by Simon Daish

With the 2017 ITTF Oceania Junior Championships and 2017 ITTF Oceania Cup both set to take place in April, and with the 2017 ITTF Oceania Regional Para Championships to be hosted in Suva there is plenty to look forward to for the island nation’s table tennis set up.

Mao Bo of China, who has been training the Fijian squad members over the past week said that he is impressed with the progress made by the country’s players over a relatively short time period.

“I am happy with the development in Fiji, Fiji has a lot of talent and I am happy to help and guide them in their training sessions. The players are improving very quickly and learning it fast.” – Mao Bo.

Sally Yee pulled off a landmark achievement in 2016 by becoming the youngest Table Tennis player to qualify for Rio 2016 aged 15 representing Fiji in the Women’s Singles event. Coach Mao Bo is well aware of Sally Yee’s potential and believes that Fiji could be in line for strong representation at the next Olympic Games to be hosted in Tokyo, Japan in 2020.

“Before, the players were a bit slow and now they are starting to get where we want them to be. I trained Sally and she qualified for the Olympic Games in Rio, Brazil last year. I am going to put in more training for her and other players. The players should do well in the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020 through the adopted training programs.” – Mao Bo.