Four share lead in U.S. Olympic table tennis trials

CARY, N.C. (AP) -- Four players have put themselves atop the competition to advance in the U.S. Olympic table tennis trials.

Michael Landers, Adam Hugh, Peter Li and Barney Reed shared the lead with 6-2 records through eight matches and two days of competition. The three-day, round-robin tournament will determine who will play in the North American Trials this spring.

Reed posted a 4-0 mark Saturday, beating Li 4-2 in the final session. Landers, Hugh and Li each went 3-1 on Saturday.

"They've got us playing four matches a day," Reed said as his father massaged his sore left shoulder. "That's like four boxing matches, going seven rounds each time. It's grueling."

Those who endure to finish in the top four Sunday will return to Cary in April to vie for a spot in the London Games this summer.

That's a feeling only Mark Hazinski knows. The No. 2 seed in the tournament, he is the only male player in Cary this weekend who has competed for his country on the world's biggest stage.

Hazinski has a record of 5-3, tied with top-seeded Yiyong Fan, No. 4 seed Timothy Wang and No. 5 seed Han Xiao.

Hazinski stayed close in the race for a qualifying spot with a 4-3 victory over Hugh in Saturday's final match. His memories of Athens - where he qualified to play doubles for the U.S. team in 2004 - drive him daily.

"It's a very big motivating factor," Hazinski said. "But it did relieve a little pressure because I have been there before. A lot of these guys, they want that experience, so they have a lot of pressure on them. I'm very motivated because I definitely want to go back again."

With no entrenched favorite on the men's side, the qualifying spots are open to a group of competitors from a wide variety of backgrounds.

Among them is Landers, a high school senior from Old Westbury, N.Y. Landers, the No. 3 seed, traded in traditional schooling with his peers for online classes so that he could travel internationally for tournaments and training.

He practices 4-5 hours a day six days a week, in addition to 2-hour gym workouts five days a week.

"I've made a lot of sacrifices," Landers said. "It was basically the end of my social life in school, although I have a lot of friends all over the world in table tennis. It's tough, the lifestyle I'm living now, but I'm loving what I'm doing."

Reed, the No. 8 seed from Milpitas, Calif., has devoted his life to the sport. He began his career at age 2, smacking a ball that his father attached to the ceiling with a string. Reed spent hours at a time hitting shots in his family's basement as a toddler, and he went to live with a family in Sweden at age 11 to raise his skill level.

Reed spends six hours a day playing, in addition to his daily 3-mile runs. He gets all the motivation he needs from his longtime girlfriend, Michelle Do, who in 2000 became the youngest person to make the U.S. Olympic team in table tennis.

"All the hard work would be worth it," Reed said. "It would mean that she's not the only Olympian in the family. I don't want her telling our kids someday that Mom is an Olympian and Dad is not."

Hazinski, who spent three years playing professionally in Europe, has no such worries. But as a 26-year-old in his final semester of college, he didn't have as much time to train for the U.S. trials as some of his competitors.

Hazinski is finishing his degree at Texas Wesleyan, a rare four-year university that offers scholarships for table tennis. Two of Hazinski's teammates, Razvan Cretu and Chance Friend, and 2008 Texas Wesleyan graduate Ludovic Gombos also qualified for the U.S. trials.

All but Hazinski posted losing records through two days.

Gombos, a 34-year-old accountant who was born in Romania, lamented his busy work schedule brought on by tax season. Still, he expressed satisfaction that his school was well-represented.

"It's amazing," he said. "It shows that Wesleyan is a power of table tennis. It proves that the table tennis at Wesleyan is good, like the NBA in basketball."

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