Posts in category: International Events

A strong Irish team travelled to the Netherlands last week to represent their country in the World Individual Championships. Under the guidance of NPC Peter Nilsson, Amanda Mogey produced the stand-out performances for  the team. Below, ITTAWeb summarises the main results of the event:

Mens

In the preliminary group, National Champion John Murphy recorded a straight sets victory over Yemen’s AL-MAHAQERI, before losing 1:4 to PLATONOVof Belarus. Paul McCreery lost both games of his group, losing in a 3:4 battle agains MPEMBA of Ivory Coast and 1:4 to Iran’s AKHLAGHPASAND.

In the consolation event, John Murphy took a 3:0 victory over MUKTAR, before being eliminated by Canada’s HINSE in the last 64.

McCreery was eliminated by Israeli BEN ARI 2:3 to conclude his involvement in the Singles event.

Both players rankings have been affected negatively by this tournament, with McCreery now at 735, while Murphy slips back to 959.

Womens

The youngest member of the squad, Ashley Givan lost both matches in her preliminary group, losing 3:4 to GODOY of Guatemala and in straight sets to Slovenian SAFRAN. Amanda Mogey recorded a win in her preliminary group over Costa Rica’s Martinez, before succumbing to TODOROVIC of Serbia 1:4.

In the consolation event, Givan was eliminated at the first stage, despite a battling performance against VESKOVSKA of MKD. This will hopefully be the first of many World Championships for the Ulster Junior and she will surely benefit from the experience of playing among the world’s elite.

Mogey also entered the consolation event and produced a string of impressive performances.  In the 1^st Round, she defeated BALLOUCHY of Morocco 3:0. This set up a tight match with LOPEZ of Guatemala – both players at a similar point on the World Ranking list. Mogey recovered from losing the 1^st set to claim a 3:1 victory. In the Round of 32, TCHERESTOVA of Jordan was also put away by a 3:1 scoreline.  A confident Mogey then faced MEDINA of Colombia, a player ranked hundreds of places above her in the ITTF Rankings at WR238. Undaunted, she dismantled the South American 3:0 – without doubt her best international result to date. Mogey’s incredible run eventually came to a halt at the Quarter Final stage – American Prachi eliminating her in straight sets. On foot of her performances, Mogey now moves up almost 100 places in the World Rankings – now at 738. Ashley Givan is ranked at 1134.

Well done to the entire team – most will now enjoy a well deserved Summer break before pre-season in July.

The ITTF World Individual Championships kicks off this weekend, with 4 Irish players in action. Paul McCreery and National Champion John Murphy are our two Male entries, with Junior player Ashley Givan and Amanda Mogey entered into the Women’s events.  Speaking as the team prepares to depart following good preparation at the Luxembourg Open, ITTA Technical Director John O’Donoghue stated:

“Our young squad of players are looking forward to testing themselves against the best in the world. It is a wonderful opportunity to gain valuable experience and to learn from the best players in the world at these top quality Championships. In Ashley Givan and Paul McCreery we have two very young players who have great potential for the future. Both John Murphy (the 5 times National Champion) and Amanda Mogey will bring all their experience and skill to the Championships and will be hoping for good results to improve their world rankings. I wish them and coach Peter Nilsson all the best for the event”

I am sure all members of the Irish table tennis community will be rooting from afar for the Irish players – best wishes to all for a successful tournament. ITTAWeb will feature daily updates from Rotterdam.

Preparation for Worlds

In preparation for the May World Individual Championships, the Irish Men and Women’s Senior teams were in Luxembourg at the Luxembourg Open. The “Luxembourg Open Table Tennis Championships” Event is officially recognized by ETTU and ITTF and all played matches will be taken into account for the World Ranking. The tournament features some top players, led by top seed Pistej Lubomir of Slovakia who is just outside the top 100 Men in the world and Timina Elena of the Netherlands who is Nr.102 in the ITTF World Rankings. The Irish squad is made up of National Champion John Murphy and Paul McCreery, with Ulster’s Amanda Mogey and Ashley Givan on the Women’s team.

Draw and Format

In the first day of play, the Irish Men were drawn against ‘France 2’ in the Team event, while the Women were drawn against Brazil. The Team Events’ matches (Men and Women) is played with teams of 2 players, according to a “reduced Corbillon-Cup system” with 2 single matches ( A1 against B1 and A2 against B2 ) and 1 double match, which shall however be played only if the score after the two single matches is 1:1. 

