China's boss of table tennis Liu Guoliang said last Sunday that it's not a bad thing to suffer a big blow from arch-rival Japan more than three years ahead of the Tokyo Olympic Games.
中国乒乓球国家队总教练刘国梁上周日表示，在距离东京奥运会还有3年多的这个时候，遭受夙敌日本的一个巨大打击并不是一件坏事儿。
The head coach was shocked at his first sight of Japanese teenager Miu Hirano who beat three top-ranked Chinese to claim a sensational victory of the women's singles at the Asian Table Tennis Championships.刘国梁总教练在第一次看到日本小将平野美宇的时候就被惊住了，后者击败了中国排名前三的乒乓球运动员，在亚洲乒乓球锦标赛上获得了轰动性的女单胜利。"She's much better than I had imagined," said Liu, a Grand Slam winner himself in his career as a player, on the conclusion of the continental tournament. "When she came out the winner of last year's World Cup, I thought maybe she took advantage of the absence of the Chinese women paddlers."在比赛结束时，曾经的大满贯得主刘国梁总结说道：“她（平野美宇）比我想象得还要更出色一些。当她去年获得世界杯冠军的时候，我还在想可能是因为中国女选手不在的情况下让她捡了个便宜。”"However, I changed my mind when I saw her play here, firstly in the women's team event. She's strong enough technically and mentally, and capable of beating any one in the world," added Liu.刘国梁补充说道：“但是当我看了她在亚锦赛上的表现，最先是在女子团体赛中的表现之后，我改变了看法。她在技术和心理上都足够强大，有实力击败世界上任何一个人。”Hirano, who just turned 17 years old last Friday, stunned China's world No. 1 Ding Ning 3-2 in the quarterfinals before accounting for second-ranked Zhu Yuling 3-0 and finally seeing off world No. 5 Chen Meng, also 3-0, to smash the Chinese dominance of the tournament.
平野美宇上周五刚满17岁，她先是在四分之一决赛中3-2击败了世界排名第一的丁宁，随后又以3-0的比分击败了世界排名第二的朱雨玲，最后以3-0的比分击败了世界排名第五的陈梦，从而获得女单冠军，动摇了中国在此项锦标上的统治地位。"She's so young and has so many possibilities in the future," said Liu. "That makes her success more intimidating to our women's team."刘国梁说道：“她是如此年轻，未来有许多可能性，这使得她的成功给我们的女队带来了很大压力。”"We do need to learn from the other associations, including the Japanese, who do an excellent job on youth training. But one failure should not lead to the whole denial to our own team. It's just an alarm from the opponents that warning us to be more aggressive and creative."“我们的确需要向包括日本在内的其他队伍学习，他们在青少年训练方面做得很出色。但是一次失败并不会让我们否认自己的团队。这只是来自对手的一个警告，提醒我们要更有进取心、更有创造性。”"I think it's a good thing to have competitors who can pose real challenges, which makes our sport more competitive and more healthy," he added.他补充说道：“我认为拥有可以带来真正挑战的竞争对手是一件好事，这可以让这项运动更有竞争性、更健康。”