2015 Oceania Hopes Challenge Report (held April in Auckland)

This is a report from Malcolm Wong from the 2015 Oceania Hopes Challenge even held recently in Auckland.

This was held at the Cathay Pacific Auckland Table Tennis Stadium at 99a Gillies Avenue, Epsom, Auckland. There was a 4 day training camp during the week (7-10 April) with overseas and local coaches involved, headed by Dejan Papic (ITTF Education and Training Coordinator). This was followed by a tournament in the weekend (11-12 April). Results from the tournament are on the TTNZ site.

There were 10 boys and 10 girls participating. The only overseas players were one boy and girl from Australia and also New Caledonia. Malcolm Wong (Wellington) was the Referee for the tournament. There was a lack of qualified umpires with only one National Umpire, Robert Dunn, and two Junior Umpires, Neil Chen and Abel Mok, available. The tournament was run very efficiently and finished ahead of time. At the end of the tournament presentations were made to Dejan Papic and Malcolm Wong.

This tournament should be added on to the Oceania Junior and Cadet Open. This would result on more countries sending players to the Hope Challenge. Also this tournament clashed with the Oceania Cup. Cathy Gauthier (New Caledonia) was coaching at this tournament instead of defending her Pacific Cup Women Singles.

Thanks to Shane Warbrooke, Tournament Organiser and also CEO of the Auckland Table Tennis Association, for all his hard work for the tournament. Also thanks to all the people who volunteered their time to umpire. They are Rodney Bygrave, Judy Hinton, Kerry McGeehan, Abel Mok, Dave Little, Eugene Wong (Session 1 Sat 10am- 1pm), Wang Leung Chan, Neil Chen, Martin Lee, Abel Mok, Kevin Wu (Session 2 Sat 2pm-4pm), Neil Chen, Robert Dunn, Ebi Kleiser, Martin Lee, Pat Low, Kerry McGeehan (Session 3 Sun 10am -1.30pm).