By Henry Chen

“I hope to reach the semi-final round in next year’s World Championships.” Liang Jingkun said.

The 20 year old member of the Bazhou Team is currently delivering surprising performances in the 2016 Chinese Super League.

After 13 rounds of the competition thanks very much to the efforts of Liang Jingkun, Bazhou is in  strong position; they are title challengers. Notably, as the league resumed into the second half , the momentum increased.

Bazhou beat Jiangsu in the tenth round and achieved an amazing result against Bayi one round later. Liang Jingkun overcame Bayi’s team leader Fan Zhendong in a convincing manner (11-7, 12-10, 9-11, 13-11). He was the first player to defeat Fan Zhendong, who after ten rounds had remained unbeaten.

In that encounter, Liang Jingkun proved it was not impossible to beat Fan Zhendong is not entirely impossible; the win could have a positive impact on his confidence.

Interestingly, Liang Jinkun has the same goals with Fan Zhendong. After the 12th round of the competition, Liang Jingkun revealed that he is aiming to participate in the next year’s World Championships and hopes to reach the penultimate round.

Liang Jingkun participated in the Qoros 2015 World Championships in Suzhou, China.  He reached the third round where he was eliminated by his teammate, Zhang Jike (11-7, 7-11, 11-7, 11-7, 11-5).

Aside from the World Championships, Liang Jingkun also hopes to qualify for the biggest event of all, the Tokyo 2016 Olympic Games.

“I hope to qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games”, Liang Jinkun

Liang Jingkun currently stands in second place in the individual ranking with eighteen wins and five losses; this is after his defeat against the Olympic champion Ma Long in the 13th  round. Ma Long is now the leader in the men’s division.