Seon lost his horse, but he didn't know if it was a blessing. Although Ye Hao lost the opportunity to enter the first team for training and participate in the Asian Games with the team, another opportunity to enter the first team by virtue of his strength came.

Since the time of the Busan Asian Games coincides with the time of the National Table Tennis Championships, the first-line main players of the national team will not participate in this year's National Championships, which gives many young players opportunities, including Ye Hao.

The top eight singles in the national championship can be directly selected for the national first team, even if this year's competition is not golden, but the top four can still be guaranteed to enter the national team.

Ye Hao received an invitation from the Capital Team to represent the Capital Team in the singles and team competitions at this year's National Championships. After consulting with the coach of the national second team, Ye Hao was agreed to return to the capital team to participate in the National Table Tennis Championships, and at the same time, Ma Long, who was training in the national youth team, will also return to the parent team.

So at the beginning of September, the national team left for Busan ahead of schedule, and the rest of the people returned to their provincial teams to prepare for the national championships in early October.

Returning to the capital table tennis team after a half-year absence, Ye Hao felt that everything was so familiar, and when he saw Coach Lu walking in front of him, he hurriedly rushed over and gave him a hug.

"Master, do you miss me so much?" Ye Hao asked the other party with a hippie smile.

"You kid, you want to break up my old bones, don't you?" As he spoke, Coach Lu rubbed his shoulders, and a smile flashed on the corner of his mouth.

"How can you, master, you are just the right age, how can you be old?" Ye Hao hurriedly flattered.

……

After the run-in training in January, the lineup sent by the capital team to participate in the National Table Tennis Championships has been familiarized and is about to go out. The five people sent by the capital men's team are: Tang Dapeng, Li Jianjun, Wang Yaguang, Ye Hao and Ma Long. The first three are all members of the capital's senior team, and Tang Dapeng is Ye Hao's national team teammate and the first brother of the capital's team.

Due to the strength of the men's team in the capital, and the main players of the national team have not participated, the team has set a high goal, the team goal is to ensure the top three, and the goal of the men's singles and men's doubles is also to compete for cards.

The national championship was held in Rizhao, Shandong Province on October 5, with a total of 38 sports teams and 526 team members signing up for the competition.

In addition to Tang Dapeng, the remaining four members of the capital team need to participate in the singles qualifiers first due to their low world rankings or no world rankings (such as Ye Hao and Ma Long), and only after they can participate in the singles main qualifiers, that is, the knockout rounds. In addition to the individual competitions of the team, the method of combining the qualifiers and the main qualifiers is adopted.

All five members of the capital team signed up for the singles competition, Li Jianjun and Wang Yaguang also signed up for men's doubles, and Tang Dapeng also signed up for mixed doubles with Liu Yuanyuan of the women's team. However, Ye Hao and Ma Long only participated in singles and team competitions due to their young age and lack of experience.

Although it was the first time to participate in the national championships, they both played well in the singles qualifiers, and after two rounds of competition, they both successfully advanced to the top 64 of the main event. On the contrary, Li Jianjun and Wang Yaguang did not enter the singles main draw.

The first stage of the team competition was then contested, with 38 teams divided into eight groups, with the top two teams from each group advancing to the second stage of the knockout round. The first stage of the team battle adopts an internal group round-robin match, and the capital team needs to play against the other 4 teams in the same group one by one, and the winner will earn one point, and the one with more points will advance.

This group of the capital team also includes the Xinjiang team, the Hunan team, the Henan team and the Qinghai team. The rules of the team competition are the same as those of the Asian Youth Championships in which Ye Hao participated, each team sent 3 players to participate in 5 singles matches, No. 1 and No. 2 main players played two games, and No. 3 main force played one, and the team that won three games first won, and each game was a best-of-five system.

The first two singles sent by the capital team are Tang Dapeng or Ye Hao, and the two take turns as the No. 1 and No. 2 main players, and the remaining three take turns to play the No. 3 singles. It can be seen that in the hearts of the coach of the capital team, Ye Hao's strength is already one of the best, comparable to adult players, and the gap with Ma Long has been widened, and the two are no longer as equal as a year ago.

The first stage of the team competition went very smoothly, winning all four games, accumulating four points to top the group and advancing to the second stage.

Ye Hao's performance was good, he played 5 times in 4 games and won all of them. Although it was not all a 3:0 sweep, and he also encountered 3:2 difficult moments, he still survived and grew a lot.

The competition in the National Table Tennis Championship is very fierce, known as the "Little World Table Tennis Championships", and its high level of competition can be seen. So it's no wonder that some people say that world championships are easy to win and national championships are hard to come by. Although it is an exaggeration, it can also reflect the abundance of domestic table tennis talents.

"It's really hard to play! It seems that it is really not easy to stand out in the country! After the first stage of Ye Hao's team competition, he felt it.

"Now you know how difficult it is. This isn't the junior competition you've participated in before, and the opponents are very strong. Otherwise, how can there be many people who go abroad to play because they can't play at home? Coach Lu said after hearing Ye Hao's exclamation.

Indeed, it is precisely because of the fierce domestic competition that many Chinese athletes have left their homeland and become foreign nationals, just to get the opportunity to participate in international competitions, such as the Olympic Games and the World Table Tennis Championships. There are even people who really forget their ancestors and change their names, such as Koyama Zhili who joined the Japanese nationality and entered the Japanese team, and then spoke ill of his motherland, and finally became "famous" in China, but unfortunately it was notoriety.

"I'm definitely not going to play abroad because it's not necessary." Ye Hao heard Coach Lu's words and said confidently.

"Confidence is enough." Coach Lu raised his eyebrows.

"That's a must, this time my goal is to win a national first prize and get to the first team!" Ye Hao said his goal.

Coach Lu didn't pour too much cold water on Ye Hao this time, but just reminded, "This competition is indeed a good opportunity, and the main players of the national team have gone to participate in the Asian Games." But even so, it won't be easy for you to win the championship. ”

"I understand this, after all, it's a national champion, and if it's too easy, it's not fun. Isn't that right, master? Ye Hao asked with a smile.

"Are you going to heaven? Regardless of whether it's interesting or not, I'll just wait to see if you can win the championship? The corners of Coach Lu's mouth twitched, and he asked unceremoniously.

"Then you'll see."