
Success for Hong Kong in the Girls’ Singles event; in the counterpart Boys’ Singles competition it was success for Thailand.
Yanapong Panagitgun emerged as the champion, hitting top form on the concluding day of play to arrest the title without being stretched the full five games distance.
He accounted for Austria’s Maciej Kolodziejczyk (11-4, 7-11, 11-4, 11-1), before overcoming Brazil’s Rafael Torino in the quarter-finals (9-11, 11-5, 11-3, 12-10) and Hong Kong’s Chu Hoi Yuen in the semi-finals (11-9, 11-8, 11-6) to book his place in the gold medal contest.
Silver for Swede
Good form en route to the final, in the final that good form was maintained; he beat Sweden’s Truls Moregard in four games to clinch the title (11-7, 11-9, 7-11, 11-9).
En route the final on the ultimate day of play, Truls Moregard had beaten Dorian Zheng of France (14-12, 11-7, 11-7, New Zealand’s Zhao Yang Lun (11-3,8-11, 11-4, 11-9) and Singapore’s Chua Sho Han Josh (11-2, 11-5, 11-9).
Great News
"It is great news for the ITTF Hopes Programme that a player from Thailand eventually won the competition; I know that the Thai associations is really trying hard to implement some of the ideas that we discussed two years ago when I visited Thailand for a course held on how to build the National Hopes Programme", said Dejan Papic,
"You see this is a good outcome", said Dejan Papic, the ITTF Chief Evaluator of the Hopes Programme. "Not only were both Thai players here good, they were also well prepared arriving from extra preparation done at home prior to the challenge week; I give credit to both the Thai association for listening to us and to the delegation here for executing well."
Team Announcement
The final composition of the ITTF World Hopes Team will be announced later this week; approximately 12 players will have the opportunity to from all the six continents will receive the opportunity to go to New Jersey, U.S.A. from Sunday 4th to Monday 19th August 2013.
Automatically the four players who reached the final at the ITTF Hopes Challenge are included automatically.
Article By: Ian Marshall
Photo By: Courtesy of Werner Schlager Academy
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