2003 ITTF World Cadet Challenge in Malaysia

by Coach Lily Yip

The World Cadet Challenge was hosted in the beautiful city of Genting Highlands, Malaysia. This tournament is a great experience for all of our team members.

The tournament site was hosted on the highest mountain in Malaysia. The conditions were humid, the food was spicy, and after a few days the kids were opting to eat American Fast foods (such as McDonalds and Burger King).

I brought the US Team of Judy Hugh, Lani Lei, Misha Kasatnev and Adam Hugh to Malaysia via San Fransisco. Adam, Judy and myself flew from New Jersey and we met Lani and Misha in San Fransisco. Our flight took more than twenty hours. We left October 24, a Friday and arrived in Malaysia on October 26, a Sunday. We met the Canadian Team on October 27.

The coach for the Canadians was Attila Csaba. (a great person with a good sense of humor). The players were Fanni Csaba, Shirley Yan, Peter Chui and Aldrich Leung.

Coach Csaba and I worked very well together and decided that he would focus on the boys and I would focus on the girls. Of course during singles event we supported all, depending on who was available. We worked nonstop from 9am to 8pm.

We started practice and participated in a camp on the 27 and 28. There were eight teams represented at this Championship: North America, Asia, Europe, Oceania, Africa, Latin America, China and Malaysia. The players from six continents had to qualify. All of the players were the best of the best.

Michael Anderson from the ITTF conducted the training as he did in Canada in August.

All the coaches worked hard to support everyone during the training sessions. The practices included players from all participating continents except China. Obviously China being so much superior they did not practice with anyone but themselves. The tournament started on October 29.

All the coaches were in attendance at the jury meeting and all hoped that they would not be drawn against China to early in the competition. I believe that the draw was done fairly.

China is still the dominant team. The Chinese Team Manager stated that they could bring twenty teams of this level. It is very obvious that their system is very strong and we will have to work hard to catch up. Our boys and girls teams showed great fighting spirit and mental toughness when they faced all of these professional players. If we continue on our current path, I believe that we may well challenge China and Europe in the not so distant future.

ITTF World Junior Cadet Circuit 2003

October 29, 2003 to November 2, 2003

Team Final Results:

Boys Girls

First - China China

Second - Europe Europe

Third - Asia Asia

Fourth - North America Latin America

Fifth - Oceania North America

Sixth - Latin America Malaysia

Seventh - Africa Oceania

Eighth - Malaysia Africa

Doubles:

There were sixteen boys and girls doubles teams

Judy Hugh and Lani Lei finished fourth.

Fanni Csaba and Shirley Yan finished eighth.

Peter Chiu and Aldrich Leung finished sixth.

Adam and Misha finished ninth.

Singles:

There were thirty two boys and thirty two girls. They were split into eight groups of four players. The players were than seed into their final finished based on their order of finish in the round robin. A player finishing first in their round robin would then be playing for the 1 – 8 position and the player finishing second in the group would be playing for 9 to sixteen and so on.

Girls

Judy finished 11.

Lani finished 12.

Shirley finished 14.

Fanni finished 22.

Boys

Peter finished 10.

Adam finished 11.

Misha finished 15

Aldrich finished 26.

Special wins

Adam had wins over Jun Miztani from Japan and Li Kwun Ngai from Hong Kong.

Misha had a win over won of the Chinese team member Xu Ke.

Judy and Lani beat the European Doubles Team of Feher Gabriella and Pergel Szandra