Youth Olympic Table Tennis" No results! Li Hechen stopped in the top 8 of men's singles and China's undefeated myth was shattered

China's Li Hechen was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the men's singles and missed the opportunity to compete for medals. (Taken from ITTF official website)

[Reporter Xu Mingli/Comprehensive Report] The 17-year-old Chinese teenager Li Hechen lost to the 16-year-old Colombian star Otavalo 1:4 tonight in the top 8 of the table tennis men's singles match at the 2026 Dhaka Youth Olympic Games. He missed the chance to advance to the top four. The Chinese team failed to win anything at this Youth Olympic Games, setting the worst record in team history.

The Chinese team only sent one female player, Gu Yuting, to participate in the first Youth Olympic Games in Singapore in 2010. She not only won the women's singles championship, but also won the bronze medal in the mixed team competition with Tunisia's Herman; 3 gold medals in the singles and mixed team events; at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games held in Buenos Aires, the Chinese team’s two aces Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha also successfully won the gold medals in the men’s singles, women’s singles and mixed team events. In the past three Youth Olympic Games, the Chinese team won a total of 7 gold medals and 1 bronze, which was far better than the second-place Japanese team’s 2 gold medals and 5 silver medals.

This time, the Chinese team decided at the last moment that Li Hechen and Yao Ruixuan would participate in the Dhaka Youth Championship. However, Li Hechen/Yao Ruixuan, who had jointly won the U15 mixed doubles gold medal at the 2024 World Youth Championship, won the first mixed doubles event with 1 :3 lost to Japan's "Star Team" Kawakami Ryusei/Matsushima Misora and stopped in the top 8; Yao Ruixuan also lost 3:4 to Taiwan's left-handed female player Chen Xinxin in the women's singles round of 16 last night. Li Hechen became the last hope of the Chinese team to win a medal.

Li Hechen, who won the U15 men's singles gold medal in the 2024 Asian Youth Championship, faced Otavalo, who is ranked second in the U17 world, in the quarterfinals tonight. The whole game was in a tough battle. He fell behind at 7:10 in the first game. Although he struggled to resolve 3 The game point was eventually given up at 10:12; in the second game, after Li Hechen missed two consecutive game points at 10:9, he was reversed at 11:13; after the third game started at 1:4, he quickly lost at 3:11.

Li Hechen, who had lost 3 consecutive games, turned the tide in the 4th game. After saving a late match point at 9:10, he regained the victory at 12:10. In the 5th game, Otavalo was timid when leading 9:5 and made consecutive unnecessary mistakes and lost 5 points in a row. Instead, he fell behind 9:10. However, Li Hechen failed to seize the opportunity and lost 3 points in a row and was eliminated at 10:12. After Otavalo advances to the top four, he will face the winner of Taiwanese teenager Lin Jinting and Hong Kong Li Qihao in the next round.

Colombian rookie Otavalo defeated China's Li Hechen and took the lead in reaching the top four of men's singles. (Taken from ITTF official website)