Table tennis competition heating up at Duchess Park

By Drew Todd, Team BC Mission Staff

 

On Wednesday, the table tennis singles competitions began at the 2015 Canada Winter Games with the round robin portion of the events taking place.  All six of Team BC’s athletes (three male, three female) cruised through their two matches, setting the stage for the knockout rounds on Thursday and Friday.

 

The other part of the day’s action included the team event finals.  First up, the girls faced off against Team Alberta for the bronze Medal.  In a tense, four game match, Team BC prevailed and earned the third place prize with wins from Leanne Lee (Burnaby) and Ivy Liao (Vancouver) in singles and Natasha Carr-Harris (Vancouver) and Liao in doubles.  The doubles team of Carr-Harris and Liao had the toughest fight of all, needing a 17-15 victory in the fifth and deciding game to secure the win.

Once the girls wrapped up their match, the boys took on Team Ontario for the gold.  Team Ontario was heavily favoured, but Team BC was not intimidated.  Frank Liao (Vancouver) said the team had a game plan and that they would need to work hard.  “We need to play our game, and have a competitive spirit,” Liao said prior to the match.  “We need to try our best and play every point to its fullest.  We can never give up.”  Team BC lived up to that with a hard fought four game loss, but were competitive in every match.  Still, the team ended up with the silver medal – an improvement on an original predication where they expected to be fighting for bronze.
 

Thursday’s action consists of the knockout rounds of the singles competitions starting at noon.

See Canada Games live streaming at www.canadagamestv.ca and follow live updates on Twitter from @GoTeamBC with the hashtag #TBCTableTennis.