New Zealand Hosts World Event

A World Junior Circuit tournament was hosted by Table Tennis Wellington on 25-28 September.

TTNZ Board member John Stapleton was the key figure behind New Zealand’s successful bid for this country’s first ever World event. The World Junior Championships were introduced in 2003, with a series of six World Junior Circuit qualifying tournaments leading up to the main championships. Each circuit tournament was open to under 18 players throughout the world. The NZ event, hosted by Table Tennis Wellington, was preceded by an international training camp and coaches course and overlapped with the New Zealand Open Championships in which the top world juniors participated.

Chinese players dominated the Circuit tournament, with players from Chinese-Taipei, Hong Kong, Japan and India also highly competitive. 23 New Zealanders and players from Australia, Fiji and New Caledonia also took part.

While the management of the event was under the ultimate control of ITTF and Oceania officials, the hands-on work was the responsibility of a large team of local volunteers led by organising committee chairman Paul Escott. All umpires were New Zealanders. The organisers received a letter of congratulations from ITTF President, Adam Sharara.

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Teams events are separated from individual events at the World Championships.

A NZ team of Li Chunli, Karen Li, Peter Jackson, Shane Laugesen and Andrew Hubbard competed at the individual championships in Paris, France, accompanied by Simeon Cairns (coach), Averil Roberts (International Umpire), Helen Codlin (Video Analysis Technician), and David Jackson (AGM Delegate).

From 2003 World Individual Championships alternate with World Team Championships on an annual basis.

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SPARC Classifies All Sports

Sparc has classified all sports into categories: performance and developmental. Table Tennis is placed in the latter category, reducing opportunities for special privilege “carding” of athletes.

Top NZ performer Li Chunli is the only New Zealand carded athlete under the new system.

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Former Champion, Coach and Chairman Dies

John Stewart passed away on 15 August.

He served New Zealand table tennis as a player at the World Championships (1950) and as NZTTA Chairman (1965-1970). He also directed National Junior coaching schools and managed New Zealand teams at overseas events. He was appointed to multiple NZTTA subcommittees, including Convenor of the Selection Committee, and served a term as New Zealand President.

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New Zealand Competes at Inaugural World Junior Championships

The first full World Junior Championships combining team and individual events was held in Santiago, Chile, in December.

A NZ boys team was entitled to compete as Oceania representatives due to their exciting 3-2 win over Australia at the 2002 Oceania Championships. The girls had lost 1-4 to Australia so missed out on the trip. (In future years a separate World Championships Qualifying Tournament was held for Oceania teams in the same year as the World event.)

The team failed to win a contest, losing to Czech Republic, Chile, Brazil, Japan and Sweden. Andy Huang won the teams only match, against Brazil, and lost by only two points in the final game of another match. Binbin Zhu had an equally close loss against Sweden. Andy Huang and Josh Alexandre both had wins in the individuals. The team’s other player was Nathan Lowe who faced strong opposition from Japan and Czech Republic.

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New Zealander Manages Wheelchair Umpires

Averil Roberts was appointed Table Tennis Umpires Manager for the World Wheelchair Games in Christchurch (October/November). 800 competitors from 30 countries competed in a multitude of sports.

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Annual Meetings Location

A discussion took place at the AGM on whether the meeting should always be held in Wellington. It was decided to shift it around subject to costs with the following locations suggested: Christchurch, Auckland area, Bay of Islands.

Pursuant to this decision, the 2004 AGM was held in Christchurch and in subsequent years in Auckland, Hamilton, Palmerston North and Whangarei.

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Australian Youth Olympic Festival

A NZ junior team participated in the Table Tennis section of the Australia Youth Olympic Festival (Sydney, 8-11 January), along with teams from China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia.

Nathan Lowe, Chris Erskine, Hanna Squire and Sarah Ho represented New Zealand, with Jack Wells and Michelle McCarthy placed in composite Oceania teams. The NZ boys’ team finished 7th out of seven and the girls 6th out of seven.

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Aaron Li Denied Record

New Zealander Aaron Li was denied a record-breaking seventh consecutive Men’s Singles title at the NZ Championships by Kim Bol Chul of Korea, raising the issue of whether the NZ Championships should be open to overseas competitors.

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Elite Coaching Course

A Level Two Coaching Course was held in Wellington on 19-21 September.

Mikael Andersson (Denmark) ran this course assisted by ITTF and Oceania TTF Development Officers Glenn Tepper and Steve Dainton (Australia). James Morris had spent 3 years lobbying for the course and securing funding. New Zealand coaches James Morris, Helen Codlin and Simeon Cairns participated along with others from the Pacific Islands.

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Staff Changes at National Office

Kevin Thomas resigned from the Administration Officer’s position on 8 August due to illness (which sadly turned out to be terminal).

Averil Roberts replaced him. Sabine Westenra was appointed Assistant Administration Officer.

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Blue Badge Won

International Umpire Averil Roberts earned a  “Blue Badge”, qualifying her to umpire medal matches at Olympic Games and World Championships. Thus she was specifically requested to officate at the World Championships this year.

 

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Helen Codlin Wins Scholarship

A Prime Minister’s Scholarship of $10,000 was  awarded to Helen Codlin enabling her to:

• Attend ITTF Sports Science Congress (Paris)
• Attend World Championships (Paris) as coach and operator of video analysis technology
• Visit England to study coaching syllabus
• Attend Level Two coaching course (New Zealand)

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