Results – Men

In the Qualifying Round, Ireland produced a good performance to beat ‘France 2’. McCreery beating Pineau in a thrilling five setter before Murphy dropped a match to Brosson, with the Irish eventually clinching victory with a solid Doubles performance to progress. The duo then lost to ‘Sweden 1’, SODERLUND and ANDERSSON. McCreery lost the first -11, -4, -2 while Murphy battled hard against Soderlund taking the first two sets but eventually losing 3-2. Israel eventually clinched the title in somewhat unfortunate fashion as Iran refused to fulfil the fixture.

In the Singles, McCreery lost is straight sets in the 1^st Round to Sargu of Romania. Playing for places, McCreery also lost his next match to the Ukrainian Pysar, before claiming two wins over Pineau from France and Roose of Sweden to finish 72nd overall. Murphy also lost 4:1 to Ter Luun of the Netherlands in the first round, before recording his solitary victory over Samsan from Bahrain to finish 78th.

Results – Women

In the First Round, Ireland had a very tough draw against 3^rd seeds brazil. A surprise was never on the cards as Mogey and Givan lost both matches without picking up a set. Into the Classification Round and the Irish had a truly nailbiting encounter against ‘Sweden 2’, with each of the 3 matches going to 5 sets. Givan picked up an excellent win in the singles over APPELGREN before the duo closed out the match with a stunning doubles victory. In the Women’ final Belarus overcame Romania with Camelia POSTOACA and Andrada VINCZE.

In the Singles, Givan took the first set but eventually lost 4:1 to GONDERINGER of Luxembourg and struggled to find a win in the event, although came close in a thrilling 4:3 loss to Michelle Quach(11-9 in the 7th).

Mogey eventually claimed a Singles victory for the Irish, beating Michelle QUACH of Sweden 4:2. She then faced top seed Timina in the next round – Timina was too strong and won in straight sets – she went on to win the competition outright. Playing for places, Mogey defeated home player Schlink and Swede Appelgren to finish 36th overall.

Ireland had a triumphant weekend at the 6 Nations Primary Schools Championships in Cardiff this weekend. In the Team event held on Friday evening and Saturday, the Irish Girls claimed gold with some incredible performances, the highlight of which was a 7:3 victory over England. The team, made up of Marie Williams, Rebecca Finn, Nga Nguyen and Kerry O’Mahoney all played fantastic table tennis to bring the gold back to Ireland. NPC for the weekend was Anne Ludlow who was understandably delighted with her charges;” The squad of Irish players behaved and performed fantasically.  The players should all be proud of their achievements at this amazing event. 
For the girls to win Gold for was a brilliant result.  Even though the match scores may look straight forward, each individual game was hard fought and the girls put in 100% effort and support for their team mates – 44 wins out of 50 is pretty good going!
The boys team played excellently to grab the Bronze medal, with joint favourites England and Scotland claiming Gold and Silver.  The boys knew going into their last match that they were under pressure to get at least a draw for that medal but went one better and got the win.

The Boys and Girls were a great squad to take away and are a credit to their parents and clubs.”

The Boys were also on the hunt for medals, with Connacht trio Martin Williams, Brian Dunleavy and Martin-Edward Ditchburn and Leinster’s Conor Gallagher all in top form. Recording wins over Jersey, Isle of Man and Guernsey, the team suffered a narrow 6:4 defeat to Scotland before securing a dramatic 5:5 draw with their Welsh hosts, finally succumbing to a strong England team. This left them in Bronze medal position, which represents an improvement over 2010’s performance and the team will be delighted to bring home some medals. A celebratory pizza was had by the teams who were in jubliant form!

The Singles on Sunday again saw the Irish girls perform strongly. Late call-up Marie Williams was in sensational form and progressed to the Final where she lost to Kate Roberts of Wales. Finn and Nguyen were eliminated at the semi-final stage and claimed bronzes. 3 of the 4 medals on offer went to the Irish girls – surely a strong team for the future. The Boys had a tougher time but will have learned massively from their first international experience.

The TT players from England followed their rugby counterparts in securing top spot at the Junior and Cadet Six Nations Championship in UL Sports Centre, Limerick over the weekend.

Taking 2 gold, in the Cadet Boys and Junior Girls, and a silver in the Cadet Girls, the English proved too strong against their international opposition in the key matches. Ireland, having secured a record four golds in the team event at last years Senior Schools International in the same venue, had to settle for a silver in the Junior Boys and two bronze in the two Girls events.

