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| Photo: Osports |
Thanks To The Table Tennis Fanatic Father
Lin Gaoyuan started playing table tennis when he was 3. His father put a table tennis table in the living room so that the young Lin Gaoyuan could practice table tennis at any time and brought Lin Gaoyuan to train under good coaches in different cities. With a supportive father and years of hard work, Lin Gaoyuan entered the Guangdong provincial team in 2004 at the age of 9 and made to the national team in 2009. The left-handed shakehander made his way up pretty quickly and was assigned to compete in 2009 World Junior Table Tennis Championships.
From WJTTC to WTTC
As mentioned above, 2017 World Championships is Lin Gaoyuan's first Worlds. However he is not new to the (Junior) Worlds (of course the Junior Worlds' level is not comparable to the Worlds). He participated in the Junior World Championships from 2009 to 2012 and took home many medals including gold in each year's boy's team, 2012 boy's doubles title and settling for silver for three consecutive times in boy's singles in 2010-2012. In 2012, Lin Gaoyuan proceeded to the A team but left uncoached because of the Olympic year. Soon in 2013 he was sent back to the B team because of a mediocre performance in the inter-team A and B competition. Despite the demotion he did not give up. Instead he worked hard and gained his spot in Team A later that year. In the past years, national coaches commented Lin Gaoyuan is a hard-working athlete. He posed threats to many top players in the team but winning matches from them was a difficult task for him either. After the silence of all these years, Lin Gaoyuan emerges in Marvellous 12, 2017 Chinese Trials for WTTC and becomes the no.5 player in the team. We will wait and see his performance in the men's singles in the upcoming World Championships in Dusseldorf.
National Competitions
To Lin Gaoyuan 2013 a year of roller coaster. The down side is moving in and out of team A, while the upside is the great performance in the national competition. In 2013 Chinese National Games, he surprisingly beat Wang Hao in the men's team quarterfinals. Although in the quaterfinals, team Guangdong, which Lin Gaoyuan represented, did not win team PLA, which was that year's men's team champion. Winning Wang Hao was a confidence boost to Lin Gaoyuan.
The 2013 Chinese Table Tennis Super League (CTTSL) was held right after the National Games. With Joo Sae Hyuk, Ma Long and Yan An in team Ningbo, Lin Gaoyuan played in doubles for most of the time. But it was still great to play with a team of top players and a marvellous start to win the CTTSL champion with the team in his first CTTSL. Watch the match below which he paired up with Yan An and won this important point to secure the champion!
2013 CTTSL (Final) Yan An / Lin Gaoyuan - Wang Liqin / Shang Kun
In 2016 Chinese National Championships, he won his first individual national champion in mixed doubles with Liu Shiwen, which is Guangdong's first mixed doubles champion in 40 years of time. (His first national champion is the 2010 men's team champion with Ma Lin and Zhang Chao anchoring the team)
Ma Long/Ding Ning vs Lin Gaoyuan/Liu Shiwen -- 2016 Chinese Nationals Mixed Doubles Final
The Dark Horse in the Marvellous 12
Lin Gaoyuan did not emerge all of a sudden. He played a pretty good match against Xu Xin in 2016 Warm Up matches for Rio Olympics. Back then, his rallies and forehand might not be consistent enough for him to beat Xu Xin but his backhand flip was quite threatening and he was agile.
2016 China Warm-up matches for Rio Olympics: XU Xin - LIN Gaoyuan
In the internal competition held in early February 2017, Lin Gaoyuan ranked no.9 among 14 players and missed the 8 qualification spots by a margin. He joined the Marvellous 12 with the wild card given by the coaching team and he almost clinched the ticket to the Worlds in the first stage but Fan Zhendong took the ticket before him. Fortunately Lin Gaoyuan had a very clear mind and executed the strategy perfectly in the second stage. He did not give away the second 'second chance' and grabbed the opportunity this time.
Marvellous 12 (2017 China Trials for WTTC) Stage 2: LIN Gaoyuan Vs XU Xin
The chief-coach of the Chinese men's team, Qin Zhijian said Lin Gaoyuan's mission in 2017 WTTC is to stir up the competition. There are no pressure and demand on him. No pressure from the coaching team does not mean that the World Championships is not important to Lin Gaoyuan. Dusseldorf is not only a stage for Lin Gaoyuan to introduce himself to the international scene, it is also his last chance to qualify to the 13th Chinese National Games men's singles final (he needs to medal in WTTC in order to qualify for the Games as he was eliminated in the prelims). Reports mentioned that Lin Gaoyuan has improved a lot in the close-door training recently. We will know whether the training is effective in the Worlds.
Sorry for missing last week's Throwback Thursday. It is exam period and I am struggling with my assignments. So please forgive my late updates. I will try to work more efficiently and make sure I can make the updates on time. Stay tuned for next week's Throwback Thursday. Comment below and let me know what else you would like to read from this blog!
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