by Ian Marshall, Editor
An appetite undiminished, in the later stages of the cadet girls’ singles event, she accounted for Anna Hursey of Wales (5-11, 11-2, 11-5, 11-9) and Chinese Taipei’s Liao Ting-Yao (11-1, 11-9, 14-12) to book her place in the final where the good form continued. She overcame Charlotte Lutz of France (11-8, 11-7, 11-5) to seal the title.
Notably at the semi-final stage, Charlotte Lutz had prevented an all-Japanese final; after beating Kazakhstan’s Sarvinoz Mirkadirova (11-8, 11-13, 11-7, 6-11, 11-5) she ended the progress of Sachi Aoki (11-7, 11-8, 5-11, 12-10).
Success in the cadet girls’ singles final came soon after she had partnered Sachi Aoki to cadet girls’ doubles gold; in the final the duo overcame Liao Ting-Yao and colleague Lin Chien-Ying (13-11, 12-10, 11-4).
Final tally
Thus the final tally for Miwa Harimoto read three gold and one bronze. Lining up alongside Sachi Aoki and Norway’s Martine Toftaker, a penultimate round 3-2 defeat had been the junior girls’ team outcome one day earlier at the hands of Russia, the champions elect. Significantly, Miwa Harimoto supplied her team’s two wins.
The only defeat was at the quarter-final stage of the junior girls’ doubles, when partnering Sachi Aoki, the duo experienced defeat at the hands of Russia’ Anastasiia Beresneva and Vasilisa Danilova (11-7, 11-2, 8-11, 11-9).
Overall the record read:
- Junior girls’ singles: 9 matches, 33 games won, 1 lost (ratio 33:1)
- Junior girls’ doubles: 3 matches, 7 games won, 3 lost (ratio: 7:3)
- Junior girls’ team: 8 matches, 24 games won, 5 lost (ratio 24:5)
- Cadet girls’ doubles: 5 matches, 15 games won, 1 lost (ratio 15:1)
- Cadet girls’ singles: 5 matches, 15 games won, 1 lost (ratio 15:1)
- Total: played 30 matches, won 29 matches, lost 1; played 105 games, won 94 games, lost 11 (ratio 94:11)
Life more testing
The top step of the podium, in the counterpart cadet boys’ singles event, the reservation was made by Chinese Taipei’s Chang Yu-An; also most impressive but he found life somewhat more exacting than his female counterpart.
At the final hurdle he needed the full five games to beat Poland’s Mateusz Zalewski, only emerging successful by the minimal two point margin in the decider (11-6, 7-11, 11-7, 6-11, 12-10). Earlier at the quarter-final stage he had ousted Romania’s Dragos Alexandru Bujor (11-3, 6-11, 11-6, 11-8, 11-6), followed by success in opposition to Austria’s Liu Zhenlong (12-10, 11-5, 5-11, 15-13).
In the opposite half of the draw, in the later rounds, Mateusz Zalewski had overcome Hungary’s David Santosi (11-4, 11-7, 11-7), before prevailing against Iran’s Navid Shams (12-10, 11-7, 5-11, 11-9).
Success for Russia
Gold for Japan and Chinese Taipei; it was the same for Russia.
Vladislav Bannikov and Sergey Ryzhov secured the cadet boys’ doubles title. At the final hurdle they beat the combination of Gabrielius Camara of the Nethrerlands and Australia’s Nicholas Lum (11-4, 15-13, 11-8) to emerge the champions.
Play in Hodonin concluded, attention on the ITTF World Junior Circuit now turns to the 2020 Swedish Junior and Cadet Open, play starts in Örebro on Wednesday 19th February.
