TTNSW JUNIOR PLAYERS ARE AWARDED COMMONWEALTH GAMES NSW ATHLETE GRANTS

On 20 May 2021, Commonwealth Games NSW (CGNSW) announced the 2021 recipients of the CGNSW Athlete Grant Program. TTNSW Junior players Hwan Bae and Angela Wang have been accepted as the recipients of the CGNSW Athlete Grant of $1000 for 2021.

On 12 June 2021, the presentation ceremony was held at Sydney Olympic Park along with TTNSW State Junior Team Training. On behalf of the CGNSW Board, CGNSW CEO Peter Tate presented the cheques to Hwan Bae and Angela Wang.

CGNSW CEO Peter Tate said “These young athletes have demonstrated tremendous ability in their respective sport pathways. I have no doubt many will be chosen to represent Australia in future Commonwealth Games.”

Peter continued “The athletes were nominated by a sport on the program at either the 2022 Commonwealth Games to be held in Birmingham (England) or the 2022 Commonwealth Championships scheduled to be held in Chandigarh (India).“

In the end, Peter said “I am so exciting to see some junior players coming from Wollongong and Canberra to Sydney for training. I trust that TTNSW and TTA will have a brilliant future. CGNSW wishes the success of the 2021 Australian National Senior, Youth, Junior and Para Table Tennis Championships during 2 - 11 July, 2021 at Sunshine Coast, Queensland”

CGNSW President Michael O’Mara said “This is the fourth edition of the CGNSW Athlete Grants which first commenced in 2016. There are now 89 recipients over that period of time. Nominating criteria requires each athlete to be a resident of NSW and under 20 years old. It

is very pleasing to award grants for the first time to athletes from archery, basketball, boxing, rugby 7s and squash. The grants are awarded every second year.”

TTNSW Director and State Junior Team Manager, Leonie Whiteford said “Congratulations to to Hwan Bae and Angela Wang, and they epitomized all the remarkable qualities including determination, humility, fair play and energetic country spirit”.

TTNSW Vice President, Ted Davis said ”TTNSW thanks for the CGNSW Athlete Grant, first awarded in 2016, provides financial assistance for young ‘up and coming’ NSW athletes. TTNSW will work harder and closer with TTA and CGNSW to support and develop more athletes from the grassroots level to the elite level to represent Australia in international competitions such as Commonwealth Games and Olympic Games in the future.”

Hwan Bae and Angela Wang thanks CGNSW, TTNSW and TTA for their strong supports. 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.

The directors of TTNSW, Ian Finlay, Paul Zhao, Michael Li, Slawek Dederko and Anthony Zhao presented at this presentation or at this training, coached and encouraged the junior players to achieve their goals at the coming national junior championships in July 2021. All junior players and coaches are excited to witness this particular event just before Tokyo Olympic Games.

Thanks to Peter Tate, Leonie Whiteford, Anthony Zhao, David Lee, Paul Zhao and Michael Li for the interview in contributing to this article.