Eleven-year-old Nathan Xu is arguably the best young table tennis prospect New Zealand has ever produced.
Last year Nathan was named one of the four most promising under-12 players on the planet at the World Hopes Challenge, and he's going back for another crack this month.
Nathan's mum Liping recalls when she realised her son wanted to be the best at table tennis: "When he would hold something like a knife or fork and he would use that to do a shot."
Like many kids his age, Nathan is shy and honest. But he's not your average 11-year-old from Auckland's North Shore. He's given up football, the piano and violin to train 13 hours a week, and do plenty of fundraising - that's because last year he travelled 111,000 kilometres to play. It included two training stints in China, the Under-12 World Hopes tournament in Slovenia and the Under-15 World Cadets in Barbados.
"When I asked him, 'Do you miss mum or do you miss home?' He said no – which makes me go, 'oh!'" says his mum.
"I didn't have enough time," replies Nathan.
Very little gets to him, not even missing a flight in New York because they were at the wrong airport.
"It's alright, things could have been worse," he says.
His coach says that unflappable nature, speed and a willingness to learn have made him the first Kiwi selected in the World Hopes team.
"I teach him one or two times and he will know exactly what I want, then he will try to use it in training and then after he'll use it in a game - that's why we call him talented," says coach Jiang Weizhong.
"I'm much more experienced and I've improved in every way," says Nathan.
The world better look out, because Nathan's out to show he's even better this year.
3 News
source: newshub archive
