The Chinese Boys Prevail Again
December 12, 2007

Boys Team Finals:
1st Place: China, 2nd Place: Korea, 3rd Place: Japan & France

Courtesy of ITTF

It was a hard piece of work for the boys from the table tennis umpire number one before Song Shichao could celebrate the victory over Korea. The final of the Boys’ Team event was an equal affair but the team match turned in favor of China when Xu Ruifeng overcame Korea’s Jung Sang Eun.

The seventeen year old Korean was still unbeaten in Palo Alto and also overcame Song Shichao in the first match of the Boys’ Team final.

Each Rally a Thriller
The final was a very emotional affair and especially in the end of the third match between Korea’s Seo Hyun Deok and the fourteen year old Yan An each rally was a thriller.

They demonstrated Asian table tennis art on a high level with many long and spectacular rallies.

Self-Confidence
The boys from China deserve to be World Champions because they always showed their best skills in the most difficult situations. Thanks to this ability, they kept the upper hand against France in the semi-final and against Korea in the final.

“We have very young players”, China’s coach Yi Li said about his team with an average of fifteen years. “Here they get experience to handle difficult situations during such matches."

Song Shichao, who lost his first match but finally won the crucial fifth match, went through a transition during the final. “In my first match I was nervous but my coaches told me to believe in myself.” A useful tip indeed because self-confidence is imperative for a good performance in table tennis.

Raised Tempers on the Chinese Bench again
Song’s opponent in the fifth match made a fairly depressed impression after he lost the final match. “It’s a pity that we did not win the gold medal”, he told at the press conference.

His match against Song Shichao was nothing for oversensitive persons. The umpire penalized Song for serving wrong, showed him the yellow card later and even showed the red card to the fourth Chinese player on the bench.

“We would really like to show respect to the umpires”, Chinese coach Yi Li said, “but sometimes we think it’s just not correct”. At the end, the Chinese coach found again his smile. “I can understand that the umpires keep an eye on us because China is very strong but I hope that they will treat us well in the singles competitions.”