Congratulations to Yufeng Wang from all of us, he was selected by TTNZ to represent New Zealand (announcement) at the 2022 ITTF-Oceania Youth Championships! This event will be held in Melbourne Sep 5-10, be sure to give him a pat on the back next time you see him.
TTNZ is pleased to announce that Averil Roberts has been selected as an International Umpire to officiate at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, to be held in Birmingham, England from 28 July to 8 August.
Check out the article @ TTNZ, congratulations Averil!
By Malcolm Wong on the 2019 Oceania Junior Table Tennis Championships – Nuku’alofa (7-10 August) at which he a part of tournament’s team of officials.
I arrived on Monday afternoon (5 August) on a Air New Zealand flight from Auckland to Fua’amotu International Airport, Tonga. Siaoski Faka’osi (Tournament Director) was there to meet me. His day job is Team Operations Coordinator for the Tonga Rugby Union and he has been to the last 2 Rugby World Cup as a Tongan Official. He transported me to the Atele Indoor Stadium where the 3rd Elevate Performance Training Camp (4-6 August) for Fiji (4) and Tonga (6) juniors was being run by Patrick Wuertz (former Oceania High Performance Officer).
Later I was taken to my accommodation at Villa Ishadora Hotel, which is by the Pacific Ocean. This was where the overseas referees and umpires stayed. Barry Griffiths (General Manager – ITTF Oceania) and Ryan Wiegand (Events Officer – ITTF Oceania) who was the ITTF Competition Manager for the tournament, were also staying there. Jessica Macaskill (Development Officer – ITTF Oceania) was also in Tonga to assist with the tournament.
Continue reading “2019 Oceania Junior Table Tennis Championships – Nuku’alofa”Recently we had Wellington vets at the TTNZ Veterans tournament and also representing New Zealand in test teams vs. Australia at the TTNZ vets in Taupo (full results). Many Wellington players attended & placings achieved by Wellington players are listed below:
Over 40 mixed doubles Sabine Westenra (with Lyndon White, CAN) 3rd-equal
Over 40 women’s doubles Sabine Westenra (with Christine Young, WAIT) 2nd
Over 50 women’s singles won by Sabine Westenra
Over 50 men’s singles Lindsay Ward came 3rd
Over 50 mixed doubles Sabine Westenra (with Lyndon White, CAN) won
Over 50 women’s doubles Sabine Westenra (with Haiyan Zhang, QLD) 2nd
Over 60 mixed doubles Lindsay Ward & Leigh Grinlinton 2nd
Over 60 men’s doubles Chris Talbot & Lindsay Ward 3rd-equal
In the selected NZ Test Teams vs. Australia we had:
Over 50s women: Sabine Westenra (5-0 to NZ)
Over 60s men: Lindsay Ward (2-3 to Aust)
Over 65s men: Ian Talbot (1-4 to Aust)
Well done to the above and to all the Wellington players who attended!
Table Tennis New Zealand is excited to be sending a team of 15 players to the Australian Junior Championships in Wollongong in July after a collaborative agreement was signed between TTNZ and TTA aimed at fostering development. The last Junior Team to participate in Australian Junior Championships was in Queensland in 2010.
From Wellington we have Anna Wilson selected by TTNZ – congratulations from all of us to Anna!
The 2019 ITTF-Oceania Hopes (Under 12) Week was held in April in Waikato with local boy Yufeng Wang selected to attend after qualifying in the New Zealand Hopes Open held in Christchurch in January. The young players attend a week long camp headed by Eva Jeler, one of the most decorated coaches in the world.
Lisa Yue has been confirmed by TTNZ for the 2019 World Individual Championships! This is being held in Budapest, Hungary from April 21-28.
The top players in the world will converge there for a week of the best table tennis play in the world. As well as competing this will be a massive experience for Lisa and we all wish her congratulations and best wishes on behalf of all table tennis players in Wellington & NZ.
“This is going to be the biggest World Table Tennis Championships ever in the history of Hungary. In numbers, it means that more than half a billion people will watch the games on TV worldwide. Around one hundred colleagues are working on the event right now to reach one goal: organise another great event with huge success in Hungary.”
– Roland Nátrán, President of Hungarian Table Tennis Federation
If you happen to be passing through Hungary around that time get some tickets otherwise we can keep up to date with the results online!
The tournament was held for the first time in Australia in Bendigo, Victoria. It is a city of 95,587 population (June 2016). Bendigo was a former gold rush boom town (1850s). The tourist attractions include the Central Deborah Gold Mine and the Golden Dragon Museum which is dedicated to the history and culture of the Chinese people who immigrated to the region.
