"I Love Taipei 2000"

USA Junior Team in Taiwan
August 20-27, 2000
By Whitney Ping and Han Xiao
(From Nov/Dec 2000 USA Table Tennis Magazine)

USA Junior Team tries on sunglasses at Taiwanese market. Front, L-R: Katherine Wu, Chaperone Bopha Ping, Emily Ping, Whitney Ping, Kyna Fong. Back, L-R: Mark Hazinski, Keith Alban, Coach Mark Nordby. Missing: Han Xiao and Adam Hugh. Photo by Grace Yi Zheng ©2000.

After meeting in Los Angeles, the U.S. Junior Team flew 12 hours to Taiwan for the "I Love Taipei First Commercial Bank Cup Junior Table Tennis International 2000." The tournament was sponsored by the First Commercial Bank of Taipei and ran smoothly throughout. The tournament included Under 18 and Under 15 events for boys and girls, plus boys’ and girl’s teams that were made up of two Under 18 and two Under 15 players each.

The United States junior team consisted of eight players, two coaches, and two chaperones. The team arrived in a city full of beautiful electric and neon lights of New York City proportion. This was Taipei. The night during which the team arrived was spent claiming baggage, dining, shopping, unpacking, and settling in at the Cosmos Hotel in downtown Taipei. Our first practice was after lunch the following day. We soon found out that the food on the second floor of the hotel was not to be touched. Very few of us ate well for the rest of the trip. To make matters worse, heavy winds and rain from a "tai fong" delayed practice, because the workers at the venue left early without setting up the tables. Still, we got a decent practice session.

The team tournament began the next day. This proved to be a frustrating day for the boys’ team, which consisted of Keith Alban and Mark Hazinski in the Under 18 positions, Han Xiao and Adam Hugh in the Under 14 positions, Coach Mark Nordby, and chaperone Mrs. Grace Zheng. The team was in a group of four and had a good chance of advancing (two teams advanced from each group). The first opponent was Kuala Lumpur from Malaysia. Keith Alban and Han Xiao easily won their matches 2-0, and in doubles, Alban and Hazinski won 2-1 after carelessly dropping the first game. An easy 3-0 win for Team USA.

The next opponent was Kaohsiung Hsien. Keith Alban easily won his match two straight, while Han Xiao had difficulty lifting his opponent’s extremely heavy pushes and lost two straight. Alban and Hazinski fought off their doubles opponent to take a 2-1 lead. Now, Adam Hugh faced Lin Hsin Nan. After losing the first game, Hugh found himself down 14-20 match point in the second game. However, he miraculously won eight straight points to take the game. His opponent, apparently not concerned, easily took the match in the third, 21-13. Mark Hazinski found himself under pressure to win the fifth match. In the middle of a game, Coach Nordby began complaining about something that also happened during doubles: the opposing coach was coaching during games. This was corrected, and Hazinski’s match against Kao Chien Ting continued. Mark lost the first and won the second. With Kao leading 20-19 in the third game, Hazinski performed what could be described as a "loop flip" with his long arms off a short serve into Kao’s forehand corner for a winner. Deuce! Careless errors from both players tied it at 21-all. Down match point, Mark pushed just a centimeter too wide off the table. It was so close that many of us thought it had hit. But apparently not close enough, as the umpire awarded the point to the other player. Still, it was a good showing by Mark and a well-fought battle by Team USA. Match and tie for Kaohsiung Hsien, 3-2. As the team members later described it, it was "a heartbreaker" and "deuce in the third in the fifth."

Team USA now needed to win the next team tie to have a chance to qualify. However, Alban and Hugh dropped matches to give Taipei City (A) a 2-0 lead. Later, Keith said that he was too tired to play well, and Mark Nordby said that Adam served long way too much and gave away a match that Adam had a very good chance of winning. A 2-1 doubles loss by Alban and Hazinski, their only loss of the tournament, blew the team’s hopes of advancing to the quarterfinals. It wasn’t completely the team’s fault. The team had really bad luck in the draw. Coach Nordby watched some of the other team matches and said that the boys’ team would have advanced had it been in any other group. Later, both teams they had lost to made it to the semifinals.

The U.S. Girls’ Team was also unlucky. In their first team tie of the 3-team RR, they were matched up against ‘Seoul, Korea,’ the eventual winner. The Girls’ team was made up of Kyna Fong and Emily Ping in the Under 18 positions, Whitney Ping and Katherine Wu in the Under14 positions, Coach Jack Huang and chaperone Mrs. Bhopa Ping. They put on a good show but fell 3-0. They also went down 3-0 to Kaohsiung Hsien and failed to advance.

The opening ceremony followed our team matches. All the teams marched into the center of the stadium. The chairman of the Taipei Table Tennis Association made opening remarks, and important guests and personnel were introduced, including the city’s mayor, who made his opening remarks, and Olympian Chen Jing. She practiced a little against a few VIPs and took a few pictures, one of them with the U.S. team.

In singles, every member of the team won their first-round match. Han Xiao looped and smashed every ball after losing the first game to win 2-1 in an exciting, hard-hitting match. Adam Hugh beat his opponent two straight, and the girls all won their matches, including Kyna Fong’s exciting second game, which she pulled out in exciting fashion, 27-25. Han Xiao, Keith Alban, Kyna Fong, Emily Ping, Whitney Ping, and Katherine Wu all dropped in the second round. Adam Hugh lost to Seoul’s number three player in the third round. Mark Hazinski was on fire and made it all the way to the semifinals, where he’d lose in three after coming from way behind to barely lose the first at 19.

The closing ceremony was similar to the opening ceremony. The chairman made closing remarks, VIPs were reintroduced and made closing remarks, and an awards ceremony was held. The Koreans won five out of six events, almost sweeping the tournament. There was also a players’ night. Although the food was again bad, the band was entertaining, and the host told jokes and invited each team to perform in a small talent show. The U.S. team sang "The Star Spangled Banner," and even though they broke into giggling fits halfway through the song, it was still applauded loudly as the team finished singing. The personnel were really generous and helpful during this tournament. The hotel was first class, and even though the food wasn’t the best, every team member realized how generous the arrangements were for all the foreign teams, including the U.S. junior team. Without all the paid meals and the paid hotel rooms, the trip would have been far more difficult.

Even though the team had a few bad breaks, they still played very well and gave other teams good matches. Foreign teams had to play well and stay focused in order to go through Team USA. Hopefully, the team can do better in Taiwan next year.

After the tournament, the team relaxed for a day at Tamshui, did some night marketing, and did some last-minute shopping for a day and a half before heading back to the states. Everyone was happy about something. Mark Nordby was happy that he could have normal food when he came back, and Adam Hugh was happy about the 40mm Newgy robot he won at the tournament in a contest. (Newgy helped sponsor the tournament, and six Robo-Pongs were continuously in action.) Everyone was happy that they did their best and played excellent table tennis after traveling over 10,000 miles.

On behalf of the Junior Team, we’d like to thank our coaches, Mark Nordby and Jack Huang, and our chaperones, Grace Yi Zheng and Bopha Ping. A special thank you should be made to Grace. She was our main translator and communicator, and without her, we would have definitely been lost. And last but not least, thank you to USA Table Tennis for giving us this opportunity to compete abroad.