The congratulatory hug told its own story, a father and son embracing after an eight-year journey reaped the ultimate return.
The player was a delighted Max Henderson, who broke his national table tennis championship singles bogey by winning his first title in the men’s under-21s event at Stadium Southland in Invercargill.
Henderson, representing North Shore these days but a Tauranga boy through and through, did it the hardest way imaginable by beating Auckland’s Yuehan (John) Wu 12-10 in the fifth game of a high-quality match, which featured regular momentum swings.
“Yes, it’s been eight years in the making,’’ said Henderson, now 20, and who first made his mark as a promising 12-year-old.
“It really means a lot.’’
It was third time lucky for Henderson, who last year was beaten by Australia’s Ray Zhang 11-9 in the fifth game of the under-21 men’s final and who was also pipped by Alex Lui Cao in a tight under-19 boys’ singles final at the same national championships in Auckland.
As painful as those near misses were, there were lessons learned. He had been a bit passive in both those defeats, not prepared to back his attacking flair when the pressure was on.
This time, after what had been a mixed national tournament by his own standards and with self-doubts emerging, Henderson told himself to keep attacking, even after losing a match point in the fifth.
“At that moment, there was actually real clarity for me,’’ he said.
“I like to talk a fair bit when I’m playing and I think I said to myself, ‘it’s grind time. This is where champions are made’.
“I knew it was now or never, so I might as well go for it.’’
Go for it he did, closing it out by the barest of margins. And suddenly all those sacrifices and hard graft had been worth it – the 18 months of training and living in Germany as a teenager without his family and now the dual challenge of playing and maintaining his university commitments.
Victory was also a special moment for his dad Paul Henderson, who since those early days has performed the role of table tennis parent to perfection that of coach, manager, cook, and mental skills adviser and motivator all rolled into one.
For him to be there, and to see that first New Zealand Table Tennis singles title won by his boy, meant everything. That hug showed that for all to see.
“Dad just gives me so much time,’’ Henderson said.
“I really appreciate him for all he does for me. I love him a lot.’’