Bendigo is 91 minutes (135.3 km) away from Melbourne Airport. The venue was Bendigo Stadium and held on 8 tables with live streaming on Tables 1 and 2. There were 4 Referees and 35 Umpires (19 from Australia). Malcolm Wong was the sole New Zealand Umpire at the tournament. The umpires were provided with 4 short sleeve shirts and 2 long sleeve shirts, sponsored by Li-Ning (China).The umpires were accommodated in apartments at Quest Bendigo, as was the New Zealand Boys and Girls Teams. Unfortunately Quest Bendigo was miles away from anywhere. Malcolm was in an apartment with Jonathan Whitaker (Scotland) and Bruce Doughty (Australia). He had previously umpired with Jonathan at the 2009 Commonwealth Championships (Glasgow). Malcolm umpired mainly with Jonathan Whitaker (3 days) and Ben Cao (China) for 2 days. He also umpired with Rahul Jaiswal (India) and Mark Patane (Australia). There was air conditioning in the Stadium. Temperature outside reached 39 degrees Centigrade.
In team matches Malcolm umpired Australia v Singapore (Boys) won by Singapore 3-0 (Table 1) on 2 Dec. Also Belarus v Brazil (Girls) won by Brazil 3-2 (Table 6) on 3 Dec. And Poland v Singapore (Boys) won by Singapore 3-2 (Table 4) on 4 Dec. China won the Boys Team Final v Japan 3-0 and the Girls Final v Japan 3-1. See here for all results.
Malcolm umpired players from 20 countries. In the Boys Singles Quarter Finals he umpired Xu Haidong (China), the Boys Singles and Doubles winner. Also the Mixed Doubles Quarter Finals he umpired Xu Yingbin/Shi Xunyao (China) who would win the event. Shi was also the Girls Singles runner up and Girls Doubles winner. China won all 5 individual titles.
The umpiring schedule meant the lunch and tea breaks were often late. Malcolm had lunch once at 3.15pm and tea once at 9.10 pm. 8 days is a long time to be umpiring. Malcolm was also on racket control duty twice. Averil Roberts, formerly from Wellington, and now living in Melbourne (Australia), umpired the Junior Girls Doubles Final.
The NZ Girls Team finished 3rd out of 3 teams in Group 1. NZ lost to the Russian Federation 3-0 and to Belarus 3-1. Hui Ling Vong beat Marharyta Baltushite (BLR) 3-1 (11-9 13-11 7-11 11-6). For team positions 9 to 16 NZ lost to France 0-3. They then beat Australia 3-0 (team position 13 to 16) with Hui Ling Vong beating Parleen Kaur 3-1 (11-8 3-11 11-5 11-8). NZ finished 14th when they lost to Belarus 3-0 in the playoff for team position 13 to 14.
In the individual events Hui Ling Vong lost all 3 singles matches to finish 4th in Girls Singles Group 16. Her best match was against Anastasi Bondareva (Germany) who won 4-2 (11-8 8-11 11-9 12-10 6-11 11-9). In the Girls Doubles she and Jianyi Zhou lost 0-3 (9-11 5-11 4-11) to Jokic Tijana /Sabina Surjan (Serbia). In the Mixed Doubles with Nathan Xu, they beat Nikhill Kumar/Rachel Yang (USA) 3-2 (9-11 14-12 11-3 10-12 11-2) in the Round of 64 before losing to Guilherme Teodora/Bruna Takahashi (Brazil) 0-3 (7-11 7-11 5-11).
An after tournament function was held at the All Seasons Hotel (Bendigo) on the evening of Sunday Dec 9, which was attended by many officials, coaches and players.
Thanks to the Oceania Table Tennis Federation who organised the tournament. Also to the volunteers. I was meet at Melbourne Airport and directed to the mini bus that took me to Bendigo. There was a continental/cooked breakfast at the hotel. Lunch and tea was provide at Bendigo Stadium. There was a bus from the hotel to Bendigo Stadium every half hour from 7.40 am to 7.40 pm and from the Stadium to the hotel from 8.30 am to 8 pm.
It was a great experience to be at the World Junior Championships. Meeting new people and umpiring many exciting matches.
-Malcolm Wong
Officials Photo – 2018 World Junior Table Tennis Championships (Bendigo, Australia) 2-9 December.
Standing (Back Row) Samuel Miller, Shaun Koh (SGP), Pak Hong Lee (HKG), Evgenii Klykovski (RUS), Klara Vaculovicova (CZE), Jan Vrabec (CZE), Bruce Doughty, Mark Patane, Kirsty Whitaker (SCO -Volunteer), Kameron Chan, Stephen Gillespie, William Almasi, Joseph Fung, John McMullan, Ahmad Almasri (JOR).
Standing (Row 2) Tatiana Kamenskaya (RUS), Hau Yi Lau, Rahul Jaiswal (IND), Cyril Sen (MAS -Evaluator).
