Position of Participation Manager Introduced

A new paid administrative position was created on 1 June when Marc Nichol was appointed as TTNZ’s first Participation Manager. The job description was primarily to travel the country implementing programmes to increase playing numbers at grass roots level. Prior to this appointment, the Chief Executive Officer (or Executive Director) and Administration Officer had been the only salaried staff employed in management or administrative positions although from time to time a Director of Coaching had also been employed. The Participation Manager’s position was funded by a trust and was initially for a term of 12 months.

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Girls Compete at World Junior Championships

A qualifying event was held in New Zealand in July (hosted by North Harbour TTA) and the NZ team of Jenny Hung and Sophie Shu emerged winners, beating Australia in the process. Then in December a full New Zealand team of Jenny Hung (C), Sophie Shu (A), Villa Yan (A) and Helen Chen (NH) travelled to San Francisco, USA to face elite opposition at the World Junior Championships. In group play they were outclassed by Japan and Romania but took an early lead against France before losing 3-1. France went on to finish 9th. A loss to Brazil and a 3-1 win over USA secured the New Zealanders’ final placing of 15th.

L/R: Marc Nichol, Jenny Hung, Sophie Shu,
Wayne Gear (coach), Villa Yan, Helen Chen

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NZ Women finish 3rd at Commonwealth Championships

At Jaipur, India, the NZ team of Karen Li, Sun Yang, Jenny Hung and Annie Yang excelled themselves by beating Australia and finishing 3rd at the Commonwealth Championships.

The men’s team (Brad Chen, Peter Craven, Simon Wallace, Ryan Zhu) finished 6th. In the individual events Brad Chen was a quarter-finalist while Karen Li and Sun Yang reached the last 16.

The same players had earlier competed in the World Individual Championships in Zagreb, Croatia. Karen Li and several doubles pairings won qualifying rounds but none progressed beyond the first round of the main draw.

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New Zealanders Compete at World University Games

In 2007 Table Tennis became a compulsory sport at the biennial World University Games. The stand-alone World University Table Tennis Championships of the past were therefore deemed an unnecessary duplication and will be no longer being held.

The Games attract 11,000 athletes and are the second-largest multi-sport event after the Olympics. The Table Tennis standard was judged to be on the same approximate level as the Commonwealth Championships.

The table tennis section was not conducted under the auspices of the International Table Tennis Federation. Table Tennis New Zealand negotiated the selection criteria for our players with University Sport New Zealand. The agreement was for the majority of the selected players to be currently ranked in the top ten.

Murray Finch was team manager and Tom Liu the Coach. The selected players were Peter Craven, Simon Wallace, Nathan Lowe, Grant Gordon, Sophie Shu, Sarah Ho, Michelle McCarthy and Armindeep Singh.

The men’s team had a win over Laos but lost to Korea and Serbia, thereby failing to proceed to stage two. The women had to deal with heavyweights Japan, Korea and Russia, and also lost to Egypt 1-3.

In the individual events, Peter Craven, Simon Wallace and Grant Gordon all won their men’s singles first round matches while Peter Craven and Sarah Ho reached the second round in the mixed doubles.

The tournament was held in Bangkok, Thailand in August. Funding and sponsorship support for the New Zealand team was gratefully accepted from Thai Airlines and Community Trusts.

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Permanent Training Facility Set Up in Auckland

To provide pre-event training for NZ teams of several days or weeks duration without disrupting other table tennis activity at purpose-built stadiums, TTNZ purchased ten tables for permanent storage at Panmure YMCA.

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CEO Mike Loftus Leaves

After two years and four months at the helm, Mike Loftus moved on from the position of TTNZ’s Chief Executive Officer on 30 April. Throughout his term he had raised the profile of Table Tennis on TV, talkback radio and other media and was successful in many bids for target-related funding.

Mike was replaced on a temporary basis by former Board member Ron Garrett.

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