In the singles, England took a further 2 golds, Gray, & Weerasinghe, while Carey of Wales and Loveridge of Guernsey took gold in the girls event. Ulster players Ashley Given & Ashley Robinson were best of the Irish as beaten semi-finalists, claiming bronze medals.

The ITTA would like to thank its outstanding team of volunteers who played a massive role in delivering a top quality international tournament – Tony Martin and Con O’Ceadaigh our Referees, ITTUA Umpires, Shay Logue, Liam O’Ceallaigh and Anna Kelly. Thanks also to our NPCs and to all of the staff at University of Limerick and the various hotels utilised over the weekend.

Full results are available here

Congratulations to the Irish Junior Girls squad who last weekend clinched the Division One title of the Junior British League to secure promotion to the top flight for Season 2011/12. Over the two weekends of play, the team claimed the title with an undefeated record, recording 9 wins and a solitary draw. This draw came in Weekend 1 against Bridge Club and the girls were primed to ensure that they would claim a win in the return meet.  In the deciding encounter, the Girls recorded a 4:2 victory over Bridge, with Edel O’Reilly providing a key win, reversing her previous defeat to Victoria Smith over a fantastic 5 set encounter. The individual averages tell their own story, with the Irish team of Ashley Givan, Edel O’Reilly and Sarah Timlin providing 3 of the top 5 players. Coach Phyllis Kenny was delighted with the Division One title, stating;

“They were a fantastic team to coach..if you look at the results you will see the wins that they had were not that easy but they never gave up and gave 100% each time. On the first weekend they drew with Bridge Club (which was the only match that they drew over the two weekends) but the second weekend they were ready for them and with a quality performance from all players they got the win they wanted.”

In the Boys Premier Division, Sam Logue, Declan O’Brien and Ashley Robinson had a difficult weekend. Obviously the Boys had the mantle of Premier Division Champions from 2009/2010 and were there to be shot at by the English teams.  Robinsons showed his class with a 75% win ratio to be the best performing Irish player. However, the Irish will look at the positives with a 4^th place finish ensuring Premier Division status for next season.

Both squads and coaches will now begin planning their Premier Division campaigns in Season 2011/12.

A six-strong Irish team of cadets travel to Grantham, England this weekend to compete in the Bribar East Midlands Junior 4* event. Under the supervision of NPCs Louise Long, Marcus McDonnell and National Technical Director John O’Donoghue, the squads are as follows:

Boys

Ryan Farrell

Conor Mullally

Kevin Hutchinson

Girls

Katie McGlone

Emma Ludlow

Hannah Lynch Dawson

Best of luck to all players over the course of the weekend, check back here on Monday for results…

Irish Junior and Senior International player, Paul McCreery, has qualified to play in this week’s ITTF World Under 18 Singles Championships 2010 in Bratislava, Slovakia. This is the first time an Irish player has qualified to compete in this prestigious event.

The Volkswagen sponsored Championships begin on Tuesday 7^th December and invitations have been restricted to the top 96 junior players in the World. In addition to the World Singles event Paul has also been invited to play in the Mixed Doubles event.

“We are delighted that Paul has been invited o play in this elite level competition. This is a first for Irish table tennis,” said ITTA Technical Director, John O’Donoghue “I know that it was one of Paul’s big ambitions to play in this event and I am delighted that he has achieved this goal. He works hard at the game and is fully deserving of his success.”

Paul, who is sponsored by Butterfly, plays for Montpellier in the French League. He jets off to Bratislava today, Monday 6^th December with coach, Andrew Dennison where he will be playing against the world’s best juniors in this high quality competition. We all wish him every success at the event.

McCreery has been drawn in the first round group with Hie Chung Chiu of Hong Kong and Boris Mihailovic of Serbia.

Over the past week, Irish Senior Internationals Gavin Maguire and John Murphy have been representing Ireland at the Finland Open. Following a good win over a young Russia side in the Team event, the players were on top form going into the Singles event. The competition format with progressive knock-ous ensures lots of top quality matches. John Murphy finished in 54th place, following 2 wins over Bucys of Lithuania and Vanucci of San Marino

Gavin Maguire of Eastpoint TTC finished in 91st place, also recording two victories over Lundstrom of Finland and a fantastic 4:3(Deuce in the last) win over Siispool of Estonia.