Seated (Row 2) Ben Cao (CHN), Paul Schiltz (LUX – Evaluator) Neil Montfort, Malcolm Wong (NZL), Glenn Errington, Marie Pinkewich, David Villalta (ESA), Boggdan Barrientos (GUA), Insook Park (KOR), Mijung Bong (KOR), Wing Au.
Seated (Front Row) James Lew, Jonathan Whitaker, Averil Roberts, David Delpratt (Deputy Referee), Steen Anderson (DEN – Referee), Niwat Semangern – (THA – Deputy Referee), Yini Yang (CHN – Deputy Referee), Yuka Braun, Arnold Puts, Jock McNeil, Satheese Attoor (IND).
NB: Umpires (light blue Shirts), Referees (Dark Blue Shirts). Only country abbreviations for non Australians officials.
TTNZ (and us) are pleased to announce that Hui-Ling Vong has been selected by TTNZ to represent New Zealand in the Junior Girls Team to the 2018 World Junior Championships to be held in Bendigo, Australia from 2nd to 9th December.
Best of luck and success to Hui-Ling from all of us for both the upcoming Youth Olympic Games and well as the following World Junior Championships!
Daniel Rosner, Harry Chen and Ian Talbot were Wellington’s three representatives at the 19th World Veterans Championships (18-24 June) in Las Vegas, NV (USA). Ian Talbot was the only player to make the main draw in the singles. He lost to the winner Jianjiang Huang (CHN) in group play and to the semi-finalist Zhang Hua Pang (CAN) 2-3 in the second round of the main draw. Ian Talbot and Harry Chen qualified for the main draw of the Over 55 Men’s Doubles but had to default when their match was changed from Thursday to Friday as Harry had left Las Vegas.
Results below
Continue reading “Travel Report – 2018 World Veterans Table Tennis Championships”
Please dive over to the iSport Foundation’s contribution campaign to check out Hui-Ling’s campaign for the 2018 Youth Olympic Games with her story. She has an especially busy international calendar this year including:
Thailand Junior Championships (Thailand)- (just completed)
Oceania Junior Championships (Rarotonga) (June 1-9)
2018 Summer Youth Olympics (Argentina) (Oct 6-9)
World Junior Championships (Australia, Bendigo) (Dec 2-9)
Please support her this year if you can and wish her luck the next time you see her.
We hope you have been enjoying the warm summer!
Check out this cool article on the Olympics NZ site featuring Hui Ling! It’s re the Junior Olympics in October.
Heads up:
Also
Congratulations on behalf of all of us to Hui-Ling Vong who won the 2017 Oceania Youth Olympic Qualification Tournament in Bendigo yesterday, she is headed to the Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires next year!
A must-read article now posted on the the ITTF website
New Zealand is Buenos Aires bound
Against the odds New Zealand came away holding tickets to Buenos Aires.
Hui Ling Vong defeated her teammate Jiayi Zhou in a seven game marathon to secure her ticket to the 2018 Buenos Aires Youth Olympic Games.
Vong’s strength and power came out on top over the acrobatic defensive skills of Zhou … [more]
Also congratulations to Nathan Xu (AKL) who won the boys’ singles and also qualifies for the Youth Olympics.
The information on Table Tennis is:
All details are here.
**Update** The Teams results are posted here with John Gan & Chris Talbot (Wellington 2) winning Gold in the Over 50 Mens’ B Grade! Also Bryan McConnochie & Tony Rutledge got Silver in the Over 65 Men.
Hi folks, a hot off the press photo coming in with Ian Talbot & Lindsay Ward NZ Vets O60 Men’s Doubles Winners (winning the final over Kevin Fogarty & Doug Pattinson 9-11 11-6 11-9 11-7).
In the NZ vs. Australia test teams Lindsay’s O40 team went down 1-4 but Bryan McConnochie’s O65 team won 4-1 (with Doug Pattinson). Overall Australia won and Shona has posted a some photos here.
A photo from Malcolm:
This is quite astounding given that Hui-Ling is still in the U15s (NZ#1 – see below). The team list is here.
From Wellington we have:
9. Ben Collins
2. Hui-Ling Vong
10. Chun-Kiet Vong
2. Hui-Ling Vong
1. Hui-Ling Vong
Congratulations to Ben, Hui-Ling, and Chun-Kiet.
Here is a report on the Series 2 finals night from Kevin Haines…
A good crowd turned up at Empire to watch the Winter Interclub Series Two finals on the 15th of September.
The final of the Premier grade was between Titan Terriers (Ben Collins, Ricky Yeung, Lindsay Ward) and Waterloo Wasps (Hayden Tapp, Sean Hanson, Vance Kelly, with John Gan in reserve).
Right from the first round of singles it was obvious that a win for either was not going to come easily. Titan edged ahead 2-1, but the first doubles quickly restored an even situation. The second group of singles again put the Terriers into a slender lead and a win in the second doubles gave a 5-3 lead in the race to 6 points.
