FASTER, HIGHER, STRONGER - TOGETHER

On 29 July 2021, TTA released the event prospectus for the 2021 National Senior, Youth, Junior & Para Championships that will be held at Caloundra, QLD 12-19 Dec. 2021.

The table tennis community in New South Wales is very excited about this announcement. The last National Senior and Youth Championships were held 8-13 April, 2019 at Latrobe Churchill, VIC with international teams from New Caledonia and Tahiti also competing. The last National Junior Championships was held 7-13 July, 2019 at Wollongong, NSW with international teams from New Zealand competing.

2019 National Senior and Youth Table Tennis Championships Team Events Medalists of NSW State Team: U21 Women’s Silver Medal - Alice Lee, Women’s Silver Medal - Michelle Bromley & Tracy Feng, U21 Men’s Gold Medal - Hwan Bae & James Kim, and Men’s Gold Medal - Chris Yan & Kane Townsend with coaches of Paul Zhao & Jake Lee.

2020 Sydney Olympic Games Paul and Anthony Zhao with the Chinese National Table Tennis Team: Guoliang Liu, Nan Wang, Linghui Kong, Liqin Wang, Shen Yan, Jun Li, Ying Yang, Jing Sun and Zheng Hua Cai. (Credit to Sun Li, Chinese table tennis women’s coach)

TTNSW Secretary and State Junior Team Manager, Leonie Whiteford, said: “NSW dominated in the 2019 Junior National Championships. We fielded 22 teams across 4 age groups with 96 athletes and 24 coaches. We achieved 6 Gold Medals, 1 Silver Medal and 2 Bronze Medals in 8 team events. TTNSW is excited about TTA’s announcement for the 2021 National Senior, Youth, Junior & Para Championships.”

     2019 National Junior Table Tennis Championships - NSW State Junior Team

TTNSW Director of Coaching, Paul Zhao said: “What an outstanding achievement – 6 Gold Medals from 8 events! TTNSW is also the winner of the Aggregate Champion State with 28 players earning an Order of Merit.”

National Junior Squad members look forward to  returning to national competition and having the opportunity to test their skills against Australia’s top ranked athletes.

Commonwealth Games NSW, CEO, Peter Tate, TTNSW Directors, Leonie Whiteford and Paul Zhao with Hwan Bae and Angela Wang.

2021 Commonwealth Games NSW Athlete Grant recipients of TTNSW Junior players Hwan Bae and Angela Wang said: “We are super excited. We have been waiting too long since we played national championships in 2019. The Australian table tennis community needs more high level events. The 2021 National Senior, Youth, Junior & Para Championships is an excellent opportunity for us to test our skills against Australia’s top players.”

Hwan Bae and Angela Wang also said: “The 2021 National Senior, Youth, Junior & Para Championships are very important for all of us. We are very happy to be participating and playing against the best in Australia. It will allow us to showcase our skills and benchmark our level of preparation, and it will help us to prepare better for the future international competitions.”

Angela said that her ambition for the future is to train harder to improve her skills and tactics in order to represent Australia to participate in the Commonwealth Games and Olympic Games. Hwan said that he not only wants to represent Australia to play in Commonwealth Games and Olympic Games, but he also wants to be Olympic Champion in the future.

Vice President of TTNSW, Ted Davis said: “Brisbane will host the 2032 Olympic Games after winning formal approval by the International Olympic Committee on 21 July 2021. As the country’s best athletes are competing in Tokyo Olympic Games, junior players across the country are filled with excitement at the future possibility of competing at a home Olympics and Paralympics in front of friends and family.”

President of TTNSW, Tony Aduckiewicz, said: “For the third time in our history Australia will host the Olympic Games. The 2032 Brisbane Olympics will provide an excellent opportunity to unearth the next generation of Olympians and Paralympians, and see more sporting infrastructure put in place to support sporting programs from the grassroots through to elite, and to shine a spotlight on Australia and its world class athletes.”

Tony continued: “TTNSW is delighted with this outcome, and we look forward with excitement and anticipation to next 11 year build up. We are looking forward to being a part of history, and supporting the next generation of Olympic and Paralympic champions.”

“Based on the analysis by Michael Li, Director of TTNSW, from the past 33 years records, the average ages of Australian Table Tennis Olympians’ first playing in Olympic Games are 24.6 years old and 23.0 years old for female players and male players respectively. TTNSW is confident that many current junior players have even more motivation to keep training and work hard to get there.                          

In the end, Tony said that “On 20 July, 2021, the International Olympic Committee has amended its 'Faster, Higher, Stronger' motto to include the word 'Together'. It highlights the need for solidarity during difficult times such as the COVID-19 pandemic. TTNSW will work harder and closer with Table Tennis Australia and all table tennis communities to achieve the next great goal in 2032. I trust that TTNSW and TTA will have a brilliant future. Faster, Higher, Stronger and Together! ”

David Lee and Michael Li wish to gratefully acknowledge of Table Tennis New South Wales, Table Tennis Australia, Commonwealth Games NSW and Australian Olympic Committee.