Chinanews.com, Chengdu, October 1st, title: 59-year-old Chinese veteran Lectra "Han Ping First Sister": her love for table tennis makes her continue to write a legend
Reporter He Shaoqing
After defeating "Han Ping's first sister" Tian Zhixi 11:9 in the fourth game and equalizing the score for the Luxembourg women's team, Ni Xialian, a Chinese veteran with a hundred battles, showed a rare excitement - this table tennis evergreen tree clenched her right fist, excited He jumped up and gave his coach husband a kiss.
Although he holds multiple world championships, at the age of 59, he beat her 3:1 in the 56th ITTF World Table Tennis Team Championships (Final) in Chengdu (referred to as "Chengdu World Table Tennis Team Competition") in 2022 Tian Zhixi, who has been young for several rounds, still makes many fans sigh that the sword of the "veteran of the five dynasties" of the Olympic Games is not old.
Ni Xialian, who is good at left-handed straight shooting and long-glu offensive play, used to be the main force of the national table tennis women's team.
In 1986, 23-year-old Ni Xialian chose to retire and entered Shanghai Jiaotong University to study.
Later, after several turns, Ni Xialian settled in Luxembourg. She could not put down table tennis and began to represent the Luxembourg table tennis team. She won the European Championships women's singles championship three times and the European top 12 championship three times.
She retired from the national table tennis for more than 30 years, and most of her teammates at the same time as Ni Xialian retired behind the scenes, but she is still active in the arena.
Just last year's World Table Tennis Championships in Houston, Ni Xialian even won a medal for Luxembourg historically, and was named "Luxembourg's top ten people in 2021".
A year later, in the Chengdu World Table Tennis Championships team competition, Ni Xialian once again put on armor and became the oldest player in this competition.
From Luxembourg to Chengdu, Ni Xialian experienced two turnarounds, but before she had time to lose the jet lag, the "table tennis grandma" came to the stadium for training first - even 15 minutes earlier than the original training time.
During the training, Ni Xialian bluntly said that she could not remember how many world competitions she had participated in. One world competition was not important to her. The important thing was that she came to Chengdu and China, which made her feel particularly warm and moved.
After defeating Tian Zhixi in the first game, Ni Xialian did not rest immediately, but continued to write the legend of the veteran-played again in the fourth set against Li Shiwen, won the opponent after five fierce battles, and helped the Luxembourg team to be upset, with a big score of 3:1. defeated the fourth-seeded Korean women's team in the tournament.
"There is only one winner of the game. Even if we lose, we can afford to lose, and we will work hard to win it back." The excitement of defeating Tian Zhixi was only for a moment. On and off the field, Ni Xialian was more calm. After the game In the mixed mining area, the battle-hardened she shared her view of winning and losing.
Although the showdown with the South Korean women's team has ended, on the online social platform, fans are still talking about the first upset of the Chengdu World Table Tennis Championships team competition.
More netizens who were moved by her vigorous energy and professionalism sighed: "Can she hit 70 years old?"
Veterans are never old, and strugglers are always young. Behind the struggle is Ni Xialian's love for table tennis.
This love made the veteran continue to write a legend at the age of 59.
As she thanked her husband and coach after the game: "We can go from day to night because of the love for table tennis." (End)