Burnaby North high school student Shirley Fu became the first-ever table tennis player to be named Sport B.C.'s junior athlete of the year.
The straight A student was chosen ahead of Victoria diver Emily Schmidt and Coquitlam golfer Jisso Keel in the voting for the prestigious award at the Sport B.C. awards dinner at the River Rock Show Theatre on Thursday.
"I'm really proud," Fu said after hearing she had been nominated.
Last year, the 16-year-old Fu was both the under-21 youth and women's singles champion at the Canadian table tennis championships.
The national under-18 team member also represented Canada at the 2011 Pan American Games.
More recently, Fu placed sixth overall at the North American Olympic women's team qualifier, which serves as a direct entry to the Games for the top-three Canadian finishers.
At the the National Team Challenge, Fu lost two separate stages in the women's Division A playdowns, including a sevenset semifinal thriller, to eventual Ontario qualifier and third-seeded Sara Yuen in February.
Earlier in the year, Fu was named to the spring list for Canada's Olympic squad along with world team members Mo Zhang of Ontario and Loulia Degtiar of Quebec, and fellow junior Anqi Luo.
