Former ping-pong champ arrives for Large Ball

Asian Games gold medalist and World Championship bronze medal winner Hiroyuki Abe, along with 10 other Japanese ping-pong players, arrived in the CNMI yesterday to take part in today’s Large Ball Ping-Pong Tournament on Tinian.

Abe and his teammates touched down at the Francisco C. Ada-Saipan International Airport past 3pm but did not stay long in the Commonwealth’s capital, as the group immediately took a flight to Tinian for the one-day table tennis tournament at the Tinian Dynasty Hotel and Casino.

The 53-year-old former Japanese table tennis national player teamed up with Seiji Ono to take home the gold in the 1982 Asian Games in New Delhi. He also placed third in the World Championships a year later, again partnering with Ono.

After dominating regular ping-pong competition in his homeland and abroad, Abe shifted to Large Ball where he is the sport’s 10-time singles champion.

Joining Abe in his four-day trip to the CNMI are delegation head Kimiko Koike, Kimiko Konishi, Masayuki Murai, Yasuko Murai, Junko Kahamura, Akita Kyoko, Mitsuko Yamaguchi, Terumi Morino, Takashi Sawada, and Sumio Yamamoto.

Koike, who is making her second trip to the CNMI after a gap of 27 years, said outside of ace players Abe and Yamamoto, the rest of the group are average ping-pong players.

Yamamoto, she said, used to be a top-ranked table tennis player in high school and in fact finished fourth in a Japan-wide competition years back.

She said she is expecting good competition in today’s Large Ball Tournament, adding that she has heard that Saipan, Tinian, and Guam players are quite skilled in the sport.

Saipan-based Marianas Amateur Table Tennis Association actually is the host of the Large Ball Tournament—as well as the 10th Annual Goodwill Table Tennis Tournament that immediately follows it—but decided to hold the competition at Tinian Dynasty to better accommodate the event, according to its president Steve Lim.

Expected to suit up for the Tinian Dynasty ping-pong team are mainstays Mark Ma, Charlie Cheng, and brothers Robin and Luke Lu.

MATTA, meanwhile, will counter with veteran paddlers Budhi Gurung, Jean Shi, and Su Yong Dong.

Lim said Guam will be represented by noted table tennis instructor Hisamitsu Hamamoto. The MATTA president said Hamamoto was supposed to be accompanied by two more Guam players, but they begged off at the last minute.

While Tinian and Saipan players will stay to duke it out in the 10th Annual Goodwill Table Tennis Tournament on Saturday and Sunday, Abe and his group will return to Saipan on Oct. 11 and after a brief sightseeing tour Sunday morning, will fly back to Japan on Oct. 12.