William Henzell

William Henzell’s Olympics have come to an end. He was playing Korea’s Jae Young Yoon for a spot in the last 32. Henzell really pressured Yoon by running out to a 2 sets to nil lead. Yoon fought back taking the thrid set. Henzell built up a massive lead in the 4th set but Yoon responded and levelled the 4th set at 10 all. Henzell then played 2 brilliant points to take the 4th set and lead the match 3-1. Australia was now only 1 set away from progressing to the last 32 in the Mens Singles for the first time ever.

It seemed like things were falling into place for Henzell who has been improving dramatically over the last 2 years. However Yoon who is ranked 25th in the World was not going down without a fight. Yoon knuckled down and got the better of Henzell taking the last the 3 sets 5, 7 and 4.

Congratulations to William “Wookie” Henzell, Australia is proud of you!

Stephanie Sang

Although we haven’t heard all the details, Stephanie Sang put up a fighting effort against Wu in her match but could not manage to take a set losing 4-0. Well done Stephanie for your superb effort in making it this far.

What a fantastic effort by the entire Australian Table Tennis Team in Beijing! You’ve created quite a lot of interest in Table Tennis back here in Australia and hopefully the sport will get a boost from your tremendous efforts.

William Henzell has just beaten the Number 58 in the World, Lundquist from Sweden, to progress to the 2nd Round in the Mens Singles at the Beijing Olympics. Henzell went up 2-0 in 2 really close sets but Lundquist fought back to 2 all.

The 5th Set Proved Decisive

Henzell shot out to a 8-2 lead and looked certain to take the set but the Number 58 in the world had other ideas. Lundquist fought back to 8-5 and then Henzell called a timeout. This didn’t stop the momentum of the Swede and Lundquist went ahead 9-10 and held the first set point. Now it was Henzells turn to deal with the pressure and he responed well saving the set point and then taking the set 12-10 to take a 3-2 lead in the match

Unstoppable

The 6th set went point for point and was level at 3-3. Then Henzell stepped up his game and really applied the pressure. He took the next 8 points to win the set 11-3 and the match. What a fantastic result on the biggest stage. Well done William Henzell, you’ve made Australia proud.

Jae Young Yoon

Henzell now faces Jae Young Yoon from Korea in the next round. It is going to be a tough match but Henzell’s form is excellent so far in this tournament and I believe he has a good chance to progress further in this tournament. Earlier in the teams matches Henzell played a magnificent match against Wang Liqin of China and lost 3-1 but had set points in the second set after winning the first and led in the 3rd and 4th sets but could not get over the line. I think that these results backed with his excellent form over the entire last year will give him the belief needed to go to the next level. Come on Henzell, all of Australia is behind you.

Miao Miao

In the Womens Miao Miao had a sensational win over Irina Kotikhina from Russia. The match was an epic going down to the wire. Miao rushed to a 2-0 lead with 2 close sets just as Henzell did. Then Kotikhina fought back to 2 all. However this match ended up going the full distance. With the match tied at 3 sets all, Miao drew on all her courage and pulled out of a tight 7th set winning it 11-9. The full score was 11:9 15:13 5:11 10:12 11:8 4:11 11:9.

Miao then progressed to the next round but went down to Ye Seo Dang of Korea 4-1. Miao has previously done well at the Olympics when she made the Quarter finals of the doubles in Sydney 2000 with Shirley Zhou. Congratulations Miao on another brilliant Olympics.

This now leaves Stephanie Sang as our last remaining Woman in the Singles event. Stephanie received a walk over against Svetlana Ganina from Russia yesterday and now faces Xue Wu in the next round.

Good Luck

Good luck to both Stephanie Sang and William Henzell of Australia as they battle it out today.

I’m in Japan at the moment for training and I’ll be spending a week at a coaches house whose name is Takaharu, then going to the Japanese National Training Centre. The temperature is really hot and humid which is diffult to adjust to after coming from the Australian winter. For the first couple of days I was sweating ridiculous amounts. I arrived on Wednesday 13th and rested for a day and then hit with Taka on Thursday for 2 hrs. The plane trip was roughly 7 hrs from Australia to Singapore and then another 7 hrs from Singapore to Japan.

On the Friday I trained with the members from Takaharu`s club from 1-8pm. We had about four 10 min breaks and one 40 min break. It was really hot that day and I went through 4 t-shirts and was cooking! I trained from 1-7pm then asked Taka to let me finish because I was exhausted.

The next day I had off and went to an Amusement park with Taka`s brother and his girlfriend. At the end of the day I was really tired and slept well.

Sunday I trained for 5 hrs with the club and today I went to a Japanese bathing house where we all get naked and enjoy the hot water at a communal bath. Afterwards I got a massage as I’ve heard it’s very good in Japan.

I will let you know how things are going in a few days.