Posts in category: International Events

Ireland Claim 12 Medals at Home Countries

The first new look Home Countries International was held in Guernsey.

Seven countries took part in six categories: men, ladies, junior boys, junior girls, cadet boys and cadet girls.

It was a historic occasion for Sabine Deveraux winning her first cap along with Nga Nguyen  who was also winning her first senior cap .

They did not disappoint as they defeated Scotland’s Gillian Edwards and Alisa Khalid 5/0 to claim the bronze medal.

The young men’s team of Ryan Farrell and Alexander Gillen also claimed bronze, recovering from a narrow ⅔ loss v Scotland to defeat the Welsh team of Callum Evans  and Dean

 Cundy 4/1

The juniors boys team of Dylan Grace and Joey Nelson claimed Irelands third bronze, defeating Wales 3/2 but narrowly lost to England 2/3, with Dylan snatching two singles victories, and Scotland 1/4.

A fourth bronze was won by the junior girls of Mia O’Rahilly Egan and Thuy Linh Cashman.

They lost to Wales 2/3, lost to England 4/1,with Thuy Linh defeating Anaya Patel but defeated Scotland 5/0.

Our gold medal chances came v England in both cadet categories

An impressive start saw Art McLauglin and Thomas Joyce take a 2/0 lead

Likewise Silke Heinen and Nicole Scott raced into a 2/0 lead.

Two narrow defeats in the doubles swung the momentum England’s way

England levelled both matches when Thomas and Nicole both lost

Art could not get to grips with Louis Price on this occasion while in a cliff-hanger Silke was beaten 10/12 in the fifth set

So 2 silver and four bronze, with every player securing a medal.

In the singles event two players reached finals

Thuy Linh Cashman defeated Scotland’s Isla Scott in the quarter final, beat Wales’s Beth Richards in the semifinal but lost out to the impressive Anna Hursey(Wales) in the final.

Art McLaughlin secured a silver medal also. He defeated Louis Evans 3/1 in the quarter final and Martin Johnson in the semi final

In the final it went all the way to the fifth set but Naphong Boonyaprapa proved victorious for England

Other impressive performers were Nicole Scott who claimed bronze losing to England’s Gemma Kerr and Silke who also lost to England’s Millie Rogove.

Mia ORahily Egan claimed a bronze also losing to Anna Hursey while Dylan Grace won his second bronze losing to eventual winner Dylan Curry(Sco)

A big thanks to coaches Conn Higgins and Sam Logue who were kept on their toes in a very busy schedule

There has been some very positive movement from Irish players on the November World Ranking list.

Ashley Robinson leads the way at 402, a jump of 46 places from his previous position of 448.

Next is Paul McCreery who climbs 53 places to 417.

Gavin Maguire makes a big jump from 561 to 502.

Owen Cathcart makes the biggest jump going from 734 to 577

Alexander Gillen also jumps a huge 103 places from 884 to 781.

Owen Cathcart also reaches a career high of 22 in the under 15 world ranking!

These are extremely positive movements for our boys!

May it continue!

With the 6 Nations looming Table Tennis Ireland would like to say a huge congratulations to those selected to represent Ireland at this event which will see juniors and seniors come together for the first time in some years.

The players who will represent Ireland will be;

Mens Team

Alexander Gillen

Ryan Farrell

Womens Team

Sabina Devereux

Nga Nguyen

Junior Boys

Dylan Grace

Joey Nelson

Junior Girls

Mia O’Rahilly Egan

Thuy Linh Cashman

Cadet Boys

Thomas Joyce

Art McLaughlin

Cadet Girls

Nicole Scott

Silke Heinen

For some of these players it is their first time representing Ireland at such an event for others it is something they have had the honour of doing on many occasions.

to all the players we say good luck and do us proud.

Click the link here to view the results from Junior British League, the first leg of which took place last weekend.

Once on the website, simply go to fixtures and results and select the appropriate category.

Dublin A lead division 1 going undefeated! Stand out performances coming from Joey Nelson, Gaspar Romain and Jamie Liu all winning 100% of their matches.

Ulster boys are joint 1st in divsion 4A. Stand out performances coming from James Magrath and Julian Kelly. James winning 100% of his matches and Julian winning 90%.

Ulster girls top division 2 as Lucy Craig wins 10/10 for the weekend. Another excellent performance!

