By Neha Aggarwal

All eyes on US Olympians

2016 North American Cup Singles Champion, Yijun Feng is the highest ranked player at the North American Team Championship to be played between USA and Canada on 10th September 2016 at Milpitas, California, USA. Ranked number 291 in the men’s world rankings, Feng will be accompanied by Kanak Jha, world number 296 and Kunal Chodri, world number 579 to form Team USA.

Feng, who made his Olympic debut at the recently concluded Rio Olympic Games is also the winner of 2015 North American Team Championship. The 19-year old, originally from China, moved to US at the age of 8 and currently resides in Atlanta. He uses the pen hold grip and is a fierce attacker.

He will be accompanied by fellow Olympian Kanak Jha, who made headlines all over the US as he became the youngest American athlete to qualify for the Rio Olympic Games. 16-year old Jha, who won the 2016 US National Championship has shown a steady improvement in his performances since 2014. The California born paddler trains in Halmstad, Sweden under coaches Stefan Feth, Mikael Andersson in Sweden.

Team Canada

Canada will be lead by Hazin Jeremy, standing at number 470 in the world rankings. Jermey who hails from Ontario was the 2016 ITTF North American Cup Men’s Singles Bronze Medalist. He will be joined by Medjugorac Marko, ranked number 616 and Bernadet Antoine, ranked number 878 in the Men’s world rankings.

Clearly Team USA are the favorites to win the North American Teams Championship. The match will be played at 3pm local time. All matches will be played best of 5 games. The first two matches are singles, the third match will be doubles. The fourth and fifth are singles and the first team to win three matches wins.

Schedule:

1:00 PM – Women’s Team Final (USA vs. Canada)
3:00 PM – Men’s Team Final (USA vs. Canada)

Follow the live action on ITTF’s Youtube Channel