JOOLA USA

North American Olympic Trials
Vancouver, Canada
April 4-6, 2008
By Larry Hodges 

It went down to the final game. In the playoff for the final men's spot allotted to North America, David Zhuang won the first three games against Han Xiao of Club JOOLA. Han fired back, winning the next three games, winning the last two by the improbable scores of 11-2, 11-3. However, it was not to be as Zhuang won the last game the match, 7,6,8,-7,-2,-3,7. Han is first alternate.

On the men's side, there were three positions open. Canada's Wilson Zhang and Pradeeban Peter-Paul came in first and second, with USA's David Zhuang in third. Since Canada won two of the three spots, they will be allowed to choose one other player so they can have three players to compete in the Team event at the Olympic Trials. (They will choose the player with the highest world ranking as of June 1, 2008.)

On the women's side, USA's Gao Jun and Wang Chen pre-qualified due to their world rankings. Grabbing the only available spot was USA's Crystal Huang. So Gao, Wang and Huang will represent USA in both singles and teams; Canada will have no women players.

Here are complete results.