Olympic Games, Barcelona

As reported in 1991, three New Zealand players earned selection for the Barcelona Olympics on the strength of their performances at the Oceania Olympic Qualifying tournament held in Palmerston North in August, 1991. Their selections were subsequently confirmed by the NZ Olympic Selectors. A late development was the non-selection of the qualifying Australian singles player by their Olympic Selectors, thus leaving a vacant singles spot. This was allocated to New Zealander Hagen Bower who had already qualified for the doubles with Peter Jackson. So the final NZ team was Li Chunli (women’s singles), Peter Jackson (men’s singles), Hagen Bower (men’s singles), Peter Jackson/Hagen Bower (men’s doubles).

The road to the Olympics was not straightforward for Li Chunli. Although a New Zealand citizen since 1989, as an ex-Chinese national she required release by the Chinese Olympic Committee to play for another country at the Olympics. This release was not given and it was only after intense lobbying by New Zealand Olympic officials and NZTTA that the International Olympic Committee ruled her eligible to play for New Zealand.

The NZ Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association (later re-named NZ Olympic Committee) granted $14,000 for our team’s preparation. It was partially spent on the build-up prior to the qualifying tournament and partially on pre-Olympic training by the selected players. Peter and Hagen trained in Belgium and England; Chunli in various Asian countries including, somewhat ironically, China.

No New Zealander proceeded beyond group play at the Games. Chunli won two matches but succumbed to group winner Sun Bok Yu (Korea) 15-21, 17-21. Peter Jackson beat Ruben Arado (Cuba) but lost to the others in his group, from Japan and Austria. Hagen Bower in the singles and our men’s doubles pairing were both winless.

Peter Hirst managed the team and New Zealander Michael McAvinue was a member of a three-person Oceania umpires team which officiated at the Games.

The men’s singles gold medal was won by Jan-Ove Waldner (Sweden) and the women’s by Deng Yaping (China).

The games took place from 25 July to 9 August.

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Kiwi Table Tennis Takes Off

Kiwi Table Tennis, a version of the sport specially adapted for children utilizing a lower and smaller table, came into its own this year in a big way. It was a Hillary Commission initiative and KiwiSport versions of many other sports were also devised. The Commission conducted seminars and offered funding support for KiwiSport manuals and videos.

A major campaign was conducted to train teachers and club coaches in the basics of Kiwi Table Tennis resulting in the exposure of the sport to an estimated 8,500 children this year alone. The introduction took place almost entirely in schools but the downstream effect was that playing numbers in the primary/intermediate age-range increased to 5,245 - up from 1,205 in 1991. These numbers represent the number of children who participated in Association-organized competition and/or joined clubs. The dramatic increase in children’s participation was due almost entirely to Kiwi TableTennis.

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New Singles Draw Structure at NZ Championships Triggers Controversy

A singles draw structure eliminating consolation events for first round losers and introducing round-robin group play to guarantee all players at least two (in most cases three) singles matches was trialed this year. Only the Open and C Grade events were involved in the trial but it will be introduced in all singles events from 1993.

Under the system the main draw cannot be made until the conclusion of group play and this delayed publication of the draw caused a major controversy at this year’s Championships. One of the singles results in the team contests, conducted prior to group play, prompted the NZTTA Seedings Committee to reverse the seedings of two players (changing 4th to 5th and vice-versa) and this placed five of the top seven originally seeded players in the same half of the draw.

Several players signed a letter of protest and three withdrew from the event.

The incident left NZTTA management in no doubt that players were demanding more transparency and consistency in the draw-making process but it generated a disproportionate amount of media publicity and robbed the event of considerable interest in its closing stages. It cast a pall over an extremely well-conducted tournament, hosted for the first time by Southland TTA.

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World Cups

New Zealand players won the right to represent Oceania in two World Cup events late in the year. The Men’s Doubles tournament was held in Las Vegas, USA and the Singles World Cup in Vietnam. Peter Jackson was the singles player and was partnered by Hagen Bower in the doubles. As expected at this level of competition, they failed to progress beyond group play in either tournament.

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Big Group Travels to China for Training

Chinese-born Zhu Hui, having been employed as a coach by first Hutt Valley and then Auckland, offered to lead a month-long tour of China by any New Zealand player interested in making the trip provided they were able to meet the cost. Training opportunities were arranged through Zhu’s multiple contacts in China and a holiday mood also prevailed with the group exposed to Chinese culture and customs. Sixteen promising young players made the trip and derived considerable benefit. While travel arrangements were co-ordinated by TTNZ, the individual trainees had to meet all costs which totaled $3,508 per player. The trip took place over the Christmas holiday period.

