Table Tennis World Events Come To Auckland

There is a festival of table tennis coming up in Auckland over the next few weeks with important qualifying places for world events and the Commonwealth Games up for grabs.

Players from 16 different nations will take part in the six different tournaments and competitions starting tomorrow, 1 April and finishing 18 April sponsored by financial company KVB Kunlun. There are around 200 entries for the Oceania Championships, the largest Oceania tournament in its history and players aiming for potential places in the Commonwealth Games team.

Nations as far away as Norway, Congo, United States, Tunisia and strongholds such as China and Hong Kong as well as a number of Pacific nations all expecting to have an impact. The wider Asian community is gearing up for these events with a special opening and nations reception 5 April attended by Hon. Pansy Wong (MP for Botany).

First on the tables is the Youth Olympic Games Oceania Qualification tournament starting tomorrow Thursday 1 April. Hosting this event is an honour for the region as the Auckland Table Tennis Association is one of only five venues worldwide to have a Youth Olympic Games qualification event. Every continent has a continental qualification and an international qualification tournament.

Each country can qualify one male and one female player for the inaugural Youth Olympic Games to be held in Singapore in August.

More talented juniors take to the tables for the Oceania Cadet Challenge 2 April which is an opportunity for the best under 15 players to qualify for the Oceania team challenge to be held in Hyderabad in India in November this year.

The ITTF New Zealand Junior Open is being held 6-9 April with 14 nationalities represented and over 90 individual players in this event. This tournament is for players under 18 years old.

The top New Zealand hope is Kevin Wu(Auckland). Wu has trained with the Henan professional team in China and with the Oceania Table Tennis development team in Chengdu, China earlier this year. He received Olympic Solidarity funding through the New Zealand Olympic Committee to compete at the ITTF Global Circuit Egypt Junior Open and Youth Olympic Games International Qualification Tournament in February.

Then there is the big event, the Oceania Championships 12-18 April. It is the 15th time the tournament has been run and with around 200 individual entries received the Oceania Champs look set to show some real talent. The top New Zealand hope in the Open events is Karen Li from North Harbour. Li a Commonwealth Games silver medalist in 2002 was undefeated at the 2008 Oceania Olympic Qualifying tournament and has a current world ranking of 157.

“It really is a festival of international Table Tennis events. It’s a great opportunity to promote the sport in Auckland and New Zealand and also for our players to get out there amongst the best and perform on a home stage as well a chance for New Zealand officials to gain experience and for fans to see top level table tennis,” says Shane Warbrooke, Chief Executive Officer Auckland Table Tennis.

“We haven’t seen this level of events in this country before. The opportunity to have all of the events together and the Youth Olympic qualifying for the first time is a unique opportunity and that’s why it’s attracting some of the entrants from nations who haven’t been here before.”

All events will be played at the Auckland Table Tennis Association’s main stadium on Gillies Avenue, Newmarket.

Auckland Table Tennis would like to acknowledge the support of KVB Kunlun, Cathay Pacific, New Zealand Community Trust, Four Winds Foundation, Trusts Charitable Foundation, Perry Foundation and Auckland City Council.