Back from the brink, women’s table tennis doubles battle to brave bronze

In an astonishing display of perseverance, Canada’s Mo Zhang and Anqi Luo rallied from a huge deficit to win the bronze medal in women’s table tennis doubles Saturday over England.

Down two games and losing 8-5 in the third, momentum was not on the side of Zhang (Vancouver, B.C.) and Luo (Mississauga, Ont.). But after a time out, they calmed themselves and began to chip away, point by point, to win the next three games. Final score: Canada 3 England 2 (6-11, 10-12, 11-8, 14-12, 12-10).

“I think me and Mo, we fought to the end, we never gave up and that’s how we won,” said Luo, who will turn 18 on Aug. 26. “I just told myself, relax and enjoy the game because it’s our last one and it’s great to be here. Both of us really fought in the third set and I think it worked.”

Coach Junya Chen, who is Luo’s mother, kept a poker face on the sidelines throughout but said afterward that she “suffered” watching the pressure the athletes were under.

“I looked calm, but can you imagine? Anqi is playing, my daughter, so how nervous I was? I had to be calm to the players and then I had to tell a solution to them. I’m so proud of her, because I was so nervous as a mom.”

The bronze medal is Canada’s best-ever performance in women’s doubles at the Commonwealth Games. The previous best was a fifth-place finish in 2002, the first time table tennis was included in the Games. Chen underscored the importance of the medal is to the Canadian table tennis program.

“We’ve been waiting for this Commonwealth Games medal for more than 10 years.” Chen said. “The medal is so important for the team. We know that it’s tough for us. We always get the bad draw in the team event but we still fight, we still try to do our best on the other events. In all our [other] events we lost in quarter finals, so that’s why we had so much pressure here.”