Probably the match of the night given the situation came next and was between Ricky Yeung and Sean Hanson and this went to the wire with little between them over five close sets, Ricky finally coming out on top with an 11-9 fifth set victory. This made the score 6-3 to the Terriers and recipients of the Tommy Williams Cup once again.
In another tough final, Waterloo Wolves (Gareth Telfer, Craig Gear, Scott Higham) played Empire Elders (Tony Rutledge, Bob Leeming, Bruce Connolly) in the final of Division One.
Again there a number of early games which were close but the Wolves opened up an early 3-0 lead and at one stage led 5-1, with the Elders only win at that stage being the first doubles. Slowly though, the Elders fought their way back to only being 4-5 down with potentially two matches remaining. A good four set victory for Gareth Telfer over Tony Rutledge sealed the 6-4 win to the Wolves in a fixture which only saw one three straight match. The Wolves thus now hold the Chris Williams Trophy.
In Division Two, Waterloo Whales (Ellen Xiong, Martin Xiong, Chris Sutton) played Empire Egrets (Graham Sole, Darrell Brown, Simon Jung). This was a good tussle although the Whales confirmed their favouritism with a 7-4 victory. Martin maintained his 100% record for the season for the Whales, while Graham Sole fought hard, achieving two wins, both to advantage in the fifth sets.
In other matches on the programme, in Premier Empire Eveready beat Titan Trail Blazers 7-0 and Empire Energisers beat Waterloo-Titan Wanderers 7-4. In Division Two, The Combo beat Empire Eskimos 6-2 and Waterloo Walnuts beat Empire Echoes 7-4.
Premier
Titan Terriers beat Waterloo Wasps 6-3 (Final)
Empire Eveready beat Titan Trail Blazers 7-0
Empire Energisers beat Waterloo-Titan Wanderers 7-4
Division One
Waterloo Wolves beat Empire Elders 6-4 (Final)
Division Two
Waterloo Whales beat Empire Egrets 7-4 (Final)
The Combo beat Empire Eskimos 6-2
Waterloo Walnuts beat Empire Echoes 7-4
Congratulations to all teams, particularly the three grade winners.
-Kevin Haines
You may remember Hui-Ling was heading over to Kiribati for the Oceania Junior Championships & Cadet Challenge. This finished on May 17 and the results are now in – with the TTNZ story here and the ITTF story here (or under the category here).
From the TTNZ page in the individuals section:
It was Hui-Ling’s turn to shine in the individual events finishing with 3 gold medals. A fantastic achievement in her first international competition. Hui-Ling overcame Katherine Li and Georgina Newton from Australia on her way to the final against team mate Zhiying and then partnered with Zhiying to take the Gold in the girls doubles against Rebekah Stanley and Katherine Li and together with Yang Lun overcame their Aussie opponents (Benjamin Gould and Rebekah Stanley) 11-2 in the 5th set in the final of the cadet mixed doubles.Zhiying and Hui-Ling joined forces again defeating the Aussie pairing of Rebekah Stanley and Katherine Li in the final of the Junior Girls Doubles.
In all Hui-Ling won quite a stash of medals to take home:
A fantastic performance from Hui-Ling and congratulations to her from all of us.
She will next be starring Tuesday nights for the Titan Trail Blazers in winter interclub Series 1!
From the ITTFWorld flickr album, Hui-Ling (second from the left) getting used to wearing NZ rep black:
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).
-Malcolm Wong
Ref also here.
Result update from the NZ Vets (in Whangarei).
In the International tests vs. Australia:
In the domestic representative teams:
In the Over 40s B-Grade Wellington won Silver (Depak Patel, John Gan)
Congratulations to the above and to all Wellington competitors!
TTNZ has announced New Zealand representative teams for several upcoming events…
Congraulations to Hui-Ling Vong for her selection in the Oceania Junior Championships & Cadet Challenge Girls Team!
This is scheduled for May 12-17.
This will be held in Tarawa, Kiribati which roughly is here:
Best of luck to you Hui-Ling from everyone.
From TTNZ:
INTRODUCTION OF PLASTIC BALL
Table Tennis New Zealand has just received our first supply of the new Stag 3 star Plastic Ball. All National Coaches, Associations, and all players representing New Zealand overseas in the 2015 season will be provided with a supply of the new plastic ball to trial. We would welcome feedback on the new ball.
The Stag 3 Star Celluloid ball currently used for all TTNZ tournaments will again be used for all TTNZ 2015 tournaments.
Once we have had the chance to assess the new ball, TTNZ will change to a Plastic Ball in the 2016 season for all TTNZ tournaments.
We should be able to get some plastic balls in during the year (some players have some already) to try out, watch this space…
Table Tennis Wellington 
