North American Teams Championships - Concord Girls
December 5, 2007

Nancy Zhou, Kailyn Kong, and Marisa Chow
Photo Courtesy of Gerry Chua Photography

Courtesy of the Concord Girls (Nancy Zhou, Kailyn Kong, and Marisa Chow)

Imagine flying across North America for a table-tennis tournament. And not any tournament, but the North American Teams Championships, a tournament proclaimed as the largest in the world. This is what our team, the Concord Girls (Nancy Zhou, Kailyn Kong, and Marisa Chow), did on Thanksgiving weekend.

After flying to Baltimore and getting situated in our hotel rooms, we walked over to the Convention Center using the skywalk connecting the Hyatt and the Center. The hall was huge, holding 145 tables lined up in rows, many of them already being played on. It was exciting to see so many players in the same place—238 teams of all ages, races, backgrounds, and skill levels entered and played in 15 divisions.

Photo Courtesy of Gerry Chua Photography

Over the next three days, we played ten team ties: three on Friday for the preliminaries to determine the division assignment for each team; four on Saturday—we finished at 9:15 pm (!); and finally three on Sunday. The draw sheet layout was slightly different than what we were used to, but we quickly adapted. We played teams from both the US and Canada throughout the tournament. Some preferred topspin, while others preferred backspin; some liked to stay at the table, while others backed up; some had rubber with pips, while others had inverted rubber. It was a fun and exciting experience to play different styles we weren’t used to playing.

Photo Courtesy of Gerry Chua Photography

After playing our final rounds on Sunday, we watched with amazement some of the semifinals and finals. The finals between the all women team, East China University 1 (the same team which beat Canada 1 in the semis), and the all male team Canada 2 were breathtaking and tense, and the speed and fluidity they played with was astounding.

This tournament has been an amazing first experience for us. We really enjoyed the opportunity to play with people from other states and countries with different styles and rubber. We also had the opportunity to watch some of the best players in the world play. The North American Teams Championships was definitely a worthwhile experience for us.