Table-tennis prodigy aims high

Top table-tennis player Carrie Guo is off to Sydney in the school holidays to play in the Australian national championships.

At just 15 years old, the Takapuna Grammar School (TGS) Year 11 student, who recently won the Auckland Junior Open, has already accumulated an impressive collection of titles, including last year’s North Island women’s open championship.

“After that, Table Tennis New Zealand contacted me,” she says. She’s now on the radar for national development programmes.

After Sydney, she will set her sights on doing well at the New Zealand nationals later in the year. With fellow TGS students, she will also compete at the national secondary school championships in August.

Carrie played table tennis only briefly in China before moving here in 2018 from Qingdao in Shandong, as an international student, with her mother and older sister. The family lives in Hauraki, with Carrie’s father remaining in China.

She trains in her sport daily and also runs for further fitness. Breathing technique, good focus and quick movements are important in table tennis. Competition games typically last 15-20 intense minutes.

“When you play table tennis, you need to think about what your opponent is thinking and you need to be tactical.”

That appeals to her, as does the pace of the game: “The speed is very fast. I like that.”

TGS Chinese Dean Lijun Qui says Carrie stands out among the centre’s 150 students for her sporting achievements. “She is the best. She has a very lovely personality and gets on well with other students. She has integrated very well and is academically excellent.”

Having been at Belmont Primary in her first year in Auckland, then at Belmont Intermediate before starting at TGS, Carrie has a good group of friends. Last year, she was a school librarian, but sport and study now keep her busy.

Though she admits to missing some Chinese foods, she enjoys the New Zealand landscape and fresh air.

Her sister, Yutong, now studies architecture at the University of Auckland, but Carrie is not yet sure what her own future holds. She likes chemistry, biology and history, but might pursue sports science later.

What she is certain of is that she wants to see how far she can go in table tennis.

“I don’t think I’m that good,” she says humbly, but she wants to find out. “I’d love to play for New Zealand.”

China provided good initial training, but it is here her game has flourished. She also enjoys the Kiwi lifestyle, so it is the black shirt, rather than the red one that she aspires to.

She used to play for the Auckland Table Tennis Association, but last year she switched to the North Shore association, based behind the YMCA on Akoranga Dr.

Table tennis could eventually give Carrie a pathway for permanent residency, through talent-visa categories.

“My very big goal is to go to international stages – Oceania and the Olympics,” Carrie says.