Dublin B boys stand at 2nd in division 4B. Dillon Byrne the stand out there with 9 wins from 10 matches.

Irish eyes were smiling, certainly they were smiling in Otocec on Sunday 24th September, 15 year old Owen Cathcart brought the brightest of smiles to the Emerald Isle; in impressive fashion he won the Cadet Boys’ Singles title at the 2017 Slovenia Junior and Cadet Open.

The no.2 seed, he thoroughly justified his high rated position in the tournament.

At the final hurdle he beat India’s Himnakulhpuingheta Jeho to seal the title (11-6, 12-10, 11-3), the 14 year old Indian being very much a player in form; in the second round he had overcome Argentina’s Matias Guadalupe, the top seed (11-6, 11-2, 11-5), before later in proceedings accounting for Hungary’s Mate Oscai in the round of the last eight (11-8, 11-5, 11-5) and Iran’s Radi Khayyam in the semi-finals (11-8, 11-5, 11-8).

Equally, Radi Khayyam was a player to attract the attention; at the quarter-final stage he had ousted India’s Payas Jain, the no.4 seed 9-11, 6-11, 11-6, 11-5, 11-6).

In the opposite half of the draw, in the latter stages, Owen Cathcart had overcome Korea’s Park Gyunhyeon (13-11, 11-7, 6-11, 11-6), before reserving his place in the final courtesy of success in opposition to Croatia’s Ivor Ban, the no.3 seed (11-5, 11-4, 11-9).

Success for the second seed in the Cadet Boys’ Singles event; in the counterpart Cadet Girls’ Singles competition, it was success for the top seed.

Romania’s Elena Zaharia emerged the winner; at the final hurdle she accounted for Prithika Pavade of France, the no.2 seed (8-11, 11-4, 7-11, 11-8, 11-8), having at the quarter-final stage beaten Lithuania’s Emilija Riliskyte (11-13, 11-8, 7-11, 11-3, 11-7) and one round later Chinese Taipei’s Chen Ci-Xuan (11-9, 8-11, 9-11, 11-6, 11-8).

Notably one round earlier Chen Ci-Xuan had beaten India’s Divya Parag Chitale, the no.4 seed (8-11, 11-8, 11-9, 9-11, 11-7).

Meanwhile, in the latter stages in the adjacent half of the draw, Prithika Pavade had very much followed the path of Elena Zaharia; in the round of the last eight she had beaten Lithuania’s Kornelija Riliskyre (11-5, 11-7, 14-12), prior to overcoming Chinese Taipei’s Cai Fong-En, the no.4 seed (11-9, 7-11, 11-8, 11-5).

by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Editor

24 Sep 2017

Sophie claims bronze at ITTF World Hopes Challenge

More about the medal later.

23 countries gathered from the 6 continents to participate in a week long intensive Cant at the National Institute of Luxembourg .

From Australia to Libya, from USA to Wales,from Ireland to Iran. from Guatemala to Germany and many more 16 boys and 16 girls trained with Chinese coaches and young Chinese sparring partners for 5 hours daily in addition to a  morning physical at 7.30 daily.

Under the expert tutelage of head coach Li Xiadong, Zhang Yining,former World and Olympic champion Sophie Practiced with players from Brazil to Kazakhstan  and many more nations

One and ahf hours multiball daily helped to improve and sharpen Sophie’s skills.

Physical training under the expertise of Zheng Chaoying improved her footwork.

On the final day a World Hopes Challenge Event was held.

In her first round groupSophie lost her opening  match to Giri(USA) 0/3, won against Ha nah Green(Australia) 3/0 and then in the first shock of the day ,defeated Laura Kaim(Germany) in a stunning performance 3/0.

This led to a quarter final clash with Sommerova(Czech Rep.) .Another  scilltinating performance from our young Ormeau star with another 3/0 victory

In the semi final Sophie met the top seed from Singapore Zhou JingYi who proved to be too powerful for Sophie

Nevertheless a bronze medal secured in a World event by the warrior from Ormeau.

Coach Conn Higgins said words could not express the enormity of this achievement.Sophies’ result was immense.

Conn paid tribute to the tremendous work ring done by Keith and Gervis Knox in Ormeau and the expertise of national coach John Murphy.

As HP director Conn stated that this latest success is due to a vision,implemented with superb teamwork on a very limited budget.

Conn also paid a huge tribute to the supportive role played by Sophies’ mum Helen during the event