by Henry Chen 

“Rest assured that we will not idle.” Liu Guoliang

That’s what the head coach of the Chinese Team has to say in reference to the rising threat of the Japanese Team against them.

Japan has successfully positioned themselves as a strong contender against the domination of the Chinese Team since the London 2012 Olympic Games in table tennis.

Four years later in Rio, the world saw a big improvement from Japan following Jun Mizutani’s performance in both Singles and Team competitions.

We are now in a new Olympic cycle and the Japanese Team is still on the rise. This week in Cape Town, Japan has once again made an impact in the international scene.

The Japanese team won both the title in the Junior Boys’ and Junior Girls’ Team events in the Sun International 2016 World Junior Table Tennis Championships.

The head coach of the Chinese Women’s Team, Kong Linghui believes that there is no reason for them to be afraid in battling against Japan because they still have the most solid overall strength.

However, the coach can not deny the existence of threat.

“But there is a strong sense of threat. We will be training our young athletes in the women’s team for the Tokyo Olympic cycle. We need to give them opportunity to compete and to exercise. I hope that more young players would emerge and participate in the competition for the Olympic Games.” Kong Linghui

Since the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, China has been successful in defending their titles. They have imposed full authority and secured all the gold medals available in the competition. For Kong Linghui, the upcoming Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020 could be their most difficult quadrennial Games yet.

“The Japanese Team possesses the right advantages in the Tokyo Olympic Games. Their players Miu Hirano and Mima Ito are also at their peak. It can be said that the degree of difficulty in defending the title in the Tokyo Olympic Games is bigger than ever before for the Chinese Team.” Kong Linghui