That Concludes the 2019 Pan American Championships

Table Tennis Canada – As the 2019 Pan Am Games in Lima came to a close, the Table Tennis team is bringing home a Gold medal in Mixed Doubles and three bronze medals in Women Doubles, Women Team and Men’s Singles. Although this is an improvement on the previous Games in Toronto at which table tennis did not get any Gold medals, it does not match however the best ever result of six Gold and one Bronze at the 1979 Games in Puerto Rico.

Alicia Côté – “It was an incredible experience to compete in such a competition and I am really proud to have achieved my goal of winning two medals.”

Coach Dejan Papic – “We have two young players, Medjugorac and Hazin, on the team that played very well on the team. I am actually proud and surprised that they could raise their level of play. They need about more experience. Wang was the leader of the team as well as in the mixed doubles, and the men’s doubles. He pushed himself and the team.”

Men’s Team
Jeremy Hazing (Richmond Hill, Ont.)
Marko Medjugorac (Sherbrooke, Que.)
Eugene Wang (Aurora, Ont.)

Women’s Team
Alicia Côté (Drummondville, Que.)
Ivy Liao (Vancouver, B.C.)
Mo Zhang (Richmond, B.C.)

Coaches
Dejan Papic (Toronto, Ont.)
Jialin Wang (Vancouver, B.C.)

Ivy Liao – “I am very happy to have the opportunity to compete here at the 2019 Pan American Games. My team has guided me along and as a team we won the bronze medal. A very special moment.”

Based on these current results Table Tennis Canada will now focus on the Mixed Doubles as the main event in which to achieve the best result at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Oddly enough the Pan Am Table Tennis Championships will be held during the first week of September 2019 and will serve as a qualification event for the World Team Table Tennis Championships to be held in Korea next April. The top six men’s teams and the top six women’s team will qualify. Based on the results at the Pan Am Games, Canada has an excellent chance to qualify.

The Canadian Table Tennis team is currently a very young team of teenagers and players in their early twenties, lead by veteran players Eugene Wang for the men and Zhang Mo for the women. It will take a few years for the team to mature and win more Gold medals at the next Pan Am Games.