Catch Up: 2020 Chinese Junior National Championships

 

Kuai Man (left) and Lin Shidong (right) the 2020 Junior National Champion

A very belated update on the 2020 Chinese Junior Nationals and youth development program.

Since most media coverage would have been covering the Games during the Olympic year, it is usually not until the post-Olympic year that juniors begin to leave their mark into the spotlight while many veterans step out. Yet, with the pandemic hiatus the 2020 Chinese Junior Nationals comes into the scene with more attention than ever. 

The 5-event tournament (including team, singles and mixed doubles) was held from 1 to 9 December 2020 in Baise, Guangxi. Lin Shidong, the 2005-born Hainan native who made his name at the 2020 Mock Olympics, walked away with the boys' singles national title after winning 4-0 over Sun Zheng in the finals. Both have earned their spots in the National B Team by finishing top 2 in the singles event. Whereas the girls' singles national champion went to promising left-handed player Kuai Man who defeat Han Feier, also a left-handed player, with a 4-2 victory. Kuai Man also topped the mixed doubles podium partnering Xiang Peng who made his national senior debut at the 2017 Chinese National Games. Team Shanghai led by Sun Zheng took home the boys' team national champion and Guangdong anchored by Huang Yingqi won their first ever girls' team national champion.

Full results available here and checked the highlights here.
Highlights created with free AI technology on Betterplay.ai. Learn more about it in our previous article!

Speaking of juniors, the boom of talented teenage paddlers in Japan has prompted the reformation of the Chinese youth development program. In August 2020, CTTA launched the national cadet team and national novice team which invites young prospects aged 11-14 and 7-10 to attend regular nation-wide training camps held at least twice a year making sure that young talents can make easy transition to the next level. Each team would be comprised of 32 boys and 32 girls and coached by a team of well-recruited coaches which includes former national team members. We might see some of them making their first appearance at the 2021 Chinese National Games qualification meet commenced on 20 March 2021 in Chengdu, Sichuan.