October 30th, 2005

TABLE TENNIS - SHEN QIANG WINS BRONZE AT THE WORLD CADET CHALLENGE

Ottawa, ON - Shen Qiang a 15-year old Ottawa Glebe Collegiate high school student announced his arrival on the international table tennis scene with a bronze medal performance at the "Under 15 World Table Tennis Championships" - the official title is the "World Cadet Challenge."

The competition features continental teams - for which the athletes qualify through their continental championships. As North American Champion, he lead Team North America into the competition, as Bronze medal winner he had the best result of the North American team and its 8 athletes.

Being relatively unknown on the international circuit, Shen Qiang started in a tough seeding position in the preliminary stages where among others he eliminated Europe's #4 Patryk Chojnowski by a score of 3-1. In Round 1, Shen Qiang faced the spirited play of Latin America's Felipe Olivares and prevailed by a score of 4-1 without ever being in danger of losing.

The quarter final opponent was Darius Knight - runner up in the 2005 European Cadet Championships. The tournament's number 3 seed faced the powerful attacks of the Ottawa youngster and could do little to stop Shen Qiang from taking a convincing 3-0 lead. Knight then fought back by winning the next two games 11-7 and 11-3. With the score at 3-2, Shen reclaimed the initiative and won game 6 by a score of 11-9 and Bronze was assured.

Asian Cadet Champion Kenta Matsudaira - who lost only one match throughout the tournament (against Darius Knight) - presented too big a hurdle for Shen Qiang. While the contest was close, the eventual gold medallist ended up the winner by a score of 4-0.

Shen Qiang rounded out his good performance with a 5th place finish with his partner Andre Ho (Richmond, BC).

Results of canadian athletes:

Cadet Boys Singles:
Bronze - Shen Qiang (ON)

Cadet Boys Doubles:
5th place - Shen Qiang/Andre Ho

Cadet Girls Singles:
9th place - Lisa Li (ON), Shirley Yan (AB)

Cadet Girls Doubles:
5th place - Lisa Li (ON) / Shirley Yan (AB)

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For detailed results click