Chinese National Team Coach Applicants Meet in Anshan

National Sports Bureau officials gathered in Anshan on 29 and 30 March to decide the Chinese national team coach arrangements. There were 22 applicants, including national team coach Liu Guoliang, Kong Linghui and Qin Zhijian. Applicants gave their speeches on their vision of the sport development, their strength and weaknesses and reviewed their coaching experience in the past quadrennium. 

Source: CTTA

The head coach of the Chinese National Team, Liu Guoliang expressed his gratitude to people who have supported the team and promoted the sport. He also explained the reasons for forming cross-nation doubles in the Worlds. He hope that this partnership can help promote the sport and build good relationship with other associations.

One of the highlights of the meeting is Olympic champion, Ma Lin and Wang Hao applied for being part of the national coaching team. Both of them mentioned that their achievements as an athlete are great but they are relatively inexperience in terms of coaching. Ma Lin has coached Team Guangdong after his retirement. Wang Hao has coached Team PLA since 2014 and led the team to win the title of the Chinese Super League in 2016. 

The following is the list of Chinese national team coach applicants. The employment contract of a national team coach is effective for 2 years.

There are Team A and Team B in both the men's and women's side. Team A is comprise of top players, like players played in the Marvellous 12. Team B includes young promising players for example the Junior World Team members Xu Yingbin and Shi Xunyao. Team B members will promote to Team A if they make the top 8 in the singles in the Nationals or they qualify to Team A in the Team A against Team B competition. On the other hand, unqualified Team A members will demote to Team B.

The Chinese National Team said the result would be announced on 1 April but because administrative approval from the National Sports Bureau takes time and it is Ching Ming holiday in China, so the announcement might be made later than expected. Follow the blog for updates of the national team coach arrangements. I will translate the report of the speeches of the national team coach made in the meeting!