North American(NA) Olympic Trials

anyone else having trouble with jumpy video?  I have a 25mbs pipe, and it's still jumpy?!?

funny, mine actually is running better when I run it full screen rather than in a box...

Re the men's final, is that 1:00pm Eastern time?


Edited by Brainstorm69 - 04/21/2012 at 12:23pm

Hinse won the men's final. 4-3, Wang tried to come back in the last 2 games after being down to game point but couldn't complete it.

Originally posted by cmetsbeltran15 now that two canadians have won, and you cant have 3 from one country, what does this mean for tomorrow

It should be easy for tomorrow: the highest placed Canadian will get the 3rd spot for teams, while the highest placed American get a spot to play singles.

PS what happened to Chen Hongtao? Who did he lose to today? He was playing well before the qualifiers so I'm surprised by his results...


Edited by ZingyDNA - 04/21/2012 at 4:30pm

Hongtao Chen lost in the quarterfinals of Stage 2 against Timothy Wang.

Stage 3 starts shortly. The 6 remaining players are in 2 round-robin groups of 3, followed by crossover semifinals and final tomorrow. The complete draw is on ittf.com

I'm not sure what's at stake now for the remaining Canadians. Sean O'Neill had mentioned that Canada would go by world ranking for the third player, in order to leave a door open for Wang Zhen if he gets his citizenship soon.

Women's semifinals today at 5:40:
Lily Zhang vs Chris Xu - big match!
Sara Yuen vs Anqi Luo

Women's final tomorrow at 11:40.

Phew, what a thriller that was... The final is tomorrow at 11:40, so Lily should be able to recover. But she mustn't relax too much mentally and feel over-confident, although she's the heavy favorite against Anqi.

Two more rounds of men tonight, and also one round of position matches for the women.

Adam needs to beat Hongtao now to stay alive.

Originally posted by amateur I'm not sure what's at stake now for the remaining Canadians. Sean O'Neill had mentioned that Canada would go by world ranking for the third player, in order to leave a door open for Wang Zhen if he gets his citizenship soon.

That's interesting. If that's the case, why would any Canadian play in Day 3? I mean, even if they win it, they won't be able to play either singles or teams in London...

Originally posted by amateur Hongtao Chen lost in the quarterfinals of Stage 2 against Timothy Wang.

Really surprised. Hongtao is a really great player....

Bar

Timothy beat Barney and will play singles in the Olympics! Well deserved after a strong tournament.

Coming up now is the women's final between Lily and Anqi. Head-to-head between the two is 11-0 for Lily...

Qatar is the final world qualification tournament in mid-May (for players from all continents who haven't qualified yet). Normally there should be only 2 spots per gender available, although more might be added if the team quota hasn't been exhausted yet. Wang Zhen is probably the only one from North America who would have a chance there given the level of the competition.

For Canada, the 2 singles spots have now been determined and will go to Ho and Hinse. I don't think Wang Zhen can sneak in there even if he becomes eligible over the next weeks. And it looks like Canada can just nominate him for the team event (again, assuming he becomes eligible), regardless of whether he plays in Qatar or not. If he's not eligible, the team spot should go to Chen Hongtao since he will be the third-highest Canadian finisher in Cary.

To recap the situation:

men's qualifiers for North America:
Andre Ho
Pierre-Luc Hinse
Timothy Wang

women's qualifiers:
Zhang Mo (as Pan Am champion)
Ariel Hsing
Lily Zhang

Team spots should go to Canadian men and US women, just like in 2008.

Timothy saves 3 match points and beats Hongtao 14-12 in the 7th! So he's the third outright qualifier for North America, not just because of the 2-player limitation.

I forgot to mention that Erica Wu beat Judy Hugh and should be the third player on the US women's team.

Confirmation of Team Canada:
"The Canadian team also took shape over the weekend. Andre Ho of British Columbia won the first men’s tournament on Friday, and he was joined by Quebec’s Pierre-Luc Hinse, who beat Wang in the finals on Saturday. If Chinese-born Eugene Wang, who was unable to secure Canadian citizenship to participate in Cary, can get his paperwork through by early July, he will be the third member of the Canadian men’s team."
http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/04/22/2018292/olympics-are-calling.html

Originally posted by jrscatman Hongtao had a bad tournament - I guess couldn't handle the pressure. I guess Hongtao and Pierre Lu c Thierault are both young - so this is probably their first experience at such pressure matches. Hopefully, this experience will better prepare them next Olympics! Although, Hongtao could still make it if they don't find Wang Zhen's passport!

Originally posted by chunyenliu I have tremendous respect for these athletes trying to qualify for the Olympics.   Either they make it or not, all the hard work put into preparation can also be translated into other aspects in life.   Great job to all.   You are already one of the people who get the the very rare opportunity to try out for the Olympics.