Trio will compete in table tennis in Pittsburg, Pa. this weekend

By Jacob Wicinski | Contributor

Delta Digital News Service

Friday, June 14, 2023

JONESBORO, Ark. – Although Paris will host the 2024 Summer Olympics, three northeast Arkansas educators will compete this week in the National Senior Games in Pittsburg, Pa.

The National Senior Games is an annual event pitting thousands of 50-year-olds and over against one another in over 20 different sporting events. Northeast Arkansans Jianfeng ‘Jay’ Xu, Ph.D., a research professor at Arkansas State University, Yanhua ‘Jennifer’ Xie, Ph.D., an associate professor at the Arkansas Biosciences Institute and The New York Institute of Technology on the campus of A-State, and Anthony Tsui, a Bay High School teacher, hope to bring in the gold for the table tennis, aka ping pong, category.

Xu, Xie and Tsui left Wednesday, July 12, to compete in the games. Before leaving the trio got in a few rounds of practice at the Red Wolf Center on the campus of A-State. In discussing their passion for the game at their age, Xu stated that even though he has been playing for years, his skills had started to improve just recently.

“I started playing ping pong in 2003,” Xu recalled. “My skills were poor, but I’ve made some pretty big progress over that time… I even have a ping pong machine at home to help me practice.” 

Tsui, who started in 2016 also owns a ping pong machine but said that Xie really helped to get the group motivated to improve their skills.

“We actually improved during COVID,” he said. “Most of the time when Jennifer was practicing and practicing, she was just pushing us to improve. She was probably the last one to join us and she’s already passed us.”

Xie is team captain and displays a strong passion for the game. She said that her US Table Tennis rating is her inspiration for improving..

“Currently, I’m 1372,” she said. “The average rating for US Table Tennis is 1400 to 1500. I’m hoping to pass that by the end of this year.”

With the games bringing many athletes from all over the country, Xie often jokes with friends about their status in participating in the games.

“This is the first year for me to attend the [Senior] Olympics, as I wasn’t old enough” Xie said. “One of my friends was joking that we were the only Olympians that she knew.”

As the three look to grab gold, Tsui stated that it is much more than winning, at least to them.

“Everyone’s competing, but I don’t see the hostility side of things,” he said. “It’s also to keep us healthy. You see people at 100, or in their 80s and 90s are still competing because they want to stay healthy enough to keep going.” 

Tsui believes that winning isn’t everything and that forming friendships is a part of the experience.

“A friendship is a friendship,” he said. “Winning is not the top thing for us. It’d be nice to win, but… we’re friendly and it’s so fun. What else could you ask for?”

The games began July 7th and will end on Tuesday, July 18th.

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NOTE: Featured photo – Jennifer Xie gets in some table tennis practice at the Red Wolf Center on the campus of Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, July 18. Photo by Jacob Wicinski