by Ian Marshall, Editor

Very much the player in form is Tai Ming-Wei, he won the Junior Boys’ Singles title at the recently concluded El Salvador Junior and Cadet Open; for Feng Yi-Hsin and Li Hsin-Yang, they were on duty at the Asian Junior and Cadet Championships in Myanmar, staged at the same time as the ITTF World Junior Circuit event in the small South American country.

Neither excelled, neither disappointed; Feng Yi-Hsin reached the Junior Boys’ Singles quarter-final stage, losing to the eventual winner, China’s Xiang Peng. Li Hsin-Yang departed in the group phase, beaten perhaps somewhat surprisingly by Hong Kong’s Pau Yik Man. Notably, he is present in Chinese Taipei, he is the no.24 seed; a position that I would suggest belies his ability.

However, on this year’s ITTF World Junior Circuit, both Feng Yi-Hsin and Li Hsin-Yang have enjoyed success. Feng Yi-Hsin was the runner up in France, Li Hsin Yang won in Jordan.

Likewise, the next in line to the two notable Chinese Taipei names, Singapore’s Pang Yew En Koen has enjoyed international success this year. In June he travelled to the Cook Islands where not only did he win the ITTF World Junior Circuit Boys’ Singles event, he succeeded in the Road to Buenos Aires Youth Olympic Games – Oceania Qualification tournament.

A major challenge from Singapore to host nation aspirations; it is the same from Japan. Takeru Kashiwa, the runner up earlier this year in Slovakia is the no.4 seed, Aoto Asazu, a quarter-finalist in Sweden and Belgium is also on duty. He is the no.6 seed, one place ahead of Portugal’s Tiago Li and Iran’s Amirreza Abbasi, both players who this year who have reached the latter stages of ITTF World Junior Circuit Boys’ Singles events. Tiago Li was a quarter-finalist in Canada, Amirreza Abbasi, a semi-finalist in Tunisia.

Overall 61 players will compete in the Junior Boys’ Singles event in Chinese Taipei.