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Asian Championships

A three-person women’s team was selected for these championships in New Delhi, India in November, after NZTTA received an invitation to participate. It was the first time New Zealand had competed in this prestigious event since 1988.

The team was Lisa Astle, Tracey Phillips and Kirsten Pitcher, with David Jackson the Manager. Tracey Phillips scored New Zealand’s solitary singles win, disposing of Noor-E-Saba of Bangladesh in straight games. Lisa Astle, partnered by Y Nakata of Japan, did well in the Mixed Doubles, reaching the third round before succumbing to a Korean pair.

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Strategic Plan Devised

In June the National Council (Management Committee, President and six Regional Councillors) dedicated their meeting almost entirely to the formulation of a structure for a new Strategic Plan. Separate sub-plans for Marketing, Player Development, Administration and Resource Sharing were called for with the capacity to subdivide the overall plan further still. Individuals were invited to contribute separate plans dealing with specialist areas such as Talent Identification and Umpire Training.

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Gold Medal at Australian Junior Championships

Conrad Lee of Auckland triumphed over Australia’s best to win the Under 15 Boys’ Singles Gold Medal and top the Merit List in his age-group.

The Championships were held in Mackay, Queensland, in late June. NZ boys and girls teams in Under 15 and Under 17 age-groups participated in the teams events against Australian States but, as visiting national teams, were ineligible for medals. The Under 17 Girls were the most successful, finishing second out of seven teams. Both boys teams finished 4th and the Under 15 Girls 6th.

In the individual events Shane Laugesen and Tracey Phillips took the silver medal in the Under 17 Mixed Doubles and Conrad Lee claimed an Under 17 Boys’ Doubles bronze medal to go with his Under 15 gold. This was an excellent win as his partner, Brendon Adam, was also under 15. The other bronze medalists in the same event were another NZ pair: Shane Laugesen and Jeremy Hickling.

The full team was: (Under 17 boys) Shane Laugesen, Daniel Astle, Jared Smith, Jeremy Hickling; (Under 17 girls) Tracey Phillips, Kylie Ferguson, Vicki Garrett, Heidi Schrama; (Under 15 boys) Conrad Lee, Chris Herlihy, Brendon Adam, Mark Stuart; (Under 15 girls) Lisa Mitchell, Laura-Lee Smith, Fiona Williams, Tracey McLauchlan. The officials were David Jackson, Martin Duffy, Barry Butler, Ron Garrett and Ngaire Garrett.

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Death of Les Elliott at age 92; still playing at 91

Les Elliott of New Plymouth passed away on 29 July. Only a matter of months before he had still been an active player, at the remarkable age of 91.

In earlier years he was a regular competitor at the New Zealand Championships, continuing beyond the age of 80.

Les, his wife Jean and their son John were all stalwarts of the North Taranaki association over many years, as players and administrators.

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Visit by ITTF Ambassadors

Two Japanese players made a goodwill visit to New Zealand on behalf of the International Table Tennis Federation in April. The players, accompanied by Ken Wilkinson and Geoff Rau (two New Zealanders holding official ITTF positions), visited Taupo, Tokoroa, Hamilton and Auckland. Their activities included school exhibitions.

The New Zealand visit was part of a wider tour taking in Pacific Island nations.

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Death of Junior Player Memorialised

Following the tragic death in a motor accident of promising Waikato junior Russell Dickey in 1991, a group of those closest to him, including the Waikato Association, donated a trophy to be awarded annually in his memory. Thereafter, the Russell Dickey Memorial Trophy for the Junior Player of the Year was awarded to “that junior player who has brought the most credit to New Zealand Table Tennis, taking into account performance, behavior, neatness of presentation, co-operation and, where applicable, team spirit.”

The donors specified that the trophy could be won only once by any player. The annual recipient was to be chosen by the New Zealand Selectors.

The trophy was presented for the first time at this year’s NZ Championships. Conrad Lee of Auckland was the inaugural winner.

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North Taranaki Welcomed Back into Fold

After an absence of four years, the North Taranaki Association re-affiliated to NZTTA, bringing the total number of affiliated Associations to 23.

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