ONE SCHOOL SEVEN NATIONAL JUNIOR AND HOPES SQUAD MEMBERS - THE DREAM STARTS HERE

The 2021 NSW Primary Schools Table Tennis Championships were held on 7 June 2021 at Sydney Indoor Sports Hall, Sydney Olympic Park.

200 junior players from NSW primary schools competed in three categories: Infant Group (K-year 2); Junior Group (years 3 & 4); and Senior Group (years 5 & 6).

52 students from Carlingford West Public School participated in these championships. All their teams played very strongly. The infant teams won Silver and Bronze Medals; The Junior teams won the Silver Medal; and its senior teams won the Gold Medal.

Andrew Williamson, the principal of Carlingford West Public School, said: “I was privileged to watch a few of the games and I am amazed at our students' talent. I only wish that when I was a student I would have had such opportunities as I was a 'Table Tennis Tragic’.”

Andrew welcomed the visit of the President of TTNSW, Tony Aduckiewicz, the Directors of TTNSW Paul Zhao and Michael Li to Carlingford West Public School on 17 June 2021.

Andrew said: ”Carlingford West Public School is a world class school that drives excellence. Students thrive as confident, creative, flexible and driven learners in a high quality educational environment. We have worked closely with Paul Zhao Table Tennis Academy during the past 20 years to boom table tennis via our Primary School Grassroots Before and After School Program.”

Andrew continued: “Congratulations to Andrew Li, Nathan Chan and Lily Zhang, who have recently been selected to the National Hopes Squad which is an amazing achievement. We are also more than happy to know that our old students: Yvonne Liu, Nicholas Chee, Won Bae and Hwan Bae are currently members of national junior squad  Thanks must be given to Paul Zhao for his excellent training of our students. Paul is one of the outstanding and collaborative leaders in table tennis."

Tony said: ”TTNSW is extremely pleased to see record numbers once again from Carlingford West Public School attend 2021 NSW Primary Schools Table Tennis Championships.

 Each year, Carlingford West Public School sends the largest delegation for this event, and TTNSW thanks the strong support of Mr Andrew Williamson and his school to assist table tennis to boom in NSW primary school during past two decades.”

Tony continued, “TTNSW is proud of the achievements of Carlingford West Public School in table tennis. Currently seven national junior and hopes squad members are training or have been training table tennis at Carlingford West Public School. It is 32% of the National Junior and Hopes squad members from the whole New South Wales.”

 2016 NSW Primary Schools Championships - Yvonne Liu and Lily Zhang on 16 May 2016

2017 NSW Primary Schools Championships - Paul Zhao with Nicholas Chee, Hwan Bae and Won Bae on 22 May 2017

Ted Davis, Vice President of TTNSW, said: “TTNSW thanks Carlingford West Public School for their strong support of table tennis. We are very pleased to see more juniors in NSW start to play table tennis in earlier ages, and we are also very pleased to see more junior players join the NSW state teams and National Junior and Hopes squads after training in Carlingford West Public School and the Paul Zhao Table Tennis Academy.”

Ted continued: “Current National Junior squad members Clarence Cheng, Chulong Nie and Angela Wang are also currently training or have been training at the Paul Zhao Table Tennis Academy. In total, 10 National Junior and Hopes squad members in NSW are training or have been training in the Paul Zhao Table Tennis Academy.  It accounts for 45% of the National Junior and Hopes squad members from whole New South Wales. We are looking forward to seeing more junior players improve to the next level-hopefully to national level and international level.”

2019 NSW Primary School Championships - Paul Zhao with Ted Davis, Pauline Chen, Lily Zhang, Nathan Zhang and Andrew Li on 20 May 2019

In the end, Andrew said “We thank the Paul Zhao Table Tennis Academy for their kind sponsorships since 2002 to provide the bus service for our students from our school to Sydney Olympic Park to participate in the competitions and provide prizes to our winners as well.”

Tony wishes everyone the best of luck, and hope junior players train hard and play hard, but also learn to play fair and in the right spirit, and importantly, make new friendship along the way.

Paul said: “We are proud of the achievement of the students in table tennis. We are working closely with all the table tennis community especially with TTNSW to promote the sport of table tennis in NSW, and develop more athletes from the grassroots level to the elite level. Good luck to all our junior players, your dream starts here! “

Carlingford West Public School has 10 professional table tennis tables, and training is available every Tuesday and Thursday 8:30 am – 9:20 am & 3:30pm – 4:15pm.

Your dream starts here - Carlingford West Public School.

Michael Li thanks Andrew Williamson, Tony Aduckiewicz, Ted Davis and Paul Zhao for the interview, discussion, advice and support in contributing to this article.