狼來了? 劉國樑總教練總結女乒亞錦賽丟冠

China's boss of table tennis Liu Guoliang said last Sunday that it's not a bad thing to suffer a big blow from arch-rival Japan more than three years ahead of the Tokyo Olympic Games.

中國乒乓球國家隊總教練劉國樑上週日表示，在距離東京奧運會還有3年多的這個時候，遭受夙敵日本的一個巨大打擊並不是一件壞事兒。

The head coach was shocked at his first sight of Japanese teenager Miu Hirano who beat three top-ranked Chinese to claim a sensational victory of the women's singles at the Asian Table Tennis Championships.

劉國樑總教練在第一次看到日本小將平野美宇的時候就被驚住了，後者擊敗了中國排名前三的乒乓球運動員，在亞洲乒乓球錦標賽上獲得了轟動性的女單勝利。

"She's much better than I had imagined," said Liu, a Grand Slam winner himself in his career as a player, on the conclusion of the continental tournament. "When she came out the winner of last year's World Cup, I thought maybe she took advantage of the absence of the Chinese women paddlers."

在比賽結束時，曾經的大滿貫得主劉國樑總結說道：“她（平野美宇）比我想象得還要更出色一些。當她去年獲得世界盃冠軍的時候，我還在想可能是因爲中國女選手不在的情況下讓她撿了個便宜。”

"However, I changed my mind when I saw her play here, firstly in the women's team event. She's strong enough technically and mentally, and capable of beating any one in the world," added Liu.

劉國樑補充說道：“但是當我看了她在亞錦賽上的表現，最先是在女子團體賽中的表現之後，我改變了看法。她在技術和心理上都足夠強大，有實力擊敗世界上任何一個人。”

Hirano, who just turned 17 years old last Friday, stunned China's world No. 1 Ding Ning 3-2 in the quarterfinals before accounting for second-ranked Zhu Yuling 3-0 and finally seeing off world No. 5 Chen Meng, also 3-0, to smash the Chinese dominance of the tournament.

平野美宇上週五剛滿17歲，她先是在四分之一決賽中3-2擊敗了世界排名第一的丁寧，隨後又以3-0的比分擊敗了世界排名第二的朱雨玲，最後以3-0的比分擊敗了世界排名第五的陳夢，從而獲得女單冠軍，動搖了中國在此項錦標上的統治地位。

"She's so young and has so many possibilities in the future," said Liu. "That makes her success more intimidating to our women's team."

劉國樑說道：“她是如此年輕，未來有許多可能性，這使得她的成功給我們的女隊帶來了很大壓力。”

"We do need to learn from the other associations, including the Japanese, who do an excellent job on youth training. But one failure should not lead to the whole denial to our own team. It's just an alarm from the opponents that warning us to be more aggressive and creative."

“我們的確需要向包括日本在內的其他隊伍學習，他們在青少年訓練方面做得很出色。但是一次失敗並不會讓我們否認自己的團隊。這只是來自對手的一個警告，提醒我們要更有進取心、更有創造性。”

"I think it's a good thing to have competitors who can pose real challenges, which makes our sport more competitive and more healthy," he added.

他補充說道：“我認爲擁有可以帶來真正挑戰的競爭對手是一件好事，這可以讓這項運動更有競爭性、更健康。”